Durga Pujo Memories of Kuntal De

Writing Mahabharata is easier than penning my memory of Durga Puja that spans 40 plus years. The rains slowed down, sky was still cloudy and sombre, structures of bamboo and cheap wood would mushroom everywhere in the city, our new playgrounds. We used to climb the structures the whole day and scolded by the uncles...

The Look Book: when they saw us, and how!

My first review as the Mumbai correspondent for Art Fact, the newsletter for ArtsAcre Foundation, Kolkata I could stare at that Persian couple the rest of my life – really! Her hairstyle, their fashionable garments and footwear, his headgear, her direct gaze and his almond dreamy eyes – together they were celebs of their day...

What makes Indian Textiles so exquisite?

    A wide variety of beautiful textiles ranging from embroideried, woven, printed and painted comprise India’s rich textile heritage. For most of us, there is a familiarity with most of the textiles coming from all parts of India – like Banarasi, Baluchari, Chikankari, Kalamkari, Kanthas, Kanchivaram, Ikat etc. The skill of Indian weavers is...

With a heavy heart I write this post…

This is a post I never thought I would have to write, and have been avoiding writing for two weeks. But it is important to share with everyone as it is about a topic we love to pretend does not exist and live in denial. On 24th July, I woke up with Baba's message, "distressing...

Hamaara Sapna: another dream fulfilled

The International Museum Day is annually held on May 18th but the Jaya He GVK New Museum authorities planned to celebrate the entire week from May 15th to 19th as the International Museum Week at their beautiful space at the Mumbai International Airport popular as the T2 Terminal. There were workshops, musicial performances and on...

Creating a New Eye Opener Tour at the British Museum

I was a Nehru Trust Fellow in the summer of 2015 to research, understand and evaluate the Access Features at the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. I also worked on a project for the Learning, Volunteers and Audiences Department (LVA) project of the British Museum. This project required me to evaluate the Eye...

The Santiniketan Express: to melody and peace

I took the train Santiniketan Express from Howrah at 10.10 am to go to Santiniketan, my parents' present home. It is a place where my parents shifted to nearly 20 years back from their earlier home of nearly 25 years, Jaipur. They decided to spend the rest of their life at this idyllic hamlet called...

She sells sea shells…

This small watercolour by Priyam Chatterjee brings many thoughts to my overworked and undersized brain...A brain greedy for rushing colours, vibrance and images cannot stop going back to this painting and freezing...arrested with the stark painfulness of the moment captured in vivid colours. A day before India creaked with her arthitic joints towards her nearly 70th birthday...

Modern glass creations at the V&A ‘What is Luxury’ exhibition

This exhibition is about the explorations of luxury, its meaning, essence and interaction between the human element at both ends of the chain - the creator and the consumer of luxury - through the objects. It also creates an interesting dialogue between the past and the present concept of luxury and how the word has...

Moko Jumbie sculptures, British Museum

The British Museum has installed two 7 metre high carnival figures on stilts made by the UK-Trinidadian artist Zak Ové, they celebrate African contributions to world carnival. According to the British Museum website: The Museum commissioned these figures to coincide with London’s Notting Hill Carnival at the end of August. Moko Jumbie figures became a key feature...