In just a couple of months, India will get ready to celebrate festivals and even the wedding ‘season’ is not too far away.

Flowers make for popular presents, and while they pop out the colours of your room and make it smell as fresh as a meadow, the glamour only lasts for a couple of days, before you have to throw them away.

But what if I tell you that the flowers won’t be a complete waste even after they have dried up? What if you could preserve them longer and in innovative ways?

Here’s a list of five things you can do to preserve this gift of love:

1. Personalised cards

Take the flowers (or leaves, they look just as lovely) and carefully remove all the dust and soil, with a cloth. Place them carefully in the middle of a thick book (an old phone directory, a book from the Harry Potter series, or even a large-sized dictionary would do). Close the book carefully. You can even place some extra weight on the closed book.

The leaves will take about a week and the flowers, about two weeks to dry. Your personalised decoration is good to go on a piece of plain paper!

2. Homemade perfume:

Got a large bouquet of roses from someone special? You can preserve their fragrance for many weeks by making perfume from the flowers! You’ll need about 12 roses, 3 cups of water, ice cubes, a large pot with a glass lid, a small bowl that can be heated, aluminium foil, a towel, a sealable container and a strainer.

Pluck out all the petals from the flowers and put them in the large pot. Make sure you leave some room in the centre for the small bowl.

Cut out a two-foot rectangle-shaped piece of aluminium foil, twist it into a long roll and coil it to form a base for the small bowl. Now place the bowl on it, so it is surrounded by rose petals.

Pour the water on the petals, cover the pot with the lid placed upside down. The handle of the lid should be sitting on the bowl. Put the pot to simmer.

In a few moments, you’ll see water condensing on the lid. This is when you place the ice cubes, either directly or with a towel on the lid. This difference in temperature will make the condensed water to drop in the small bowl.

It will take about an hour for all the water mixed with rose water to accumulate in the bowl. Once done, you can put the liquid collected in the bowl in a sealable container. If there are any rose petals, use the strainer to filter them out.

There you have it—your own homemade rose perfume!

3. Potpourri

If you have a bouquet of flowers with strong smells, you can use it to liven your room for several weeks, by making potpourri.

You will need flowers, citrus fruits, essential oils, fresh herbs or whole spices, sheet pan, parchment paper, scissors, spray bottle and an oven.

Then, preheat your oven to about 100 degree Celsius. Meanwhile, place the parchment paper on the sheet pan. Cut the flowers from their stems, right at the head or if you have flowers like the rose, pluck all its petals. Place the flowers and petals on the sheet pan in one layer.

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You can also add in slices of a citrus fruit, herbs or spices, so the potpourri doesn’t smell too sweet. Cloves, cinnamon sticks or thyme to balance the sweetness.

Now add about 10-12 drops of your favourite essential oil to a tablespoon of water, put the mixture in a spray bottle and squirt it on the flower-fruit-herb mix.

Put this mix in the oven and keep a close watch to ensure that it doesn’t burn. Let them get brittle though, so you know they have dried completely.

Remove the sheet pan from the oven, gently place the mix in a bowl and spray some more essential oils on it.

Your potpourri is ready to make your room smell fresh!

4. Lip Balm:

Want to make your very own lip balm using that lovely flower you got? Well, all you need is a 1/4 cup dried flower petals, 1/4 cup of beeswax, two tablespoons coconut oil, one tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon honey, a saucepan and a bowl (that can be heated), and small sealable containers.

Fill the saucepan with water about halfway and place the bowl in it. Place both of these to heat. Put the beeswax, coconut oil and olive oil in the bowl. As the water starts heating, the mixture will melt. (You can also directly place the mixture in a microwave and heat it.)

Once completely melted, take it down from the gas and add the petals, vanilla extract and honey. Stir the mixture, so it’s even.

Pour the mixture into the small container. Once cooled, your personal fragrant balm is ready to moisturise your lips!

5. Candles:

All you need to make your scented candles look just as pretty is dried flowers/leaves, a basic thick candle, a stick adhesive (like fevistick), a saucepan and a bowl that can be heated.

If you have fresh flowers, dry them in a cool, open space (unlike the pressed drying method). If they are already dry, you are good to go. Place the dried flowers/leaves on a flat surface, so you know which ones to use on which candle.

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Stick the flowers or leaves on your candles with the adhesive stick. This will only be temporary.

Fill your saucepan halfway with water and place the bowl in it. Make sure both these are deep enough to accommodate the candle. Once it gets hot, hold the candle with the wick and bring it near the bowl.

Make sure it doesn’t melt completely, but just enough to make your flowers stick. Once that is done, bring it to cool. There you have it, your personalised pretty scented candles!

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Featured image for representative purposes. Source: Pixabay.

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He has an amazing voice, but for years it languished. Thankfully, Uttar Pradesh’s Kaushal Nishad is slowly but surely getting his due. The youth, who spent dreamless nights, wondered whether singing could solve it–much to the annoyance of his sleepy neighbours. Well, it is that singing that has fulfilled his life’s important aspiration-he has now become a YouTube sensation, with around 5 lakh viewers, reports The Times of India.

Not bad for a 22-year old Class VII dropout, who sells eggs for a living. Kaushal runs his business off a small cart in the middle of the road, and shot to fame after his brother, Anil Nishad, a Class XII student, uploaded videos of his songs in February this year, earning him a large fan base which calls him the ‘poor man’s Mohammed Rafi’.

Incidentally, it was the songs of Rafi and Sanu, which inspired Kaushal. He jokingly told the publication how his egg business grew because of his growing popularity. Kaushal is now a popular performer and has lent his voice to local events including weddings and jagrans.

By his own admission, Kaushal struggled the fair bit.

He would wash dishes at a small hotel for Rs 20 a day. Now, thanks to internet exposure, he even has a channel called ‘Nishad Music Bhojpuri’ today. He thanks God for his new-found success.

Every day, Kaushal earns Rs 300-Rs 600 selling eggs, and any time he sings at an event, he brings in Rs 1,000-Rs 2,000.

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For the tech-savvy younger brother, Anil, broadcasting Kaushal’s talent is a way of thanking him for buying him a second-hand Android phone. With the power of the internet, Anil went about making his brother famous. Thanks to his efforts, they receive calls from different parts of the country and abroad, for Kaushal’s amazing voice.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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A dash of colour, and myriad shapes come alive. Art is the best way for man to showcase and feel emotion. Well, outside the obscure realm of fancy art galleries with indecipherable paintings worth millions, there is art that is simple, striking and beautiful.

Street art is a whole different ball game, and artists in India are truly pushing the envelope. The paintings are sometimes even loaded with important messages to society. Well-crafted, quirky, and utterly delightful, here are eight street artists who are turning conventions around with their striking art.

Jheel Ghoradia:-

This incredible Mumbai-based street artist incorporates digital media with street art. She is behind the ‘Breaking the Silence’ project, that takes popular Bollywood stereotypes as a basis to talk about gender injustice and the depiction of women in Hindi cinema. Her work is bold, striking and hits home.

Each piece is digitally reworked, printed and pasted. The hard-hitting dialogue helps turn sexist stereotypes on their head. Through her art, Jheel wants to inspire people to speak up about the injustices faced by India women. She wants to show how Bollywood has mostly depicted women as secondary characters.

Other themes like rape, prostitution, eve-teasing and LGBT rights are explored in her work.

Jas Charanjiva:-

This talented, dynamic artist was born in the UK, brought up in Toronto and California, and shifted to India, an environment oblivious to Street Art. She got noticed when The Art Loft asked her to join their festival called the Art Conspiracy, bringing together musicians, indie artists, photographers and other creative minds in and around Bandra, Mumbai.

Jas created a design called ‘Don’t Mess With Me’, also commonly known as ‘The Pink Lady’, after the 2012 Delhi rape case. This became a symbol for women to express their anguish.

Today, Jas and her husband run Kulture Shop, a sustainable eco-system for the best Indian graphic artists around the globe. Colourful and with a message, Jas’ art is truly unreal!

Leena Kejriwal:-

This artist’s ‘MISSING’ project has brought the issue of female trafficking to light. Combining art, activism and technology, the project placed larger-than-life black silhouettes of ‘missing’ girls on streets and prominent landmarks. With each piece, people could interact through a mobile app and gain knowledge on the topic.

Leena has been an artist in residence in France, and cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Tehran, Berlin and Weimar have been the subjects of her large-scale photographic installations.

For the last several years, Leena has been working with many NGOs on the issues of human trafficking and prostitution of young girls. Through ‘Missing’, she presents her concerns to the public in an interesting and engaging manner.

Kajal Singh:-

She goes by the moniker ‘Dizy’, and is also a hip-hop dancer, an avid painter and a fitness blogger. Her mother encouraged her talents and is also a painter. Winning art competitions has been a part of Singh’s life since childhood. Her love for hip-hop and art eventually fused, and a unique art form was born. One that fused street elements and style with vivid colours, thus lending her work its own unique identity.

Singh always takes due permissions before starting to work on any city space and finds that people in rural areas are more open towards getting graffiti on their walls. Singh’s art is old-school graffiti, with chunky letters in bright colours, and tiny caricatures as well.

Art has helped her form an identity, and this once-shy artist is unafraid to take on the streets around the world with her interesting work. Read the rest of her interesting story here. 

Rush:-

A Manipur native, Rush has been actively painting since 2010. Rush has left an imprint on four important places in Delhi, at IIT, Hauz Khas, ISBT Flyover and Chanakyapuri. By her admission, art gives her a rush, and so she chose her name.

Back home, people weren’t open to her fondness for graffiti, but now Rush is widely known and loved. She loves to play with words and the dominant colour in her work is pink.

She wants to give visual pleasure to people, and she hopes that with one look, a person can look at her graffiti and know it is a signature Rush piece.

Rush collaborates with Daku and Treble, when she works on walls in Delhi.

