Hi!

Me and my passion, Art …

My name is Jayalakshmi Sonalei. People, who know me well, call me Jaya.

When I was young, everybody used to call me Puppy or Sona. Legend has it that those days I was chubby and cute. No idea why, but the name Puppy was quite popularly attached to me. At home they still call me Puppy. There are some very special people who used to, and still call me Sona. The name Sona was derived from my second name Sonalei (yes its spelt that way!).

When I was a little girl, I used to have this habit of borrowing the neighbours' and tennants' eatables, which they used to leave out in the sun for drying to make pickles later on. I was also always on my bicycle and off it. Off it meant that my dignity and my skin also took a beating. I don't really know how much of my skin I really left behind on the streets of Bangalore, but I can still see most of the scars on my knees and my elbows and my chin and my…. I grew up among a lot of animals and pets. Not my family, I mean the real thing. There were cows, chicken, ducks, various types of birds and two dogs.

I loved school. I used to look forward to school for the sports and the fun I used to have with all my friends. There were a lot of games I used to love playing, but my favourite was volleyball. Our school also had these strange sports like lemon race and sack race. Lemon race was just like any other race but the difference was that the contestants each had to carry a lemon ( the small yellow variety) resting in a spoon which was held in our mouth. In other words we had to run as fast as we could, holding a spoon in our mouths with a lemon resting on the business end of it. Sack race was more fun though. The contestants had to step inside a sack each and were supposed to hop, skip or tumble to the finish line. The sack races mostly ended up with a lot of people falling along the track with about 20 percent managing to finish.

I started my career with an advertising agency as a trainee designer. This was the place that groomed and honed my skills as an artist. I learnt how to really use an airbrush and a lot about what really goes on behind-the-scenes in an advertising agency, not only in the art department but also in the client servicing department and the production department. It was a very interesting job but I had to quit to continue with my college education.

The most beautiful thing I have ever seen is the view of the hills of Thirupathi. The long winding road gives so many exhilarating views. Sometimes I expect to see the whole world down below.

I would one day, love to see the Niagara Falls. All the pictures that I see, makes my urge to see the real thing stronger and stronger.

My passion nowadays is only my art and my beliefs. I am trying to see the world through the colourful eyes of my brush. My favourite is working with poster colours and pastels. I am also trying to spend more time with my terracotta. The balance, which I am trying to achieve, seems to be a little precarious. I am trying to do justice to both, painting and terracotta, but I seem to be losing out somewhere. Another thing I seem to be really working on for some time now is my identity, and my gender. Being a woman gives me a perspective of my environment and the world around me, which I know is so completely different from what most other people experience.

I believe I am a much stronger person today than I was some years back. I no longer feel vulnerable or insecure about anything or everything. I like the fact that I am a much more independent person than what I used to be, and don't always break down and cry over ridiculous things.

My favourite entertainer is not from Hollywood or Bollywood but from my very own family. She is my one and only neice. She was born in June '97 so she is two and a half now. My life revolves around her, and she makes me laugh all the time. I love her very much. I find it amazing and fascinating to see so much love and innocence in a little child.

When I was 11 years old, my father passed away. I was his pet. I still remember, as soon as he came home after he had gone out somewhere, he would want to see me. He was my inspiration and my life. His not being there now is like a hole in my life. I will always miss his love, affection, and the security that I used to get when he was around. If I want I ever want to relive something in my life, it would be the my life once again with my fathers love and presence. I will always miss him.