On the 16th of September, I set out with a group of young friends to catch the ‘exciting’ new exhibition called Tate Sensorium at the Tate Britain. It was more the company of such interesting and nice people rather than the exhibition that made me agree to their plan. And, the fact that I have... Continue Reading →
Dear Aditya, Shashwat and Anushka Let me tell you the story of the place where your parents grew up, studied, met and fell in love. It is a city where you owe your origins to, any guesses for it? Yes, it is Baroda as the British called it and Vadodara as it is now known.... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
These objects were found at the base of the temple dedicated to Buddha at Bodh Gaya, Bihar - probably offered by various devotees. It includes a coin moulded on those during the times of the Kushana king Huvishka I. Aren't these objects intricate and beautiful? They are quite small, as if someone would have taken them off their personal... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
Many friends have asked about the name of my blog and tiny firm 'VarnikaDesigns'. The name is borrowed from 'Varnikabhangam' from the Six Limbs of Indian Painting. The Six Limbs of Indian Painting is a set of cannons and guidelines that were assembled around the 6th century to guide artists for creating paintings. If you... Continue Reading →
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