Tarunjeet Rattan is a compulsive doodler. While she studied science, she pursued a course in Mass Communication with a plan to become an art director in films. After an 18-year-stint in Public Relations, Tarunjeet, with Shweta Shetty and Shruthi Muniyapla, started ARTickles (artickles.in), a resource to help people tap into their artistic side.
“I would doodle on coasters at weekly meetings. After a point, everyone would give me their coasters to doodle on,” says the 40-year-old sci-fi buff. “Shweta and Shruthi sat beside me at the meetings. They saw my doodles and decided to collate them in the form of a book. They took care of the marketing, sales, everything... I just had to take care of the creatives, which was a blessing.”
The first book was from the Nature series. “It is my favourite. I focused on the ladybug, followed by dragonfly, honeybee and butterfly. We started small. We printed 1,000 copies and when they were sold out in a month, we gained confidence that this would work.”
Tarunjeet believes in art therapy. “Doodling at the meetings was a stress-buster.” Insisting that art does not need to be Instagram ready, Tarunjeet says, “It does not need to be picture perfect, it needs to be perfect for you.” Her future plans include “travel books and botanical books with a section where you can press flowers and leaves”. With prices starting at ₹300, there are colouring books, mandala diaries, doodle notebooks and cards. The Bangalore diary featuring iconic places in the city is a perfect way to celebrate the city. “We want to encourage people to doodle their favourite Bengaluru place,” she says.
So the next time you are stuck in a dull-as-ditchwater meeting, pick up one of these doodle books, colour it, create your own doodle or story and see the stress seep away.
