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 →
Throughout the British Museum, and other museums all over the world, there are handling desks, also called hands - on desks or hands - on sessions. Here, volunteers sit with real objects, not replicas, and explain the history of the object, its context, its relation to present day, its place in the gallery, its link... 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 →
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... 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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