In the district of Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, an hour away from Mannargudi, lies a quiet little town named Nachikulam. In the two weeks I stayed there, I made a small study of the daily lives of the townspeople, through the lens of local eateries. These eateries are meeting points for them to discuss a variety of topics ranging from family, wealth, sports, harvest, politics, and of course, other people. Nachikulam has an artist called Eashwaran whose paintings of Indian gods and goddesses are scattered on the walls of houses and restaurants. He even does lettering for the signboards of shops. The paintings serve as markers throughout the town. It was Eashwaran who introduced me to Ishwarya Mess, a small family-run eatery in the front yard of their house.

Ishwarya Mess was the perfect vantage point for me to observe and grasp the fabric of the town. And to understand these different types of transactions- social or economic- I made sketches because words can sometimes be limiting. Tiny nuances like a particular clothing style, body language, a habit or even the general mood of a character can be attempted to be discovered during sketching. It is not always that we understand our subject and only then sketch them. Sometimes we also sketch to observe, and allow the marks on the paper to reveal a story we otherwise might not have noticed.