the bearded ladies of bombay

the graffiti on the walls of mukesh mills in colaba. there are so many shoots which take place here and if you peel away the paint from the slowly decaying facade, like onion skin, you will find the backdrops of half a dozen bollywood sets. the bearded ladies, took me completely by surprise and made me laugh.

anusha yadav photography

anusha yadav is a graduate in communications design, NID, ahmedabad and has been involved in photography since 1996. however, did only consider it seriously in 2004. currently she works as an independent graphic designer as well as a documentary photographer.

her specialisation in the photography field lies in "documenting" events, portraits, research material & celebrations.

more than just documenting, all her pictures are a narrative of the event. (rather than just people smiling to the camera). her pictures are not meant to make people/guests/place look good or bad, but exude, capture and represent their/its presence and participation through the event, in its actual candid essence. the equation is a simple one: spaces = people. and it is people’s behaviour that most interests her: actions, reactions and interactions; emotions, body language, eccentricities, humour – and those rare moments of visual surrealism that can make one’s day.

anusha lives in mumbai. you can check out her work here or here.

rakhi sawant for verve magazine

saffron art

i love accidental discoveries. there's much more pleasure in the unexpected. expected pleasure always loses its thrill by feeding off itself. yesterday i was doing some research on upcoming indian artists for something at work. everyone i asked for advice, directed me to saffron art. it's a great website, and what started out as a chore quickly turned into a real pleasure.

they sort the art by price or by artist. and you don't really need to login to browse the collection. which is just so convenient. they also have special auctions and exhibitions going on most of the time, but for that you do need to register yourself. they have a huge datebase of artists, including a lovely section on new artists.

some of my favourite discoveries.

shishir bhatt -untitled 2007

manish modi - newspaper 15

moutushi - fashionable

gopal sudhedar - face koli maharashtra

debraj goswami - that's the way i see it 3

debraj goswami - that's the way i see it 6

play it loud - the playclan way

life is boring. dull, really. so we spend it in pursuit of people, things, activities to funk it up. make it fun. thing is, some people just do it better than other. the 25 member design team at illume for example. they make you want to jump off a terrace. while we were slaving away at our desks, they came up with a mad cool design store called playclan.

there aren't a great many design stores in india. specially stores that do great original graphics in things other than t-shirts. so that makes play clan not just super popular but actually revered in certain circles.


first off, their in house branding is mind blowing. bold original and faboulous. a great logo. a canary yellow store facade. mad graphics and copy that you can drool over. makes it the destination to visit when you're in delhi.

poster promoting the loveless collection

t-shirts

then there's their products. graffitish converse shoes. bright totes. handrawn maps of old delhi on cushion covers and gift boxes. journals with monotone illustrations. the kind of stuff you're bound to covet, and then indulge in despite your prudent intentions. but for super fun designs like this, it's totally worth it.

old delhi cushion cover

gift boxes

and then there are the one off events and exhibitions they do ever so often. visit their website to know more about those. or drop in at f-51, select citywalk mall, saket.