Anpu Varkey:-

Trained as a painter, Anpu has a body of work instantly recognisable because of the cat-themed murals that have gone on walls in Delhi, Pune, Rishikesh and Chennai. She is responsible for one of the most significant artworks in India–the gigantic Mahatma Gandhi statue on the imposing tower of the Delhi Police Headquarters.

A Bengaluru native, she painted a humongous harvest moon on the unpainted wall of a house near the Halasuru Metro Station. Anpu left Bengaluru at 17 and went to M.S University in Baroda to study painting, and then the Byam Shaw School of Art in London.

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Anpu feels, the best way to reach out to the world is to paint a wall that is open to everyone. The massive Gandhi painting was quite an achievement, considering she and her work-partner had to climb to the roof of a nearby mosque to observe it holistically.

These female artists are breathing life into city walls in India one stroke at a time!

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

Featured image credit:- John Baptist 

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Art was one of my most favourite subjects in school. Every Wednesday, one hour was dedicated to sketching, drawing and colouring—my school somehow knew that this break would refresh the students like nothing else. We would all open our blank sketchbooks, draw with pencils, and spend the rest of our time colouring the pencil drawings, with crayons.

As young students, we never realised that in this process, we were digging our nails in the crayons, which were made of wax and colour pigments, among other ingredients, and later, these flecks of wax would mix with our food and enter our bodies.

A similar observation and an effort to lower the carbon footprint have prompted some people in India to start manufacturing organic crayons.

Two companies in India, Avani EarthCraft in the Kumaon hills, and Azafran in Ahmedabad have taken up the initiative to make crayons from natural, plant-based ingredients. Avani Earthcraft is also indirectly empowering marginalised women.

If your young one has just started colouring and doesn’t worry too much about shading and hues, Avani’s crayons may be your perfect choice of crayons.

Their natural crayons are created using locally harvested beeswax and plant-based pigments, including indigo, marigold, eupatorium and myrobolan. These colourful crayons are completely non-toxic and safe for kids of all ages!

The organic beeswax is bought from a foundation in the Nilgiris that employs honey gatherers.

Speaking to The Hindu, Rashmi Bharti, the co-founder of the Kumaon-based company said, “It was my daughter who inspired me to create organic crayons. Most art supplies available in the market today are made with synthetic ingredients, and I wanted to develop something that wasn’t harmful for children.”

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The crayon sets are then procured in wholesale by a social enterprise in Mumbai called Sew Saw Handmade. According to Eazelly, a product curation website, “Sew Saw works with marginalised women artisans across Indian to promote economic empowerment of rural artisans. These women create Handmade and non-toxic essentials for children of all ages.”

Along with Avani Earthcraft, Azafran Organics, based in Ahmedabad also make crayons from organic raw products.

Aditi Vyas, the director of the company, said, “We use soy wax, palm wax, soy butter and food-grade colours in our Veggie Crayons. Wax and soy butter is melted and mixed with natural colour pigments and poured into moulds. The mixture is then allowed to cool and become solid.” Priced at Rs 350, Azafran offers eight colours in their crayon set, all organic and safe for your young ones.

If you wish to buy these organic crayons from Avani earth craft or Azafran Organics, visit their websites (click on the names) and place your orders!

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Can bacteria like Staphylococcus or Salmonella be turned into art? Well, the American Society of Microbiology (ASM), believes that it is quite possible!

At the recently held ASM Agar Art contest 2018, participants ranged from university researchers to children under 12, and all of them had one goal—to make art out of microbes.

Grown in a petri-dish on a layer of agar-agar—which is the growth medium for most bacteria—different microbes of different colours are grown and ‘trimmed’ to fit the rendition of the artist.

From microbes that give off a bright red colour, to genetically modified bacteria that glow in the dark, the colours and textures are a veritable field of choices.

In the contest, Bornali Bhattacharjee from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, India, won the second place in the participant category of researchers of ASM society.

The winning art along with their creators are mentioned below. All of the images belong to ASM and/or their creators.

1st Place
The battle of winter and spring
Ana Tsitsishvili, Undergraduate Student, Agricultural University of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia

2nd Place
My yellow vision!
Bornali Bhattacharjee, Ph.D., Ramanujan Fellow, National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani, India

3rd Place
Sustenance
Mehmet Berkmen, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, New England Biolabs, Ipswich, MA, United States

People’s Choice
A Salmonellosis Odyssey
María Laura Echarren,
Ph.D. Student, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario, Rosario, Argentina

Besides the researchers, as mentioned above, the contest is also open to students above and below age 12.

1st Place
Serratia octopus
Tiare Ribeaux
Patrik D’haeseleer
Created at Counter Culture Labs, Oakland, CA.

2nd Place
The Sitting President
Daniel Pham
Created at Baltimore Underground Science Space, Baltimore, MD.

3rd Place
A Bumble Bee, Bacteria, and Mold: Could this be art in the making?
Allison Granberry

Students below the age 12 made these spectacular pieces as well.

1st Place
The Magnificent Butterfly
Kate Lin
Age 10
Created at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor, NY.

2nd Place
Blue Tulip
Simran Bhattacharya
Age 11
Created at TheLab, Inc., Los Angeles, CA.

3rd Place
Ocean and windy breeze
Alice Laun
Age 5
Created at Baltimore Underground Science Space, Baltimore, MD.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Given the fact that art has no boundaries and can be created out of the most mundane things and settings, artists across the world have often ventured away from the world of paints and dry colours to create great works of art out of mediums that would have never struck the most of us as art worthy!

Thanks to the widespread reach of social media, we come across videos and articles on various artists who experiment with a variety of mediums on an almost day-to-day basis. While materials like fabric, wood and even rocks are now quite common, some skilled individuals dare to go even further and have created art using toast, lipsticks, net fabric and even old dolls!

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that artists are beings from another planet, as their thought process and creations are often otherworldly and transcendental.

Sometimes simple, while at other times intricate and thought-provoking, what truly needs to be celebrated is the vision of these artists, that encases random objects in narrative frames and whole new perspectives!

Sticking to the same narrative, we have zeroed in on 12 contemporary artists from India, whose experiments with art and chosen subjects will not just blow your mind but also inspire you to explore new mediums to dabble in art:

1. Parth Kothekar

If there is someone who can create magic out of paper, it is 26-year-old Parth Kothekar from Ahmedabad whose artworks are a treat for the eyes. Starting with conceptualising intricate, hand-drawn designs, Parth painstakingly carves each work with the help of surgical knives, and voila, there is a papercut masterpiece right in front of you!

2. Latha Maheshwari

A self-taught artist from Chennai who has also dabbled with more than 150 art mediums, it was with sand that Latha Maheshwari honestly found her forte. Quite possibly one of the very few women sand artists across the country, the turning point for Latha was when she was featured in a video for ‘Raunaq,’ AR Rahman’s 2014 album. In the video, she was shown creating a work of art, which perfectly showcased her incredible proficiency with sand art!

3. Midhun R

Sometimes people create art from unlikeliest of mediums and 23-year-old Midhun RR from Kerala is no different. The young man creates brilliant works of art using human hair! Yes, you read that right. Each work is a result of painstaking concentration and hard work and takes Midhun nearly three hours to finish.

4. Subhashini Chandramani

For a person who has dabbled with craft, soft-toy making, poetry and photography, using flowers and leaves as subjects in her otherwise two-dimensional artworks was more like a refreshing start to a creative journey for Subhashini Chandramani. Today, her handle which goes by the name, ‘neelavanam’ has a vast fan-following on Instagram!

5. Bornali Bhattacharjee

Can bacteria like Staphylococcus or Salmonella be turned into art? Well, Bornali Bhattacharjee from National Institute of Biomedical Genomics did not only prove that this is possible but also won the second place in an international contest organised by American Society of Microbiology (ASM) society. Grown in a petri dish on a layer of agar-agar—which is the growth medium for most bacteria—different microbes of different colours are grown and ‘trimmed’ to fit the rendition of the artist and here’s what Bornali made.

6. Shrikant Ingalhalikar

Originating in the Japanese village of Inakadate where people plant different types and colours of paddy to create images across farmlands, Rice paddy art is unique and indeed a sight to behold. Thanks to Engineer-turned-botanist, Shrikant Ingalhalikar from Pune, even India has its own paddy art village now, and it sees spectacular artwork raised by Ingalhalikar every year-end.

7. Ramdas Kajave

Some of the best portraits in the world have been created using oil paints or dry colours, but after viewing Ramdas Kajave’s magnificent works of embroidery, you would begin to believe that threads can work their magic too! An embroidery artist from the town of Ichalkaranji in Maharashtra, Kajave has spent over 30,000 hours spanning six decades in embroidering 60 portraits, including that of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Lata Mangeshkar, APJ Abdul Kalam, Swami Vivekananda, Aishwarya Rai, etc.

8. Saad

Working in the R&D Department of a Defence firm by day, Hyderabad-based Saad creates edgy, yet brilliant sculptures in his spare time and any item from the recycling dump, ‘chor bazaar,’ and automobile spares form a considerable part of the raw material that he uses to create brilliant sculptures.

9. Deepa Melkote

The 82-year-old homemaker is a woman of many talents, but her speciality lies in the intricate collages she has created over the last four decades—using postage stamps! Each piece comprises  vivid stamps that have been segregated, cut into tiny pieces and glued neatly onto a sketch that ranges from historical monuments, dancers in colourful lehengas, brightly coloured birds and mythological figures.

10. Shaikh Salimbhai

While it took 22 years to build the Taj Mahal on the banks of the Yamuna in Agra, while its miniature recreation using matchsticks by an Ahmedabad based artist Shaikh Salimbhai in 2011 took one year and 19 days to complete! A detailed structure like the Taj would seem almost impossible to recreate using the tiny sticks of wood, but Salimbhai paid full attention to the original’s detail and carefully crafted it using 75,000 matchsticks!

