Have you visited your local Museum yet? We have :)

March is here, everyone will get busy with their financial work in India as this month ends the financial year here. It’s a stressful time when you realise that most of your investments have gone wrong and the essential papers are missing! For a de-stressful time, visit the local museum in your city to marvel...

A 600 year old trek!

  Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Ralph Waldo Emerson One Saturday morning, we went in our quest for the Kondapalli fort - if you had read the previous post then you would know why 🙂 yes, the crafts community that makes...

#projectinterpret’s 2nd quarter

In the 2nd quarter of #projectinterpret, apart from the guided tours some new initiatives have taken root. These are: Knowyourcity challenge: photographs are regularly uploaded on the VarnikaDesigns Instagram and Facebook accounts to quiz on some historical monuments/sites/buildings to help people connect to the architectural landmarks of a city. Most of us have passed these...

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...

British whispers in Chunar

Part 3: British Chunar The most interesting building we saw in the Chunar fort campus was the house of Warren Hastings, the 1st British Governor General of Bengal. He was in India just after the Battle of Plassey in 1757, when the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud Daulah had to give away all his powers to...

Chunar: discovering the home of the famous sandstone

One cool November morning we decided to visit Chunar. Our driver Mishraji, took us on my parent’s second and my maiden visit to Chunar. Any Indian history, art, design, architecture and archaeology student or enthusiast would have heard of Chunar – the birthplace of sandstone that made the buff coloured majestic Asokan pillars with his...

My date with some perfect people

Down's Syndrome as described by the Down's Syndrome Association is "a genetic condition caused by the presence of an extra chromosome 21 in the body’s cells, it is not a disease. In the majority of cases, Down’s syndrome is not an inherited condition." The website goes on to mention that "the most important thing to remember is that...

Gold coins of the Gupta dynasty – 3rd – 6th century

These are the three gold coins that I saw at the British Museum, London, South Asia Gallery. While researching and writing about the Gupta dynasty for the Bihar Museum, I read and wrote about these gold coins by just seeing their images on the British Museum online database. But seeing them today offered a different perspective...

Timeline of Sudan, Egypt and Nubia at the British Museum

This set of Timeline belongs to the Sudan, Egypt and Nubia gallery at the British Museum. The Timeline has a real artefact placed in front of it, making it attractive to the visitor. There is a much lesser volume of events being handled here, which means less physical space on the Timeline. This immediately makes it easier...

Akbar and Dyslexia

Akbar_Dyslexia The above is a link to an article written in 2008 in Housecall Magazine by Dr Asok Kumar Das. Most of us might be aware that one of the greatest emperors of the Mughal dynasty, Akbar, could not read or write. He maintained an elaborate taswirkhana or atelier where painters were commissioned to illustrate...