Now Hear This
Hidden Figures
Private Eye
The Hyderabad Affair
If you’ve never been to Hyderabad, you might associate certain stereotypical things with it, like the jaw-dropping Nizam’s jewels that leave the vaults of the RBI to make their appearances at crowded exhibitions now and again. Or what many consider the definitive dum biryani—and they’re willing to fight you over this. Or the behemoth that… Read more »
Read more ...Echoes of Golconda – Seeking the Quli Qutb Shahs in Modern Hyderabad
Journalist and Hyderabadi Yunus Lasania traces the indelible ink of the Qutb Shahi dynasty’s Persian influence on the city’s living, breathing culture
Read more ...City-Scape – Hyderabad’s Modern Masters of Art
Four masters of modern Indian art with one city in common. From the aesthetic to the spiritual, Hyderabad has affected these artists’ oeuvres in a multitude of ways
Read more ...Deccan Chronicles: The Seven Nizams (and one Diwan) of Hyderabad
While the Nizams were alive, neither the Mughals, nor the French, nor the British, could wrest control of Hyderabad. On their watch, the city swayed to its own rhythm, breathing new life into Deccani art, music, dance and poetry
Read more ...Clay Architecture & Interiors
Celebrating Tuluni in Nagaland, The Land of Festivals
Nagaland’s calendar boasts at least one major festival every month. We get a glimpse of one such special celebration through vintage photographs from 1948
Read more ...Body & soul
Nudes reveal more about the artist than their naked subjects—at least, it’s fun to pretend this. Consider FN Souza’s The Traders. Four figures stand in a line, touching each other intimately. The sexual organs are well-defined, the faces are mangled beyond recognition. Was Souza feeling cynical when he painted this? Did he see sex as… Read more »
Phool Walo’n ki Sair, or Sair e Gul Farosha’n – A Quaint Festival of Flower-Sellers In Delhi
Nothing epitomizes the multicultural flavour of Delhi as this annual festival held with much pomp and show after the monsoons
Read more ...Art1st
Festivals of India
When we attempt to express in English the reasons why we celebrate what we do in India, there’s a tendency to fall back on some cliched answers. We celebrate the harvest in our concrete jungles, or ‘the triumph of good over evil’, or the birth of a great soul, a mahatma. These are accurate reasons,… Read more »
Read more ...Mahavir in marble – Stunning 19th-Century Photographs of the Jain Temples of Palitana
Every March-April, pilgrims make their way to Palitana to observe Mahavir Jayanti. It’s a solemn festival observed in the most ornately decorated temple town you will ever see
Read more ...A Portrait of the God as a Young Boy: Behind the Art of Pichwai Painting
An art form devoted to a seven-year-old Krishna has survived medieval migration, Mewari assimilation and an irate Aurangzeb, to continue to celebrate the fables and festivals of the dark lord
Read more ...Celebrating Little Krishna – A Pichwai Tradition
The canvas of Pichhwai covers six square feet of starched cotton and about 500 years of Indian history—let’s dive into a magical world devoted to an extraordinary child
Read more ...‘A Life in Modern Design – The Legacy of Geoffrey Bawa’ by Channa Daswatte
‘Pocket Man’ by Bijoy Jain
Kandangi Weaves – A History of the Famous Chettinad Sari
What can a textile tradition tell us about a now-forgotten way of life? We pick the instantly recognisable Chettinad sari and investigate its glorious past and fragile present
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