11. Vivek Patil

Believed to be India’s only Light Painter, Vivek’s rare talent of drawing on luminescent surfaces by rays of light found nationwide acclaim when he got the opportunity of showcasing his light painting skills on popular television shows like India’s Got Talent and Entertainment Ke Liye Kuchh Bhi Karega. Besides dabbling with light, Vivek is also proficient in sand art and speed painting.

12. Reshmi Dey

Growing up in the by-lanes of Assam, glass had always been the singular medium of expression for Reshmi Dey, who today is amongst the top glass artists in the country. She quite literally broke the glass ceiling by foraying into a male-dominated industry when she founded India’s first and only fully functional Glass Art studio called ‘Glass Sutra.’

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Inspiring the millions of people, including youngsters, women, and aspiring actors who look up to her, Priyanka Chopra has made her mark in the Indian film industry, as well as Hollywood.

Whether it is the innocent Jhilmil or the fierce Mary Kom or even a struggling Meghna Mathur, our Piggy Chops is a phenomenal presence on screen. And now, after a short break from Bollywood, she is back with an inspiring story. This time, as Aisha Choudhary’s mother in “The Sky is Pink.”

This story, which is sure to make you emotional, is written by Shonali Bose and Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim will also reportedly star in it. Zaira will play the character of Aisha Choudhary.

Who is Aisha Choudhary and how will her story be an inspiration to viewers?

At a time when youngsters are still exploring themselves, when they know that they have infinite opportunities lying ahead of them and school, friends and hobbies engulf their lives entirely, Aisha was fighting a battle against her body. Aisha, a motivational speaker and writer of one book, had always lived a life full of challenges—but none of them were successful in pulling her down. Not until she breathed her last.

“Aisha was diagnosed (with Severe Combined Immuno-Deficiency or SCID) when she was six months old. And she had a bone marrow transplant in the United Kingdom… Basically, these children are born without an immune system so any disease can kill them, even the common cold,” Aditi Chaudhary, Aisha’s mother said at an INKtalk.

The doctor had given Aisha just one year to live unless she underwent a bone marrow transplant, and even then, the risk would not go away completely. Although the transplant helped Aisha with her SCID, it came with the strong risk of Pulmonary Fibrosis—a disease that occurs when lung tissues are damaged, making it difficult for your lungs to function properly.

Speaking to The Quint, Aditi says,

“Aisha was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in January of 2010. Her lung capacity was only 35%, and as a result, she had trouble walking and navigating staircases. She would tire easily.”

While Aisha was struggling, and at her most vulnerable stage, her friends started straying away. “She was often not asked out by friends as she was getting slower and needed help with carrying heavy things. I think the more she suffered and the more she felt unaccepted by her peers, the more determined she became. I was blown away when she agreed to be a speaker at INK at the age of 14, but she said, “I must do it because I think I can’t,” Aditi recalls.

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That became the turning point in Aisha’s life. A potentially fatal disease at the tender age of 13, a group of friends straying away from her and dropping out of school were not enough to dim her optimism or determination. Aisha took solace in painting and writing, and as she kept her spirits up while fighting for each breath, she suddenly became an inspiration to thousands of others who were struggling through life themselves.

“So if death is the ultimate truth, what should really matter most in life? I felt the only thing that really matters to me is being happy. And happiness is a choice one makes. It’s simply an attitude…

Now it’s not that by being miserable I’m going to get any better so I may as well choose to try and be happy and if I have to have pulmonary fibrosis, I choose to have a happy pulmonary fibrosis,” Aisha once said at a TEDx talk in Pune.

Her optimism was contagious. A young girl, going through the toughest times that one could imagine, was standing in front of a thousand people, sharing her story and motivating people to be happy even in the most challenging times!

Remembering his daughter, her father, Niren, told the Economic Times that he learned three lessons from her— giving back to society, gratitude and not to be overwhelmed by difficulties. “Find the highest mountains to climb. Despite her disability she wanted to enjoy life—something I tell myself each time I am overwhelmed. She also taught me the power of dreaming and aiming for the moon.”

But how did Aisha herself find the motivation to get up every day and go through her day without getting pulled down by her lungs?

“Aisha was bedridden since February 2014, and that’s when I found that she had started thinking a lot about life, death, happiness and pain,” Aditi told The Quint, adding that, “Every day she would say very profound things. I suggested that she write these thoughts down and she asked me, “Why? Who will read them?” So, I gave her a book called ‘Notes to Myself’ by Hugh Prather and told her that the book had sold a million copies. Aisha smiled and said, “I can write better than Hugh Prather!”

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So every day, Aisha started recording her thoughts on her cell phone, because she was still bedridden and could not get up. She typed down about 5000 words that were compiled in her book titled ‘My Little Epiphanies‘ that was published in January 2015. Unfortunately, just hours after the book was published, Aisha breathed her last, leaving a legacy of optimism and happiness.

Now, Shonali Bose is set to bring Aisha’s story to the silver screen, and we are sure that she will do justice to her incredibly brave life and the legacy that she has left behind.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

Feature image sources: (L) YouTube. (R) Wikimedia Commons.

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She wakes up at 4:00 a.m., gets ready and rushes to the local train station in Mumbai—not just to get to work, but to sell imitation jewellery to passengers on the train. By 6:30, after finishing her train rounds, 43-year-old Deepika Mhatre heads to the first of the five homes she cooks in. Her entire day is spent cooking for families, and she gets free only at 4:00 p.m.

In her tedious routine of earning money for her family of five, cooking for five homes and travelling between Nala Sopara, where she lives, to Malad, Deepika finds humour—the kind that she shares when she takes the stage at stand-up comedy shows.

When I asked her about her family, Deepika said, “I have three daughters… and one husband.” We both crack up at the jibe.

Almost exclusively associated with an urban setting, grievances and experiences, you may not always associate stand-up comedy with the experiences of a domestic help. In fact, as Deepika begins her act, she says,

“I have seen stand up comedians often sharing stories about their maids, but now, I will speak.”

Sweetly smiling at her audience throughout the act, waiting for the applause to die down after every punchline (which happens quite often, honestly) and dropping truth bombs like second nature, Deepika effortlessly wins the hearts of her audience right from the first minute.

So, how did she change her career path from a domestic help to a stand-up comedian?

The truth is, this isn’t a career change at all! Deepika still works as a cook (although that has reduced to a significant degree because of her health issues) and sells jewellery in local trains.

The only difference is that now, sometimes she gets a gig for which she heads right after finishing her chores in the five homes.

Speaking to The Better India, Deepika said, “This started when Sangeeta madam (Sangeeta Das, at whose home Deepika works) arranged a talent show for us “bai log.” No one usually does that, right? But she gave us a platform to showcase our talents—just as a fun activity. That’s where I decided to take my jokes to the stage.”

That day, about a year ago, gave Deepika a stage for her comedy and gave the comedy brigade a talented artist, who shares experiences from “the other side.”

Rachel Lopez, who works with the Hindustan Times, spotted Deepika at her first show and knew she had a good future in comedy. She wasted no time in contacting Aditi Mittal, an established comic in India and introducing her to Deepika. A meeting with Deepika at Sangeeta’s house was enough for Aditi to recognise her talent. She immediately asked her if she would be willing to move to a professional stage.

“I had never performed on a big stage before. So Aditi took me to shows where she performed and mentored me. Gradually, we shot an episode of ‘Bad Girl’ together.”

You can watch the whole episode here.

Where does she fit in all of her gigs, with two-day jobs to take care of?

“The gigs are usually in late evenings or nights. So I return home after 12-12:30 at night,” she tells TBI as if it is no big deal. The next morning, Deepika wakes up at 4:00 a.m. and its business as usual.

So what all does she speak about in her shows?

“There are people like Sangeeta madam, who always do good things for us. But on the other hand, I worked at some places where I am always a servant—an inferior. They tell me not to sit on chairs, only on floors, and to drink water or tea from separate glasses. I speak about all of it—good and bad.”

In her show, in fact, she says “The building I work in, I am very special there. Because people like me, we have a separate lift. We even have a separate mug!

People think servants should have separate vessels. Go on then, hide your own vessels! You eat the rotis that I made, don’t you?” she says to a massive round of applause.

Each of her jokes is matter-to-fact, in a tone which never sound like complaints. It almost feels like a group of domestic helpers are joking about their work and their employers at the end of the day. But it is one woman, bringing to us her perspective, her life, cushioned in humour.

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Nowhere during the interview did Deepika ever sound tired or sad. But the truth is, Deepika has to shoulder the financial responsibility of her entire family since her husband doesn’t keep well.

“He has asthma, and now I have high blood sugar, so neither of us can work. My elder daughter has just started working. A person from Mid-day, who interviewed me, gave her a job. But the financial condition of my family is quite tight—so, my only condition in every interview is a request for help.”

Deepika is open to financial help or more gigs on stage. So if you wish to lend her a helping hand, we request you to please write to us at editorial@thebetterindia.com, and we will get you connected with Deepika.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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In India, the odds of coming across a paddy field that has been raised to appear as an image is almost null. By ‘image,’ what we mean is creating impressively detailed tableaus out of thousands of coloured paddy shoots!

If you think we are joking, let us tell you about the village of Inakatade in Japan, where hundreds of people have been coming together to conjure up artistic masterpieces across their paddy fields, and today, this community practice has earned the little village an iconic status across the world!

Interestingly, in a paddy-intensive agrarian country like India, it is quite surprising how such a concept never found a pedestal! While one could say that the unavailability of differently hued varieties of paddy in India is an important reason, we also need to consider the livelihood constraints of farmers in the country that forbid them from pursuing such artistic trails.

But if you happen to visit the sleepy little village of Donje Phata in Maharashtra at the right time, it is quite possible to see a farm with multi-hued shoots of paddy that have been strategically grown to appear as a painting!

