VarnikaDesigns initiated 'The Museum Memories Project' on April 15, 2020. It is an Oral History documentation project to bring the world closer by the sharing of personal memories of museums visited by the contributor in any corner of the globe. It aims to be also free digital archive and resource with a collection of these... Continue Reading →
‘Gotipua’: a tradition where boys dance as girls
'Gotipua' is a dance form where young boys dress up as girls in honour of Lord Jagannatha and Lord Krishna can be traced back to the 16th century and earlier. Let's learn about this unique dance and its 400 year old origin.
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... Continue Reading →
Museum Memories #23 by Nidhip Mehta
5 Museum Memories of Storm King Art Center (New York, USA) By Prof. Nidhip Mehta Architect and Former Dean, Pearl Academy School of Design My favourite museum to visit in the entire world isn’t even technically a museum at all. It’s 500 acres of rolling hills, woodlands, and green fields that holds one of the... Continue Reading →
Pondi – cherry times…
Come, let’s travel the city of Pondicherry, now Puducherry, lovingly called Pondy. In happier times, I had taken a nearly 48-hour train journey to reach there, and it had been worth every bit. That was my second visit to the lovely city on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The first time had […]
Jodhpur: soaring high!
Jodhpur: beating the blues... contd... As mentioned in the previous post, Jodhpur is famous for its textiles, arts and crafts. Even today, its woodcarvers create some of the most popular contemporary furniture that are found online - just Google for 'Jodhpur furniture' and check the results! You have to walk around the old city to... Continue Reading →
Workshop: Access & Inclusion in Museums, Mehrangarh Fort Museum, Jodhpur
Workshop alert: Access and Inclusion in South and Southeast Asian Museums Venue: Mehrangarh Fort & Aana Jharna Museums, Jodhpur Dates: 28 - 30th November, 2019 Organised by: Commonwealth Association of Museums (CAM), ICOM ICTOP (International Committee for Training of Personnel) and ICOM India, in collaboration with Mehrangarh Museum Trust, Jodhpur and Maharaja Sawai Man Singh... Continue Reading →
Nobel Prize for Economics & the Santiniketan connection
"This urge to reduce the poor to a set of clichés has been with us for as long as there has been poverty. The poor appear, in social theory, as much as much in literature, by turns lazy or enterprising, noble or thievish, angry or passive, helpless or self-sufficient," Mr Banerjee and Ms Duflo wrote... Continue Reading →
Amar Kutir: revolutionaries, Batik & local culinary delight!
Amar Kutir Society for Rural Development near Santiniketan, West Bengal, is a registered cooperative society since 1978. Susen Mukhopadhyay started it in 1923 as a safe haven for the young revolutionaries fighting for Indian’s freedom. He was greatly concerned for the daily livelihood of these young people who had left home and were mostly hiding... Continue Reading →
Tiretti Bazaar: Chinese hub in Kolkata
Happy #durgapujo2019 🙂 So what are you doing these Durga Pujo holidays other than 'pandal hopping' in Kolkata? If you want to do something out of the ordinary, then it’s best to visit a multicultural hub there. One lovely Sunday morning, we set out for Tiretti Bazaar in Kolkata. It is held from 5 am... Continue Reading →