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K’Taka Org Revives 200-YO Dying Toymaking Craft, Doubles Income of Women...
Tipu Sultan had a guest in his court. A visitor who had come bearing gifts from Persia. The wooden toys with their fine polish, and wonderful craftsmanship impressed the ruler so much that he asked the...
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Kumortuli: Straw, Tamarind & 130-YO Tradition Brings These Kolkata Statues to...
You walk through the winding turns and twists of the narrow lanes of North Kolkata. You cross ornate buildings with red-oxide stone floors and green French windows, some persevering while others...
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Want to Visit India of The 20s & 30s? Travel In Time Via These Awesome Posters!
What is it that brings millions of tourists from across the world to India every year? Frankly, no one can name one thing. With a diverse amalgamation of culture, faith, locales, history and food,...
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Indians Gave Their Money to Bring These 5 Films to Life. Watched Them Yet?
What could three different films—about a doctor on a white revolution mission; an insomniac and an unemployed youngster—possibly have in common? Well, all these movies saw the light of the day, only...
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Memories of Mogambo: Little-Known Stories About the Legendary Amrish Puri
A deep baritone erupts into thunderous laughter and out of the darkness, enters a towering figure, piercing through the mist with a pair of glowing bulbous eyes, chilling enough to stare down...
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Kolkata Painter’s Reinvention of Centuries-Old Patachitra Art Will Wow You!
The world of Bhaskar Chitrakar is a curious one, filled with characters of wonder, that find inspiration and magic in the mundane. From household chores, public transport to marital relationships, his...
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Meet the Director Whose ‘Bomb’ Films Want You To Understand a Woman’s Fears!
“This is our only chance to make men feel the same fear that women feel every day.” This line of dialogue from the film ‘Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal’ is perhaps reflective of similar desires inside many a...
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5 Women Who Challenged the Status Quo To Become ‘Firsts’ in Indian Cinema
While growing up, the majority of the movies I was exposed to, despite their different titles, actors, directors and to some extent story-lines, had a common thread running through them. Most of them...
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Story of Shops: Pune Friends Paint Stunning ‘Legacies’ on Dull Store Shutters!
Shutters are pulled down, signalling the end of the day. The shops in Pune’s Ravivar Peth were bustling with life until about an hour ago. Attendants rushed to bring customers all the items they needed...
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This 62-YO Puneri Will Teach You How To Make Your Own Clothes, One Spin At a...
There was a hush at The Better India office as 30-odd employees observed Madhav Sahasrabudhe, a mechanical engineer from Pune, separating fibres from a ball of cotton, and plucking out the seeds. For...
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Crafting a Green World: Manipur Artist Uses Waste Husk to Make Gorgeous Dolls!
The smoke rises from the chimney, cutting through the thick blanket of fog hung over Songsong, a sleepy little village in Manipur. The quiet slowly breaks into spirited chatter amidst the rustling...
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K’Taka Org Revives 200-YO Dying Toymaking Craft, Doubles Income of Women...
Tipu Sultan had a guest in his court. A visitor who had come bearing gifts from Persia. The wooden toys with their fine polish, and wonderful craftsmanship impressed the ruler so much that he asked the...
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Smashing Stereotypes: At 14, She Was India’s Youngest Female Dhol Player!
The 12-year-old girl standing in the middle of the green field was oblivious to the beauty around her. Her stance upright, her face focussed on the task at hand, her shoulders too slender to bear the...
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Where’s Your Cotton From: 5 Ways to Check If It’s Khadi, Handloom or...
A two-hour cotton spinning session by Madhav Sahasrabudhe was enough to show me how little I knew about fabric. The terms khadi, cotton, and handloom were used interchangeably in my home and while...
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Lost Tales: How Mysore’s Maharaja Created History in Western Classical Music
‘The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but it is the most difficult to play.’ This was an observation by Richard Strauss, the iconic German composer, who dedicated his life towards...
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End Of An Era: Music Legends On What Working With The Amazing Khayyam Was Like
The camera pans the sand dunes in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, in the night’s whitish-blue light with the silhouette of Hema Malini in diaphanous pink attire in one corner. The soft silken voice of Lata...
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Paris to Calcutta In a Milk Van: A 19,000 km Road Trip That Captured the...
In the summer of 1955, three men—Deben Bhattacharya, Colin Glennie and Henri Anneville—embarked on an iconic journey that would change their lives forever. While Henri was a Frenchman, Colin was...
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Grocer’s Son Beats All Odds, Dances His Way to Become ‘Ballet Boy of Bengal’
He was just another boy living in a small house, tucked away in a quiet alley of Santhoshi Nagar, Siliguri. Born in a middle-class family, he grew up listening to a recurring maxim—that education and...
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Rice Flour With Dollops of History: Beautiful Pics Of Bengal’s Ancient Alpona...
For us, a day before any festival was always the worst. Chaos ensued as my mother single-handedly made all the arrangements. From shopping, cleaning, decoration to food, everything seemed like a mess,...
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Bharatnatyam Dancer Shatters Racial Stereotypes, One Dance at a Time!
There are certain stereotypes that we all ascribe to–think of a Bharatanatyam dancer, and the mind automatically conjures up images of a woman with a big bindi, beautiful kohl-lined eyes, draped in a...
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