It was Shrikant Ingalhalikar, a Pune-based mechanical engineer and industrialist, who purely out of his own interest first introduced Tanbo art (as it is known in Japan and the rest of the world) in India with a giant tableau of Lord Ganesha across his 120×80 feet patch of land in 2016, that he singlehandedly created.

Since then, this village has not only been featured by every national and regional media outlet, but a large number of inquisitive tourists and agriculturists also flock to see this man-made wonder with their own eyes.

These artworks are amazing, but we were more curious about how the man managed to source out relatively unknown coloured variations of paddy in India and what went in the process of turning an entire field into a giant canvas with creative images!

Ingalhalikar, who is a self-professed amateur botanist, has been farming for easily over two decades now and his fascination with paddy led him to the jungles of Western Ghats, where he collected many rare and indigenous varieties of paddy seeds over the years.

“I’d known about Tanbo art for a very long time, but it hadn’t been until I stumbled upon the black-leafed paddy variety of Nazar Bath, that I’d considered the possibility of actually trying a hand at the Japanese artform on my farm,” he says to The Better India.

But it was easier said than done.

Unlike Japan where Tanbo art is a community effort, Ingalhalikar was on his own in Donje Phata. Right from developing a design to etching across the designated area to getting in knee-deep muddy slush and identifying patches of land for strategically planting coloured paddy variants, he did everything on his own.

It is also imperative to have a distinctive understanding of the growth cycle and irrigation needs pertaining to each variety, as these are not the same.

“The design part is not all that hard since I’m a graphic designer as well. Pursuing Tanbo art is my passion, and doing this year after year has kept me going. However, because it is just me, it often becomes quite painstaking to come up with vibrant and intricate designs, especially because of the unavailability of colour-leafed paddy varieties in India and lack of support from people, especially regarding manpower,” he says.

While Ingalhalikar has tried his level best to source the multi-hued paddy variants from Japan and had also written to concerned authorities on many occasions, the laws dealing with importing exotic paddy seeds deems such acts illegal, even if it is for artistic and non- commercial purposes, which left him with not much options other than the Nazar Bath.

Ingalhalikar further explains that the black-leaved variant, which is quite rare and only sporadically found in pockets of certain high altitude and hilly regions in the country, is what he uses to hue different sections in his work and he had come to the possession of the seeds during his rare and indigenous seed collection endeavours. “As the name suggests, this variety is used by farmers to cast ‘nazar,’ or the evil eye away and not really for consumption,” clarifies Ingalhalikar.

To celebrate the flora and fauna of India, he chose to feature the rare Black Panther across his farm canvas last year and carrying forward the same legacy, clubbed together with his love for bird watching, this year he plans to showcase another lesser-known species—the Emerald Dove!

“Because of the incessant rains, I’m not sure that I will be able to accomplish the paddy artwork this year as the seeds have received rain-fed irrigation much more than it should and possibly many seeds have flown away. By mid-August, I can confirm whether it will materialise or not,” he adds.

Ingalhalikar shares that whether or not people come forward to support him in his endeavours, he will continue painting his farm with shades of green and black.

The only thing which saddens him is that despite countless people heading to Donje Phata to view his work, nobody has felt motivated enough to start anything similar yet.

“It would be unfair to farmers if I suggest that they to try a hand at Tanbo art as their livelihoods are already so strained. I personally believe that if anyone should take this up in India, it should be landscape designers, who could work out wonders and possibly figure out ways to source out other coloured variants of paddy for the same. They could even tie up with local farmers and help them economically while creating artistic masterpieces!” a hopeful Ingalhalikar says.

Lastly, he adds that by doing everything manually, right from sowing the seeds and growing them in a nursery before replanting them in the muddy slush, he is preserving the spirit of handiwork and through it, the core of art.

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“Today there are machines even for sowing and replanting paddy, and sadly, the conventional farming practices which truly symbolised the blood and sweat of farmers and the fruits of their labour, are slowly getting phased out. I’m only upholding those values through my art,” he concludes.

Besides paddy art, Shrikant Ingalhalikar actively pursues wildlife photography and is an active arboriculturist too. He has also penned down many books, of which Flowers of Sahyadri is quite renowned. You can check more of his works here.

You can reach out to Shrikant Ingalhalikar at shrikant.ingalhalikar@gmail.com.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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25-year-old Patruni Chidananda Sastry is a resident of Hyderabad who describes himself as an expressionist dancer and activist. Sastry, as he is popularly known, started learning classical dance at the age of five and had given his first public performance when he was seven years old.

As an analyst in an MNC, he spends his mornings crunching numbers and evenings practising dance.

In this exclusive interview with The Better India, Sastry speaks about how dance is a powerful medium to discuss topics which otherwise get brushed under the carpet, gender fluidity, and how he wishes to dance forward.

Dance as a medium of expression

“I was quite young when I saw a film in which Ramya Krishnan (the actor) was dancing in anger. That stuck in my mind, and I thought it was a good way to express what she was feeling.”

“Looking at my interest in the art form, my father enrolled me for classes, and that was how my tryst with dance began,” he says.

He tells me about how dance is a great tool to teach just about anything. “Sex-education, for example, is a topic that schools have been mandated to teach. However, most schools stay away from it because of their discomfort in answering questions posed by curious kids. Wouldn’t it solve the problem if we were to teach it through dance?” he asks.

While we have seen the Navarasas being performed on stage, Sastry is of the belief that dance can depict just about anything: from gender studies to data science.

Learning physics by visualising it

Imagine learning about insulators, conductors, and semiconductors via the medium of dance. Sastry did just that.

“I still remember the teacher explaining the concept to the class. I sat there, and in my head, the concept was playing out in a completely different manner.”

“Unfortunately, the education system, as it is currently designed, only chokes the students and restricts the manner in which they learn,” he says.

He continues, “Everything is designed by beautiful pictures, the teacher moves from the blackboard to the storyboard, and they term it as e-learning, but there is no scope beyond what is prescribed.”

Let’s use dance to teach concepts of science, AI, thermo-dynamics, he urges.

Check out this video to see how this novel idea can be implemented.

Using dance as a tool for change

Sastry speaks about how he was ragged in college and not knowing how to deal with it, he chose to depict his predicament via dance. “It was a chance meeting with a friend who worked in the LGBT space that brought my attention to it. The plight of the community truly saddened me, and I did what I could do best; express their difficulty through dance,” says Sastry.

“I am gender-fluid.”

Sastry is often asked what his sexual orientation is, given that the number of male classical dancers in India remains very low. He says, “As an artist, I am always curious to see how the other gender will react to a particular situation; and hence, I classify myself as gender-fluid. As soon as I say that, I see the people in front of me draw their conclusions about it.

“Some think I am gay while others slot me as bisexual.”

“While things are changing, we still have a long way to go before we begin to accept people and their different sexual orientations.”

He elaborates, “My audience has always been divided into two. There is one section that comes to attend my programmes, knowing what I do and portray. However, there is the other section that is unable to appreciate and understand the points I raise. There have been instances of backlash, but for me continuing what I do is important and I will go on with my public performances,” says Sastry.

For him, this is just the beginning. He is actively involved in creating performance spaces and educating people about gender-issues and topics that make us uncomfortable.

To learn more about Sastry or his work, log on to his website or reach him on his Facebook page.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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Shakila Sheikh lives in a simple house, located 30 km away from Kolkata. Every day, she cooks and tends to her family, like any ordinary woman in her village. But when inspiration strikes, Shakila walks to a mud shed outside her house, leaves the role of a homemaker behind, and becomes a world-renowned artist!

Shakila, who once spent her days sleeping on the streets of Kolkata, has today, sold her art in France, Germany, Norway and America—all because of her phenomenal talent and her ‘Baba.’ While he could never take Shakila off the streets, he encouraged her to do that herself.

Shakila was barely a year old when her father left her family for good. Following this, her mother, Zaheran Bibi, started travelling for 40 kms, from Mograghat to Kolkata every day, to sell vegetables, taking her young daughter along with her.

Speaking to the Weekend Leader, Shakila says, “She didn’t allow me to work but used to take me to the city for a tour. I loved seeing the trams and buses plying through the roads and slept on the pavements while she worked.”

It is on these streets that Shakila would meet the man who changed her life forever.

Baldev Raj Panesar was a retired government employee and a passionate painter who frequented the streets where Shakila and Zaheran Bibi sold vegetables. Every day, he would purchase eggs, chocolates, pencils and magazines and distribute them among the underprivileged kids. Gradually, he earned the nickname ‘Dimbabu’ from the kids—’dim’ is egg in Bengali.

While all the children ran to Dimbabu for the goodies, Shakila refused to do so.

“I’d never accepted anything from a stranger, so I did not take anything from him,” Shakila told the Live Mint, adding that, “One day, he asked me who I had come with, and then proceeded to meet my mother and convince her to send me to school.”

Although her mother was worried that Dimbabu, who, by then, had become ‘Baba’ for Shakila, would traffic her young daughter, he eventually earned their trust.

He helped Shakila gain admission to a Kolkata school, securing the young girl’s future. But fate, and more particularly her mother, had different plans for her.

Not willing to raise a child on the streets, Zaheran Bibi married a 12-year-old Shakila to Akbar Sheikh, a man who was 15 years older to her and already married. Shakila shifted to Sarjapur along with her new family.

“He used to travel to Kolkata to sell vegetables, but his income was not enough to look after his two wives,” says Shakila. So she approached her Baba for help, and he suggested that she start making thongas—paper bags—to support her husband.

One fine day, Baba invited Shakila and Akbar to one of his exhibitions. “We were not enthusiastic about going as we knew nothing about art but had to go because of Baba. While I just gave a passing look to the paintings, Shakila looked at them very keenly,” says Akbar.

