Komal Chitnis leads education initiatives and consults on special projects. She also works closely with colleagues across various ..departments to ensure that different facets of the Sarmaya collection are effectively utilized in curation, content development, and the creation of learning opportunities. She holds a Master’s in Archaeology and Museum Studies. Komal has previously completed projects at Pune’s INTACH chapter, New Walk Museum in Leicester, and Oriental Museum at Durham University, and she worked at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum. She loves meme-ing and is interested in developing new models of interpretive strategies using physical collections.
Aparna Ramachandran is trained as a landscape archaeologist. In the past 11+ years, she has worked across diverse fields, such as ..and documentation, museum planning, heritage education and outreach, oral history and archiving. As Head of Programming at Sarmaya, Aparna leads and organises regular programmes, researches and curates collections-based content, and implements and supports exhibitions. She strongly believes that collections shouldn’t be limited to enclosed spaces and select audiences, but should instead be disseminated to the larger public through creative storytelling.
As a Learning and Research Associate, Pooja Ashokkumar works closely with the team and contributes to the research of all ... Sarmaya projects. She also assists in the archiving and documentation of the collection and manages the Sarmaya library. She has a keen interest in researching shadow puppets, photography and rare books that are part of the Sarmaya collection. She has previously worked as a Professor of History at Patkar-Varde College and HVPS College of Law in Mumbai. Her interests lie in exploring and learning more about indigenous folk forms, ancient art, architecture and philosophy, mythology and oral histories.
As a Collection and Research Associate, Amritha Nair catalogues, documents and assists in preserving objects in the Sarmaya collection...She also contributes to research on collections for specific projects. Amritha has a Master's degree in Ancient Indian Culture and History from St. Xavier's College. Previously, she worked as a high school teacher and a documentation officer for the Himalayan heritage organisation HIMSHACO. More recently, she handled projects for Anupam Heritage Lab. Amritha is keenly interested in traditional Indian performing arts, indigenous cultures, mythology, and religious iconography.
Kyra Ranjan is Content and Design Assistant at Sarmaya. Trained as a filmmaker from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, ...Kyra has directed two short films and is proficient in creating video content. She also has a keen interest in translating static artwork into moving pieces through animation. At Sarmaya, Kyra is part of the media team and helps in ideating and creating content for its social media channels. She also works on creating long form content for Sarmaya’s YouTube channel.
Sarah Barboze is a Collection and Research Assistant at Sarmaya. She graduated from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, ...and holds a diploma in Museology and Conservation from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya. With expertise in documentation and preventive conservation, Sarah's research focuses on understanding the role of museums in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.
Rukaiya Madraswala is Collections and Research Assistant at Sarmaya. Rukaiya is driven by a profound interest ...in studying coins, particularly from Ancient and Medieval India. She initially joined our team as a Numismatic Intern, with a Master's degree in History from Mumbai University and a certificate in Brahmi, Kharosthi and Sharada scripts from Sathaye College. Rukaiya has previously worked at India Lost and Found as a Bibliography Intern and played a crucial role in building their research library. She has a deep appreciation for Gond art and is passionate about indigenous and tribal art forms.