Landour is the land of Ruskin Bond. He's my love of the same infinite and unfathomable intensity as Gulzar - am not giving up either one is English love and the other is Hindi+Urdu love 🙂 If this sounds bizarre at all then that's how it is! Everything about Landour and Mussoorie is quite surreal...... Continue Reading →
Chitku’s adventure #1: CSMVS Mumbai Museum
Meet Chitku - my lovely fairy She's made by caring hands of Uttarakhandi women, with grass from the Himalayan range from northern India. She was part of a batch about to fly off to the European climes. I just loved her, felt she wanted me to keep her with me. I asked her if she... Continue Reading →
How Accessible is India?
Back to India’s realities: In India, post my London return in 2015 November, I was upbeat about creating accessible and inclusive spaces but everything changed with the research here. I became extremely disappointed that I was not able to find visitor surveys or statistics here. Most of our museums do not even know how many... Continue Reading →
Traditional Indian crafts with new life
Usha Prajapati Varia, the founder of Samoolam, emailed me about an upcoming event in the city. Since she is busy working in London could I attend it? Why not? Of course, anything Usha suggests is always unique - and so it was! I read up about Jiyo from their website, it says there: JIYO !... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
2019 has an exciting start!
#projectinterpret started 2019 with a tour of the nearly 2000 year old Kanheri Caves in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivali East, Mumbai. Easy to reach, through winding lush green path, spotting deers enroute, this cave cluster needs to be climbed by foot once a vehicle takes you to its base. Not for the... Continue Reading →
#throwback to BodhGaya Biennale: 2016
The first BodhGaya Biennale was organised by the Bihar Government in the historic city of Bodhgaya in December 2016. The theme for it was appropriately selected as 'Peace' - as, "the intriguing idea of 'peace' is the focal point ...this allusion is hopefully not too late to recall an utopian urge and, hence, a... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
The world’s nest at Santiniketan
India's first Nobel Laureate, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore wrote in 1929: I was brought up in an atmosphere of aspiration, aspiration for the expansion of the human spirit. We in our home sought freedom of power in our language, freedom of imagination in our literature, freedom of soul in our religious creeds and that of mind... Continue Reading →