“She told Baba the four paintings she liked the most. It turned out that the same paintings were the most popular. Baba was very excited and happy that his daughter had an eye for the arts!”

After the exhibition, Shakila insisted that Akbar get her cardboard sheets and coloured paper—paints were expensive—and she started to work on her very first collage—a depiction of vegetables and fruits that stunned not only Akbar but Baba and his fellow artists too!

After that, there was no going back for Shakila. Baba, along with his friends, started giving Shakila cardboard sheets, newspapers and magazines to make more collages. Shakila too, developed her art, from vegetables to Goddesses to domestic violence—she depicts everything on the canvas.

With time, Shakila received more and more encouragement, not just from Baba, but other art enthusiasts. In 1990, in her first ever exhibition, Shakila earned Rs 70,000!

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Today, there are professionals who handle the sales of Shakila’s art. Many of her artworks now adorn houses in various parts of India, Europe and the USA! But even with such fame, Shakila remains humble as ever.

For one, she says she can never name any of her collages as well as other artists do, and she also cannot explain a deeper meaning behind any of her paintings.

“I can never explain what they mean,” she told the Live Mint, adding, “I watch a bit of TV—we bought it when I was given Star Ananda’s Shera Bangali Puroshkar (the Best Bengali award) in 2010—and read the newspapers once in a while, but I can’t even think up titles for my own work.”

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Have you, like a million others, marvelled at the animation and special effects in movies like Beowulf, The Amazing Spider-Man, Watchmen, Hancock, Bewitched, The Smurfs 2, or Monster House? While watching these movies, it is hard for us to believe that the characters were developed in separate stages of production.

If you are a fan of these movies, the chances are that you are fawning over the work of Parag Havaldar—an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur from Pune, and an Oscar winner!

In 2017, Parag won the Academy Award for technical development. Speaking to the OC Register, Parag said,

“Typically, in the old days, the Academy gave out awards for cameras and film. But these days, because visual effects play such a big role in the film, they’re awarding technical advancement in the field.”

A release by the Academy said, “This pioneering system enabled the large-scale use of animation rig-based facial performance-capture for motion pictures, combining solutions for tracking, stabilisation, solving and animator-controllable curve editing.”

Parag’s vision in Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) brought down the production time of such films by a large margin, while also making the process more efficient.
He developed a technology that could read and replicate expression-based facial performances. Beowulf, which was directed by Robert Zemeckis with the help of Parag’s technology, could be filmed in just three weeks since the actors performed with sensors on their bodies. It was the post-production that took a long time.

Speaking to the Times of India, the Oscar-winner said, “Zemeckis is a visionary director. He was clear that he wanted only performances.

His idea was, ‘Why don’t we just capture the actors and get the emotions out? Everything else—clothing, make-up or lighting—can be done in post-production.'”

Parag worked as a lead software designer and technical developer (for Imagemotion) for Beowulf. “What we tried to accomplish with Beowulf was ahead of its time,” Parag says.

Parag was a four-year-old when his family, which is originally from Pune, moved to Zambia. He grew up listening to African languages and picked them up with ease. At the age of 11, he, along with his family, returned to Pune and Parag was admitted in St Vincent’s. He finished his primary education in 1987 and got admitted in IIT-Kharagpur. In 1996, he acquired a PhD in Computer Graphics and Computer Vision from the University of Southern California.

You may also like: Pune-Born Engineer Bags Sci-Tech Oscar For His Innovative ‘Shotover’ Camera!

In the years to come, Parag developed a revolutionary technology that would ease the production of animation films.

“If you are in the artistic side of things, understanding technology and how to harness it is very crucial. Similarly, coming from the technology side, you have to understand artistic requirements. Only then can you write software or processes that can be used by artists to create the art form that they want,” Parag told the University of Southern California.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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It was 7th August 1905, when leaders of the freedom movement like Aurobindo Ghosh, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai and several others started a Swadeshi Movement asking Indians to boycott all British products and use only those made in India. To commemorate this, it was decided in 2015 to observe August 7 as National Handloom Day every year.

This was done to bring into focus the handloom sector, help the weavers and the karigars and make the common people aware of the 2,000-year-old rich history and heritage of handlooms.

In 2016, Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani had started a #Iwearhandloom campaign inviting people to post pictures of themselves wearing handloom attire, while tagging five others. And social media users went berserk with lots of pictures being uploaded.

But the question to be asked is–how does a one-day exhibition of handloom-clad people help the handloom sector?

“No, it doesn’t,” says Jaya Jaitly, emphatically.

Politician and Founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti (arts and crafts market), she has been working with rural artisans of traditional Indian crafts and handloom weavers across the country since 1986.

She elaborates, “Declaring a day for the handloom sector is good but on that day it’s essential to make all the handloom sector workers from the 200 service centers spread across the country be brought forward, hold exhibitions of their work, sell their products, talk about their new experiments and designs to the public. Many things are being done, but a lot more needs to be done to boost up the handloom sector.’’

In India, the handloom sector employs more than 43 lakh people, directly or indirectly, contributing to more than 15% fabric production in the country. It is the second largest after the agricultural sector and plays a major role in the export business as well.

Indian handloom sector holds a unique position as similar sectors all over the world have closed down. Except for very few countries, handloom products have almost vanished from world markets. Indian handlooms hold a major chunk in the handwoven fabric, 95% in the world.

But this is not enough to sustain the sector. Faced with fewer returns on heavy labour, the younger generation of weavers is trying to find new avenues of work to get easy money. And so, an important and unique heritage sector is, unfortunately, facing existential problems.

Also Read: How This Desi Chatbot Could Help Handloom Weavers in India!

Kerala-based fashion designer, Sreejith Jeevan of Rouka brand, says, “Maybe declaring one special day puts it in the same category of celebrating Mother’s Day, Friendship Day etc. It might sound trivial. But at least people, especially the young, who aren’t aware of what handlooms are, become aware of this sector. So the next time they go shopping, they might try out a handloom product, and once they experience the comfort of a natural fibre, they might become regular customers.’”

Since he started his brand about five years ago, Sreejith has been working only with handlooms. He isn’t the only designer.

There are many designers including Vaishali Shahdangule, Sanjay Garg, Anita Dongre, Anavila Mishra, Payal Khandwal and few others who use only handloom fabric and yarns in their designs.

In fact, many of them stay with the weavers for months, urging them to experiment with colours, yarns, size of the fabrics etc., to get the desired designs and also to bring the weavers in the mainstream. And because of them, several handloom sectors like Chanderi, Ikat, Benarasi, Mekhlai, Kanjivaram, Paithani, Zamadani, Mekhla chadar etc. have got a lot of encouragement. Handprints like Kalamkari, Bandhani, Ajrak and Batik too have been revived.

With fashion designers stepping in with their ideas, handloom weavers have started experimenting. Previously, they wove only saris, chaddars and long lengths of fabric. They used only particular colours and yarns which were in practice for centuries as the handloom sector is still a family-run business as the art of weaving is passed on from one generation to the other.

And even the public thought that handlooms meant only these products and so youngsters shun handlooms.

Now, designers are teaching weavers to change, mix-and-match yarns, dye yarns with different colours, weave different eclectic motifs other the traditional ones and even change the size of the looms to get the desired length of fabric, which is easier to use in Western attire, whereby there is a reduction in wastage of fabric.

Mumbai-based designer Vaishali Shandangule who came to the fashion scene with her breathtaking collection of Chanderi and Paithani fabric has been steadfast in using only handlooms and working closely with weavers from Chanderi, Paithan and Bengal.

Talking about the present condition of weavers across the country, the designer says, “Several initiatives have been taken by the Government, but I think there is a lot more which needs to be done in a structured manner on various aspects to make a big impact for handloom revival. The new generation of handloom weavers is establishing better ways to communicate with clients. They are participating in a lot of exhibitions. The customers are more aware of every handloom that is shown to them and also are aware of its exclusivity. Thus the acceptance for handloom textile has increased, which has increased the scope for better pricing’’.

Another major hurdle ailing the handloom sector is that couture fashion isn’t able to tap this sector. The best example is the recently concluded India Couture Week where the biggest names in the fashion world participated, but not a single designer used handloom.

Vaishali says, “I feel Couture is a big segment which is still untapped for the betterment of handloom. I have taken the initiative by introducing “Handloom bride” which is doing well, but I think this sector needs a lot of work. No one would like to stick to handloom if they are not making profits. If couture segment joins in, it will change the game.”

Bengaluru-based House of Three is a brand that agrees with this idea.

Sounak Sen Barat, Founder and Creative Head, and Anu Shyamsundar, Business Head, elaborate the reason for the improvement of the handloom sector.

They say, “Three things are creating an impact on the revival of handlooms–design, intervention and innovation by designers. They are working at making the weavers evolve and reinterpret traditional designs into newer and more modern versions.

Government-led schemes such as the cluster handloom development programme for new product development and weaver training programmes seem very promising. Further, larger retail companies have now started to focus on developing brands made in the handloom sector.

While designers have a voice that can influence change, their businesses are small and cater only to a niche segment. Mobilising the mass segment to show more interest and involvement in engaging and reviving this sector is critical for the immediate and mid-term future.’’

In fact, many big industries have joined hands with IHB (India Handloom Brand) in sourcing high-quality handlooms and branding them to reach the customers. Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd., have not only been working with handloom weavers but also with designers to develop better handlooms.

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Many brands are working with weavers from different regions like Peter England (weavers from Andhra Pradesh), Biba (mainly from Rajasthan and Gujarat), Allen Solly (Pochampally Handloom Weavers Co-operative Society from Telangana), among other retail brands. Raymond has been working with linen, launching their Khadi collection last year.

To revive the handloom sector, the state of Kerala has made it mandatory for all schools to get uniforms from handlooms.

