Let’s get yacking

Illustrations by Kalyani Ganapathy

No one's alone in trying to create a perfect work-life balance of rest, creativity, and productivity. You'll find a mix of podcasts that host people from different professional backgrounds to uncover great yet simple steps to success. And if you're the kind that ditches the earphones and heads for the transcripts, then this newly launched written interview series is for you.

Last week, Kalyani Ganapathy, an artist, illustrator and storyteller, launched Yackety-Yak! - a collection of six long-form interviews with content creators, artists, and farmers that gets behind the work of the artist. Ganapathy, who is based in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, tells us, "I wanted to create a space for organised information in the creative sphere because many among the community are unaware of pricing, how to talk to clients, or even start off in the field. These problems are universal, and that gives me hope that as senior illustrators, we can have a forum to talk about these things."

If you're wondering how farming got into the mix, the seeds of inspiration are visible as Ganapathy tells us about her family's work based in agriculture, her interest in understanding food, and her aim to depict a compassionate balance of human beings and nature in her art.

Launched in the last week of February, interviews will be released monthly. The first one, with illustrator Ambika Karandikar, is a relaxed read. Along with answering the big how-tos like managing stress and achieving financial independence in the field, Yackety-Yak! also gets personal with its questions. Framed as an in-depth interview, the questions start at the top as Ganapathy slowly works her way into the details, getting to know her guest, their inspirations, struggles, and steps to overcome them in the hope that readers can pick up ideas for their careers.

Kalyani Ganapathy

Offering a teaser of the next interview, the 38-year-old tells us to watch out for a deep-dive with a sketchbook artist, who works as an IT professional. This piece will examine the guest's artworks documenting nature. We look forward to the episode with the hope that it will be able to answer the big questions that Ganapathy poses and also continue to offer invaluable advice to creative minds across professions.

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