India, June 14 -- Dear Reader,

In the morning we carry our sketchbooks to Sabali, the coffee shop perched above the river Manalsu. The rains have stopped, the day is clear. All around us are hillsides full of conifer forests, and in the distance the snows of the Pir Panjal.

"Let's paint trees," I say. It's tough. How does one capture the myriad shades of emerald, viridian, and sap green with hints of white and Prussian blue? How does one get the textures of spiky grass and ancient bark, the brown, black, and burnt Sienna, the dappled light and shade?

We spread our paints over the long wooden tables. Abidal, a software engineer from Sudan who has set up this beautiful coffee shop, brings us our order. For a moment, the only sounds are t...