That’s a huge chunk of handloom fabric and work for weavers. If this gets replicated in all other states, things will change a lot for the weaving community.

Jaitly says, “Since 1977, governments have been trying to help this sector. Handloom products were made compulsory for all schools, and the people working in nursing, transport and the manufacturing sector across the country. But who will supervise if authentic handloom fabric is being used? The corrupt bureaucracy passes off power loom fabric as handlooms with the result the government thinks that they are doing a lot; it’s the corruption that chokes the handloom sector.”

Whatever may be the problems, all the players in this sector agree that the handloom sector is certainly infused with a new lease on life. Now it’s up to the customers to support this sector, to buy handlooms (at least one handloom product for every five others you buy) and help our 2,000-year-old craft alive.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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The ruins of Pompeii are undoubtedly one of the most significant historical pieces of evidence that give one a remarkably detailed insight into the life of an ancient city, which was once an integral part of the great Roman Empire.

Before being entirely swallowed by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, Pompeii was one of the prominent trading centres of the Roman civilisation. The eruption, not only covered the Roman city in volcanic ash and pumice, but also left most of its inhabitants dead.

The site of Pompeii then faded into obscurity until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and then a more prominent and broader rediscovery by Rocque Joaquín de Alcubierre, a Spanish engineer, almost 150 years later in 1748.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Pompeii is the fact that every single artefact from the bygone era has remained visibly untouched and preserved despite the natural calamity— archaeologists attribute this to the lack of air and moisture following the volcanic eruption.

Amidst numerous artefacts and relics unearthed at Pompeii, a seemingly baffling discovery was that of ‘Pompeii Lakshmi,’ an ancient ivory statuette believed to represent the Hindu goddess, Lakshmi.

Yes, you read that right, and if you are scratching your heads wondering about how this statue found its way to the other end of the planet sometime during the dawn of the first- millennium AD, we admit that we are equally dumbfounded as well!

Unearthed by Amedeo Maiuri in 1938, an Italian scholar, besides the Casa dei Quattro stili in a modest dwelling, this statue dates back to the first-century AD and depicts a beautiful feminine figure heavily adorned with jewellery and elaborate coiffure, whose bodily contours have been chiselled in ivory to unmatchable perfection.

While debates over the statuette’s representation has ranged from Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of fertility, beauty and wealth, and the guardian spirit of Yakshi (based on its iconography) to even a syncretic version of Venus-Sri-Lakshmi from an ancient exchange between Classical Greco-Roman and Indian cultures, it is the former depiction that is widely acknowledged around the world and hence, the nomenclature.

While historical accounts and evidence already lays testimony to the intensity of Indo-Roman trade relations and cross-cultural exchanges that must have occurred between both regions under the reign of Emperor Nero during the first- century AD, this epic discovery only reaffirms this argument, as the statuette is believed to have reached the Roman shores during Emperor Augustus’s time.

With a hole boring down from the top of her head and supported by two child attendants, who face outward on each side, holding cosmetics containers, a popular theory is that the sculpture could have originally formed the handle of a mirror.

The inscription of the letter ‘si’ on the statuette’s base in Kharosthi, a common script from northwest India, along with the figurine’s elaborate bejewelled disposition has lead many researchers and archaeologists to invariably identify the figure as Sri Lakshmi, the goddess of beauty, prosperity, and abundance.

There are many theories and assumptions regarding its origins. Right from its production— which is believed to have ensued initially in Mathura and also Bhokardan—since two similarly sculptured figurines were unearthed from the town in Maharashtra.

However, the Kharosthi inscription at the base points to Mehendale and also that, she must have been originated somewhere from the northwestern regions of India, Pakistan, or even Afghanistan. Going by the time period, an alternative theory seemingly links its production to Gandhara and the Begram ivories from the first-century AD.

Yet another fascinating aspect of the statuette is that her features closely resemble female figures featured across Buddhist monuments at prominent sites like Bharhut (late second- century BC) and Sanchi (50-25 BC) in central India as well as Karle (50-75 AD) in western India.

The elaborate conical earrings adorned by her also bear semblance to ones depicted on terracotta figurines prominent in eastern India during the third and second centuries BC, and a shell replica of the same was discovered at the site of Kausambi in northern India.

Today, Pompeii Lakshmi rests at the Secret Museum gallery of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples in Italy and continues to mesmerise a great number of visitors every single day as the silent witness to many epic episodes from the world history.

You may also like: 17 Fascinating Facts about Mohenjodaro and Indus Valley, a Civilisation Far Ahead of its Time

But what makes this small figurine a rare relic from an ancient past is how she travelled great distances to survive a catastrophic disaster and tests of time to become the sole testament of the thriving trade exchange that happened between India and the Roman Empire over two millennia ago.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Age is just a number, is a timeless phrase which debunks the myth that only the youth have the ability to chase a dream or achieve a milestone. In fact, for those passionately driven by ambitions, age has certainly been the least of their worries.

We have many living examples of older folks in India who have made great accomplishments during the ‘twilight’ years of their lives, and their efficiency and dedication would give most of us ‘youngsters’ a run for our money. You can read stories of many such achievers here.

89-year-old Latika Chakrabarty is one such amazing individual, who despite her age, is an enterprising woman who has an online venture where she sells potlis, or decorated drawstring pouches, all made by herself!

Her website, Latika’s Bags, was recently launched by her grandson Joy, who was blown away by his grandmother’s exceptional handiwork and felt that her potlis deserved a greater reach and better appreciation than just being circulated amongst friends and family members.

Every potli that you see on the website has been designed and painstakingly handcrafted by Latika alone, and the most amazing aspect is that like every product you come across various online ventures these days, each potli has a name and story behind it!

Born during the dawn of the last century in the town of Dhubri in Assam, sewing was Latika’s favourite pastime. Her husband, the late Krishna Lal Chakrabarty, was an officer-surveyor from the Survey Of India, which meant that he was regularly posted to different locations. Thanks to the constant travelling, Latika got to live in a number of locations across India, and also ended up collecting unique sarees and fabrics from across the country.

Latika made ample use of her sewing talents by stitching clothes for her three children when they were young. As time passed by, they grew up, and Latika took to making dolls out of old fabrics that would otherwise have to be discarded.

Many of us were first introduced to the concept of repurposing by our grandparents, and Latika is no different—her trusty ‘USHA’ stitching machine has been a constant companion or the last 64 years!

“A few years ago, she started making potlis using old sarees and kurtas. She had always been creative that way, even when she used to make clothes for us when we were babies. In fact, unlike the most of us who would figure out a design only after we had all the essentials with us, she would look at a piece of fabric and would instantly form a design in her head,” says Capt (retd.) Raj Chakrabarty, Latika’s son to The Better India.

Putting old sarees and fabrics to better use, Latika’s potlis made their entry as fancy accompaniments to ethnic wear during festive occasions, four years ago, and became extremely popular among friends and relatives.

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Raj adds that it is only acquiring embellishments and other add-ons to the potlis that often delays the process; Latika usually takes only 2-3 days to make one bag. It is amazing how the octogenarian, who has probably made over 300 bags by now, continues to engage in the venture.

“Although the website was recently launched by Joy as an online venture, what we need to iterate is that this is not a business that is aimed at money making. She had agreed to her grandson’s proposal because she loves what she does and through this venture, we hope that more people would be inspired and not let their age to take away what they can and are able to do,” he adds.

However, no one, least of all Latika, ever imagined that there would be a demand for her potlis from countries like Germany, New Zealand and Oman and that she’d have her bags up on the Internet!

Thanks to her grandson’s enthusiasm and family’s support, Latika’s Bags is quite a rage today, and with her remarkable handiwork, we aren’t even surprised why!

You can look up Latika’s Bags here, and the beautiful potlis are priced between ₹500-1500. While you take your time and browse through the site, do remember that unlike other online ventures, it might take them some time to get back to you but we would like to assure you that your patience will totally be worth the wait.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Theatre can go beyond just delighting the audience–it can break out of the straitjacket and be a mirror to contemporary society by raising awareness about urgent issues or argue for change. It can respond to social contexts through communication of explicit messages and thereby uplift spirits and open up minds.

Realising that theatre can also have a measurable impact on health and wellbeing, Mallika Sarabhai hit upon the idea of pressing street theatre into service for critical engagement on health issues through creative expression.

Thus was born India’s first Actor-Doctor project for which the Ahmedabad based Darpana School of Performing Arts, headed by Mallika, roped in some specialist doctors to act with young artists, drawing upon the dynamics of the prevalent health scene, backed by available data.

The project was conceptualised by Dr Kartik Sharma who was with the Public Health Foundation of India earlier. Dr Kartik and Mallika worked as project investigators for the novel initiative of the Actor-Doctor project.

“There was a gap between the public health research and its engagement with the people. So, this effort seeks to correct it,” says Dr Kartik.

To sensitise people on crucial health issues, the project was designed to work at three layers – the doctors who deal with public health research, the actors, and the directors (young as well as experts), and lastly the people.

The organisers arranged a two-day sensitisation workshop of the actors and the doctors before actual performances to decide upon the theoretical framework.

“There are crucial health issues, including some lifestyle diseases that we have to fight with. And arts are an amazing language to explore public health issues. This effort at sensitising people on such issues can be scaled up nationwide also,” observes Mallika.

For the performances, the actors and the doctors fanned out at various places across Ahmedabad, including shopping areas and food joints, some schools and colleges, residential areas in the walled city and the locality of the homeless people.

The project covered health issues including nutrition, mental health, suicidal tendencies, environment and sex education.

Touching upon nutrition, the script focused upon family traditions of the males partaking of food first while the females eat whatever remains, afterwards.

The script seeks to convey the message that women need more nutrients than men on account of iron deficiency because of blood loss during menstruation. The iron deficiency then may lead to anaemia, and the deficiency of vitamin B12 may lead to irritability and tingling effect in the hands and feet.

