I am a senior journalist and arts writer with two decades of experience in print and electronic media. I have worked with reputed news organisations like The Indian Express, TV Today Network, The Hindu and Outlook Business. I have expertise in art and culture and am also skilled at writing content on health and sustainability. I assist organisations with their website and newsletter material.
Art Under Climate Heat
Planet, People, Profit
Global warming has a direct impact on art conservation efforts. Museums and galleries in India are waging a war against climate change to defend their priceless collections and national heritage
In this Game, Bangalore’s Lakes are at Stake
An interactive theatre game aims to inspire people to save lakes in India’s tech capital.
by Shailaja Tripathi
Long before Bangalore was known as India’s tech capital, it was known for its 200 lakes. But the title City of Lakes no longer holds true. In the face of rapid urbanisation and pollution, many have disappeared or turned into dead zones. Concerned that many Bangaloreans don’t understand the lakes’ plight, a local playwright has created Once There Was a Lake, a game that aims to spur c...
She Rules The Digital Kingdom
The Indian woman consumer is forcing all—brands, social media, even experts—to take notice. She is shopping, learning, interacting in digital universe & owning it
After she retired in 2019, Kanpur’s Mita Chakravorty, a former school principal, did not have much to keep her occupied. The pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns made things worse. That is when 64-year-old Chakravorty ventured into the digital space, going beyond the occasional social med...
West Bengal: No End to Patua Artists' Financial Woes As COVID-19 Rages
Pingla (West Bengal): “I watched a film in which the customer tells the milk seller that you are putting too much water in the milk to which he replies ‘no, we are not putting water in milk, we are putting milk in water. These days we also mix milk in water and give it to our grandchildren when they ask for it,” says 56-year-old Gurupada Chitrakar before bursting into laughter.
Gurupada is one among the 250 artists hailing from Pingla village in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. One ...
How artist Avinash Karn uses Madhubani art to initiate dialogue on communal and caste divides in India
Mithila or Madhubani painting was once the domain of upper-caste artists. Over time, quite a few Dalit women artists also took to it and incorporated themes relevant to their lives. In this case, Karn didn’t plunge headlong into the technical aspects of the art. Instead, he chose to focus on identifying the subject matter and visualising them.
Unperturbed by criticism, every day, sisters Saleha Sheikh and Sajiya Bushra undertake a 30-minute-long walk from their village Sheikh Toli in Bihar's ...
By using the combination of fashion news, videos, both local and global, the Voice of Fashion gives a panoramic cultural view of Indian fashion online, its business, politics, its design dilemmas, fashion weeks, top sponsors and how consumers respond to Indian fashion and designers.
The Voice of Fashion is an online fashion and design magazine. Completely distinct in the way it deals with the latest fashion trends and its approach to Indian Fashion industry, TVOF is an online platform that explores news, views, opinion pieces, reported articles, photo features, narrative style stories and shopping lists. It is a fashion magazine with strong reading content, videos and news.
Most fashion magazines do not deal with analytical pieces that give the reader an in-depth coverag...
Artisans of India
Keepers Of Heritage – The Stories Of Four Artisans From Across India
Indian digital artists are exploring the latest craze: Cryptoart
A non-fungible token proves a digital work’s authenticity using blockchain technology, making it a hot commodity on the market
A JPEG file went under the hammer at Christie’s on March 11 and was sold for $69.3 million (roughly ₹504 crore), which was paid in cryptocurrency. The world — including the work’s creator, digital artist Beeple — watched in disbelief. Everydays: the First 5,000 Days, a collage of 5,000 images created over 13 years, was the first ever non-fungible token (NFT) to be sol...
Hoop in a loop
Hemmed in by the pandemic, many have turned hoop work into a lucrative art form
* Hoop is a circular wooden frame with a metal screw, placed on a particular portion of fabric that needs to be embroidered upon
* For the artist, it can be therapeutic; for the client, it is pleasing to the eye
* Jain is now in the process of forming a group called the Happy Stitchers’ Club, uniting people with a love for embroidery
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Hasna Jasmine has been busy all day, stitching designs on cloth for her clien...
Jungle Book: While others were financially crippled during the pandemic, two forest villages in Melghat, Maharashtra, offered cash and interest-free loans to its residents
At a time when large swathes of rural India were economically crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rahu, a tribal village in Melghat area of Amravati district of Maharashtra stood as a beacon of hope. One hundred and seventy five households of Rahu received Rs 10,000 each from its gram sabha to tide over the lockdown period comfortably. The remaining 20 opted for another scheme.
In the past five years, Rahu has earned over Rs 3 crore from the forest under its community forest resource rights. T...
A new report captures what ails Indian arts and culture sector: Poor budgets and data, institutional vacancies
The Budget Guide by Sahapedia notes that the marginal budget alloted to the sector, which averaged at 0.11 percent in the last decade, fell to a miniscule 0.07 percent in FY22.
Representational image. Wikimedia Commons
If it wasn't for the pandemic, Prabhat Kumar Mahato — a leading practitioner of Chhau in Jharkhand — would have been immersed in a series of performances at this time of the year, along with his team. After a year without any work, Chhau performances have slowly started to resu...
Willing and able
On December 3 — International Day of Persons with Disabilities — a look at how companies are hiring people with autism not just to make offices more inclusive, but to also tap the valued qualities that the employees bring into the workplace
* According to the World Health Organization, one in 160 people globally have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Though there is no official data available for India, around 3 million people are estimated to be affected by autism
* A few leaders have to demon...
Hashtag, history: There’s a growing appetite for online archives from South Asia
Stories, photographs, audio visual recordings — the history of the subcontinent is being curated carefully with the help of social media
An old black-and-white photo shows an Indian soldier from the British Indian Army posing with his lady love somewhere in Italy. The accompanying caption reveals that the soldier, also a football player, had gone to Italy for a tournament when he met the woman and they fell in love. The soldier’s father, however, opposed their love, and asked him to cut all t...