Watching the Watchers: How Art in Mumbai Reflects Its People
Exploring Mumbai’s art scene through Jehangir Art Gallery & Tarq. A personal journey of photography, painting, and the people who make art come alive.
Art
The Feels This Week: Culture Milestones For Mental Health
A song, a book fest, a memory—this week’s feels are nostalgia-drenched. From 90s music to Kala Ghoda’s magic, I time-travel through moments & meaning. 
Living Art
I’ve loved painting since I was young enough to find joy leaving my fingerprints on walls & my own face. That has not changed. Something about the interplay of colour & the feel of pigment in every form just makes me sit right. I feel like I tap into a…
Tinsel Life
I feel like a character in someone else’s coming of age story. The kind about a young man discovering life, love and that, contrary to what his mama said, the universe does not revolve around him. I’m Sunday morning breakfast in a social calendar filled with boozy Saturday nights &…
Vulnerability Bait
Art showcases vulnerability, makes honesty accessible, believable, livable.
Ideart: Desert Dancers
Take one white shirt. Pick up a paint brush and the remains of earlier painting projects. Grab an old comic book of the Amar Chitra Katha persuasion. Copy a ubiquitous picture of a woman in the lehenga-choli-chunari garb. Colour brightly. The man is a little trickier as this West-Indian costume…
Ideart: Sabu-Jupiter Jwala
Another edition of Ideart! It is most delightful to be able to gift something that you’ve put a little piece of yourself into. The boy is at the slightly flummoxed receiving end of this. Being a typical boy in all such manner of things, he’s a comics aficionado. Grave conversations…
Ideart: Kolam
Kolam is a household art form practised in South India. It is not the same as the North Indian rangoli which is more of a festive occasion icon. Kolams are created everyday by the lady of the house and are an important ritual to start the day. Traditionally nobody leaves…
Ideart: Native American in India
This piece began at the height of my ambition as a fabric-painter. It was one of the few ones where I actively went looking for the garment and bought it only because I had a painting project idea in mind. It was a creamy-white cotton vest from FabIndia with flat…
City | Pop Culture | Roving I
Mumbai Ka King Kaun? Deewar Pe Dekho!
A very quick update on yesterday’s street festival. It would have been nice if it had been a day-long fest and each of the events staggered a bit. I started out with a detailed itinerary, knowing even then the futility of trying to cover all the events. Kya karen, they…