So, the audience is instructed to treat both sons and daughters alike.

The script on mental health centred upon depression and how to deal with it. The players warn against the perils of the competitive world, especially in the educational sector. As for social media, the actors also brought into focus the growing tendency of people today, to judge themselves by the ‘likes’ they get on the social media which is an unhealthy offshoot of the influence of social media.

Under mental health, the project also covered suicides and the stigma attached to having mental illness and not treating it.

The script appeals to the audience to put both physical ailment and mental illness on equal footing. The idea is that – “Just as we see the doctor when down with fever, we should see a psychiatrist when we have a troubled mind! That, in essence, would mean to live an empowered life, owning your own life and your story and refusing others to dictate how you feel about yourself. The message is – Do not attach a stigma to mental illness.”

The project also dealt with another subject that is a taboo in our society – sex education.

Programmed sex education can bring about socially desirable attitudes, practices and personal conduct on the part of children and adults that would best protect the individual as a human and the family as an institution. Such education could cover fertilisation, conception and development of the embryo and foetus as well as sexually transmitted infections and how these can be prevented.

Also Read: This Arts Programme in Delhi Is Using Theatre to Help Teenagers Become Changemakers

This could help young people to make informed decisions about their sexuality. A wise curriculum should also address social issues surrounding sexuality and reproduction, including cultural norms, family life and interpersonal relationships.

The project did not lose sight of the care of the environment that concerns all of us – the ecosystem, including all living organisms, in which we live. The plays on the environment were largely performed in schools and colleges to educate the young that our forests remove pollutants from the air and also cool our air temperatures, and pollutants can cause heart and lung problems.

The students are explained how they can live a sustainable life. And that would be by changing behavioural patterns as we are all creatures of habit – such as doing away with the use of plastic and choosing public transport.

You May Also Like: Kerala Is All Set to Recreate Its Traditional Magic Potion That Mixes Organic Farming and Theatre

The Actor–Doctor project of the Darpana School, precisely aims at engaging people with issues that are crucial in modern life. It also seeks to rouse the younger generation to action in matters concerning them.

(Written by Kaushik Joshi and Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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What does dance mean to you? For some people, it’s a way to convey a message or a medium for social interaction, others practise it as a fitness regime. Then there are those people who dance simply for fun and entertainment.

But have you ever considered the possibility of dance serving the purpose of healing—of the body, mind and soul?

Dance as a therapeutic exercise has been present across the world with different types of paradigms of achieving a state of balance between the body and self. Dance Movement Therapy or DMT is one such approach that implements the collaborative use of movement and dance to support the emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual, with the underlying focus centred on improving one’s health and well-being.

All of us have our share of inner turmoil and trauma that we often hide deep within ourselves, and this can range from one’s work pressures to something even graver like sexual abuse and human trafficking. Suppressing these within oneself is not only damaging to one’s mental health but also has the potential of dampening our physical self, which indeed can be detrimental to one’s entire well being in the long run.

Helping people find an outlet to overcome trauma, as well as stress through DMT, is one woman based in Pune, who after years of working in journalism decided to quit her job to channelise her love for dancing for a greater purpose.

Renelle Snelleksz originally didn’t know what DMT was or how it had the scope to help people grappling with severe trauma find a release through a therapeutic implementation of dance and movement.

Following her resignation in 2011, she took a three-month sabbatical during which she stumbled upon DMT, which for once didn’t focus on the form through a commercial paradigm. Intrigued by the idea, she signed up for a 10-day intensive programme in Mumbai, which was to change her life and countless people she would come to be associated with.

“For a very long time, I’d known that dancing could play a significant role towards personal healing, but it was only after partaking in this programme did the possibility of implementing DMT as a tool to heal as well as empower someone else struck my mind. This form of therapeutic exercise is already a well-known form in the United States, where it originated sometime during the fifties but is quite relatively nascent in India,” says Renelle to The Better India.

And this, she could put to effect when she worked with a non-profit organisation named Kolkata Sanved, where a DMT model was developed to heal and empower individuals from marginalised communities, including survivors of gender-based violence and human trafficking, as well as at-risk children and youth.

“Unlike the stress or trauma that burden most of us, it was the survivors of such gruesome incidents that required serious addressing than just counselling or rehabilitation. What they undergo while grappling through the trauma often remains embedded within the body akin to muscle memory, and as much as one’s inner turmoil remains shut underneath, everything they do henceforth remains mostly triggered through the feeling of anger, self-deprecation and negative self-image,” explains Renelle.

DMT uses non-commercial music, letting people find their way through simple activities of self-expression and exploration. “We let them be. For instance, using instrumental music sets no definition as to how one can move; it gives them the freedom to be and explore through their emotions. Also, one method that we often employ is composing songs together based out of their struggles. This not only helps them piece together what’s hurting them but also come to terms with it out loud, through music,” she explains.

She further states that DMT here appeared as a gateway for these women that was non-judgemental and in the process, empowering and a restoration of the self.

“While working with these women, I would often give an analogy from our day-to-day lives—that of a physical wound on our body. How it begins with acknowledgement and basic first-aid without really investing time to clean it up properly. Finally, when we realise that our negligence led to its infection or festering is when we decide to take serious medical attention. Trauma is the same, except it has the power to consume oneself from the within and with life coming along with different seasons of trauma, we are all susceptible to it affecting us emotionally even when we push what is distressing us to the backburner,” Renelle says.

She worked with Kolkata Sanved for about seven years, where she was closely associated with many survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence.

“And it wasn’t an easy process. Combatting one’s perception of the self is a tough challenge as most of the survivors had already developed a severe case of negative self-image and weren’t disposed to a verbal acknowledgement of what they’d been through. It is here that dance and movement together played a role that not only offered them a safe space but also a creative engagement to vent their inner turmoil,” she elaborates.

Because DMT was not a technique-based approach but creating as one experiences it, Renelle shares that the programme gradually helped many women find a greater sense of empowerment and a strengthened mind-body space—emotionally, socially, cognitively, physically as well as spiritually.

“Some of the most endearing success stories during this time had been how they could break free from the ‘survivor mould’ emblazoned upon them by the society and find a purpose in life without being burdened by their past. Many of them today are practitioners of DMT and go about inspiring other survivors through their stories of struggle, healing and achievements. I’ve personally worked with a few girls who found a sense of self-worth and are today working with the police force and in the medical field—because they wanted to save and help others. It had been an overwhelming moment of joy and pride for any parent on seeing their child excel in life,” Renelle adds.

Besides trafficking and domestic violence survivors, Renelle has worked with senior citizens, young children with cancer and also convened DMT sessions for corporate settings.

“Healing is a necessity for people from all walks of life, and we never know what each person is struggling with, irrespective of where they’re put up. Like the layers of an onion, we help people get to the cause of their suffering, step-by-step, through a space of equality and creatively-developed sessions where the focus is on areas like one’s self-image, anger and ability to communicate. DMT can be applied to any group of people and has to be developed based on the context and its end results are definitely worthwhile for both the practitioner as well as the beneficiary,” she adds.

While Renelle adds that a group of 20 individuals is what she considers ideal to work with for an equitable distribution of time and resources, she also conducts private one-on-one sessions, which she envisions having a deeper and more profound impact on the individual.

Currently based in Pune, Renelle also visits the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) as a guest lecturer, as the institute now offers a diploma in DMT in collaboration with Kolkata Sanved at their Centre for Life Long Learning.

What Renelle ultimately wishes for is that DMT becomes mainstream in India and helps countless voices across the country to break free from their trauma and suppressed inner being through wholesome healing and restoration.

You may also like: Abused by Stepfather, Bar Dancer’s Daughter Turns Life Around with Drumming Skills

For more details, look up the Diploma programme offered by TISS and Kolkata Sanved as well as other programmes by the latter here.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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A simple origami boat that Chennai girl, Oorjitha Dogiparthi, crafted when she was barely four years old, was the beginning of a lifelong fascination with the medium of paper artistry.

Today, the 22-year-old’s handiwork is famous all over Instagram under the handle, Oorugami, and the miniature works crafted by her—food dishes and everyday objects in particular—are winning hearts across the Internet.

Miniatures and particularly, food miniatures are a rage these days but what makes Oorjitha’s unique works stand out amidst the rest is the fact that she only uses paper, unlike other people who create miniatures using polymer clay, which is not readily available in India.

Speaking to The Better India, the self-taught artist says, “It was my mother who taught me how to make a boat when I was really small, but that was the starting point. First fascination, and then, the love for paper, led me to learn and experiment with all forms of paper-based craft as well as other forms too. When people would say, ‘it’s just paper,’ I would, on the other hand, say ‘it’s paper!’ There is nothing one can’t do with this versatile medium if they put their heart and soul to it.”

Oorjitha has a postgraduate degree in Food Chemistry and Food Processing from Loyola College and began to seriously focus on making miniatures only six years ago, and there has been no looking back for her since. Having graduated this April, she is currently taking a break to focus on this pursuit.

“Juggling between studies and paper craft during my undergraduate days was very hectic. But I loved to make these and push my limits by trying new things every other day, because of which, I could always find the time. It was when I started posting pictures of my work online that friends and family members started showing interest to buy my work,” she remembers.

One of the first miniatures Oorjitha had attempted and successfully made was—any guesses?

Well, like a true Chennaite, she made a plate of ‘Idli Vada Sambar!’

Using only glue, scissors, tweezers and of course, various forms and grades of paper, Oorjitha’s miniatures incorporate craft methods like quilling and origami that range from simple to really complex and intricate works.

Although Oorjitha makes it sound like making these miniatures is a piece of cake, we are sure that hours of conceptualisation, experimentation and hard work goes behind their creation.

“It’s purely a passion pursuit, and I don’t think I’ll ever get over paper or make things out of paper. Miniatures are amazing that way. They push one’s creativity to the other extent and since I love to try new things—be it food or daily objects—trying until I get what I intend to make is like a fun challenge,” Oorjitha happily states.

As for the drool-inducing food miniatures that she makes, all the pieces include dishes that she personally likes or has tried recently.

Also, Oorjitha lets us know that when it comes to placing orders, she likes to allow people to choose what they want or add custom details to her works. “This makes it a collaborative work, giving people the opportunity of being part of the process. It makes everyone happy!” she says.

Although Oorjitha plans to pursue a PhD eventually, at present, she wants to dedicate all of her time and skills towards miniatures, and we couldn’t be happier. You should look at the precision and detail in each of her works.

If that doesn’t blow away your mind, we don’t know what will!

Impressed with Oorjitha’s works? You can place orders for your own customised miniatures on her Instagram handle, Oorugami, which is quite an impressive play on the word ‘origami’ and her own name!

You may also like: From Biriyani to Appam, This Artist’s Miniature Dishes Will Make You Hungry!

You can follow Oorjitha and see her fantastic range of miniatures and other paper craftworks here.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Goddesses of fertility, knowledge, luck, wealth and prosperity – most households have symbols or idols of them in their prayer rooms. They are held in utmost reverence and given attribution for all successes and riches that come along their devotees’ way.

But have you ever imagined these very goddesses in avatars that stand up to discrimination and crimes against women or as epitomes of feminist liberation?

Like Kali as a ‘badass brown girl’, who staunchly stands against misogyny and sexism or the Shinto deity Amaterasu as a supporter of the “Free the Nipple” movement, or even the Biblical Eve – portrayed as a medical student who fights against the gender pay gap?

Such a unique conceptualisation must have occurred to very few of us, and many will take offence at the suggestion, blasting it as blasphemous!

Goddess Kali, inspired from @harnidhk ‘s poem, Pantheon. Tumblr Kali is a badass brown girl. Loves graphic t-shirts and piercings. She’s against misogyny and sexism and quite literally slays. #Tumblr #Kali #Goddess #Pantheon #Illustration #Art #Grunge #Draw #Paint #Brown #Hindu #Hinduism #God #Celestial #KaliDevi #Devi #Illustrate #Artist #inspiroindia #inspiro #feminism #women #feminist #reclaim #browngirl #curryscentedbitch #brutsubmission

A post shared by Priyanka Paul (@artwhoring) on May 14, 2016 at 12:11am PDT

After all, these are goddesses are divine manifestations and must be worshipped with utmost respect and dignity.

But how does standing up to oppression against women and embracing one’s femininity get classified as being impudent or even profane?

This is exactly what a 19-year-old artist from Mumbai tried to portray when she shared a series of highly expressive sketches of goddesses on Instagram two years ago. She gave us all a very different perspective of these mythical figures while broaching some very serious topics. These ‘rebellious’ works of art were inspired by Harnidh Kaur’s poem ‘Pantheon’.

With that one series, Priyanka Paul became an overnight star on the social media platform. Today she has over 25,000 people following her handle – artwhoring.

Priyanka’s objective had been to portray women, across levels and regions of oppression, rising above it all, while embracing their own femininity without it being broken down, commoditised, fetishized or constantly tampered with.

A post shared by Priyanka Paul (@artwhoring) on May 12, 2018 at 9:13am PDT

How Priyanka amplified the crux of Kaur’s poem through her illustrations were by putting the divine goddess into the shoes of today’s women as embodiments of strength and non-conformity—as goddesses aware of the power their bodies held and were unashamed of their sexualities.

From Eve and Amaterasu to Kali and Hera, what makes Priyanka’s illustrations unlike any previous torchbearer of women’s rights is how each one of them have been centred on social justice agendas—female empowerment, misogyny, sexism, body shaming, Free the Nipple movement, gender-based wage gaps, choices regarding children and family, etc.

Doesn’t standing up to wrong make one a rebel for some and a hero for others?

A post shared by Priyanka Paul (@artwhoring) on May 14, 2016 at 4:39am PDT

Through the ages, women have been subjected to different degrees of sexist policing set by societies across various cultures in the world.

While some have evolved in time to give women better and near-equivalent status, there are many other communities that still practice an archaic and extremely sexist way of living that doesn’t consider women as humans, let alone equals.

Priyanka had been only 17 when she had chosen goddesses across the globe as her muses to highlight a very pertinent issue that a large percentage of people, sadly including women, across the world continue to ignore.

This blatant and bold depiction of goddesses by Priyanka is an impressive act of rebellion against sexism and discrimination against women that has been inflicted upon them since time immemorial.

The young artist is unapologetic about pointing out what is wrong with the society about how it treats its women.

A post shared by Priyanka Paul (@artwhoring) on Apr 16, 2016 at 10:27pm PDT

This makes her a true champion of women’s rights and a real-life heroine who is making ancient goddesses relatable for the contemporary women and look up to them as a fierce and unapologetic embodiment of womanhood.

Priyanka’s creative rendition of goddesses bears a rebellious spirit quite similar to the writings of the legendary iconoclast, Saadat Hasan Manto or simply Manto, who bore no inhibitions when it came to showcasing society in its truest colours during the 1940s.

The man’s weapon had been his pen through which flowed the words of defiance and rebellion against various norms and hypocrisies set in place the society in a time where such acts were not only deemed insolent but also, blasphemous.

The life and legacy of Manto is soon going to make its way to the silver screen in form of a biographical film that we are eagerly awaiting and just the way Manto epitomised in life what it meant to rebel through words, we hope that the film too captures this very essence of non-conformity and dereliction of societal constructs.

Check out Manto’s trailer below:

(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)

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When he was only nine, his mother gifted Varun a Christmas magazine. In the hobby section, there were pages on how to make finger puppets. It was as if a Pandora’s box had opened in the mind of the young boy.

And so, he kickstarted his journey into the vibrant world of puppetry with his first show exclusively for his own family.

Today, the Delhi-based gay activist and professional puppeteer uses the living and interactive medium to open conversations about bold and taboo topics for the masses.

From nightclubs to pubs, national fashion weeks to brothels, villages in rural districts to slums in cities, his life-sized puppets made of upcycled material have travelled the world. They transcend conventional boundaries to talk about an array of topics like HIV/AIDS awareness, climate change, sex education, gender roles and women & child empowerment.

Whether it is the story of a princess who died of a broken heart, was reborn as a man and married a king or the story of the man who lives with a bleeding heart longing for his lover on the other side of the border in Pakistan – each of his puppets – apart from eye-catching structures – seem to have a mind and voice of their own.

One on hand is ‘Jhaadan’, from his production ‘Into the Box.’ She is a scrap of cloth in your home, treated worthlessly. And yet she is boxless. She refuses to be categorised and teaches you the importance of respecting every form around you, even the ones that turn dirty, in the process of helping you stay clean.

On the other is ‘Haara’, a green architect who has the power to speak to plants and sense their troubles. The trees seek refuge in him as rising construction continues to threaten their existence, uprooting them from the ground and pushing them into camps like modern-day refugees, which have no space to accommodate them.

His adaptations of renowned storytellers like Oscar Wilde and his power to adopt them in a modern context enthral the audience. This reflects in ‘Bowlful of Peals’, a gay-lesbian adaptation of ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Giselle ki Kahani’ which is reimagined rural version of a 19th-century French Ballet about girls who at a certain age suddenly vanish, die, or kill themselves.

But the road to becoming an agent of change was not easy, especially when he wanted to learn puppetry professionally after school, but there were no professional schools who offered it. Also, people around him continued to tell him it was a dying art and wouldn’t be viable as a living.

So he went to film school and later joined the casting business. Some of the acclaimed projects he was involved in the casting of included films like ‘Lagaan’, ‘Kama Sutra’, and ‘Earth’, among others.

But he never really cut himself off from the world of puppetry.

While pursuing MCRC at the Jamia Millia Islamia, he would use puppetry in all his projects. The success of his art reflects in how (despite having no formal training at the time) his alma mater asked him to return after graduation and teach puppetry to students.

“It was a childhood passion that turned into a profession. But when I was asked to teach, that’s when it struck me that so much can be done with puppetry,” he told The Hindu.

In addition to the work he was doing, he continued to experiment with films and puppets. He spent time with several traditional puppeteers and learned through observation.

His major break came when he travelled to Switzerland in 2007 as an artist-in-residence through the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. He trained under his role model, master puppeteer Neville Tranter.

It was around the time that he started working with the Royal Tropical Theater Amsterdam, using his puppetry techniques and skills for HIV AIDS awareness.

Not many know, but the puppeteer who uses his craft to create awareness about these topics is also an international concert accompanist who plays the sitar. He was trained as a kid under Ustad Amjad Ali Khan.

A background in music, helped him make a foray into a niche style where he would have shows that used music and non-verbal puppets to narrate folk legends solely through gestures and their structure.

Read More: A New Age Manto: This Heroine’s Goddess Creations Smash Society’s Chains on Women

In the same interview with The Hindu, he reveals how the crux of his work is a rebellion against boxing anybody in, or for that matter, out.

Abroad his work was openly appreciated for their bold takes on taboo topics. But India did term him an ‘adult puppeteer’.

“It just happened. I didn’t realize that children needed different puppets. Some adults who saw my show were not happy with kids watching it. That’s when I realized that there’s no sexuality education here, so it is better not to do these shows for children. Now I consciously make a division, but personally I don’t think there’s a difference,” he adds.

And despite what his critics may say about the topics Varun rightfully addresses through puppetry, he isn’t deterred. He embodies the resilience that celebrated author Saadat Hasan Manto had.

Born in British India, the acclaimed Urdu writer was infamous among his critics for writing about harsh truths that people lived around him but shut their ears to. His life is now being immortalised in a hard-hitting biopic, ‘Manto.’ Watch the trailer here.

(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)

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