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Designer Jasna Moidu’s clothing label, Tree, is an ode to sustainable practices

01

Feb

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Designer Jasna Moidu’s clothing label, Tree, is an ode to sustainable practices

As a teen, Jasna Moidu would buy clothes that were a couple of sizes bigger. “Those always felt comfortable,” says Moidu, founder of Tree, a clothing label. Founded in 2016, the label which makes wearable designs, has, at its core, been working with handwoven cotton. In 2024, the 34-year-old founder-designer moved the label’s base to Bengaluru. The young label, however, did not start out with handloom textiles.“It has been a learning curve,” says Jasna, who has always tweaked ready-to-wear clothes to make them ‘her own’. “Nearly all the women in my family have been fashion forward. We would always get…

Kerala Literature Festival | Fiction is the real truth

01

Feb

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Kerala Literature Festival | Fiction is the real truth

“Fiction can reveal to us the truth of our life at a symbolic level, which is hugely important because human beings are symbolic animals,” said Irish novelist Paul Lynch, winner of the 2023 Booker Prize for his fifth novel, Prophet Song, a stunning portrayal of the ease with which liberal democracies can backslide into authoritarianism.Lynch, who was in discussion with the literary and culture editor of Open Magazine, Nandini Nair, at a panel discussion titled ‘Prophet Song: Chaos in a Modern World’, was one of six Booker Prize winners and nominees at the eighth edition of the Kerala Literature Festival. At the…

How Baro Market’s Affordable Indian Art pop up attempts to make art accessible and affordable

01

Feb

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How Baro Market’s Affordable Indian Art pop up attempts to make art accessible and affordable

Jithin Vijayan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement For Srila Chatterjee, the founder and curator of Baro Market, an online store that curates works of artists, craftspeople and designers, art pervades every aspect of life and speaks to everyone. Srila’s view of art therefore is rather democratic. “It is not the purview of just a few people frequenting auctions and hallowed galleries. Art has to be accessible to everyone,” she adds. This is the driving force behind her Affordable Indian Art pop ups that travel to Indian cities showcasing the works of local artists and artisans from around the country. The pop…

This Madurai shop serves a range of sweet and savoury kozhukattais

01

Feb

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This Madurai shop serves a range of sweet and savoury kozhukattais

Vazhai ilai kozhukattai | Photo Credit: Special arrangement Madurai’s Ayngaran Paal Kozhukattai Kadai is the ultimate destination for those who love the sweet and savoury snack. The shop offers 11 types of kozhukattai, served steaming hot, adding warmth to every occasion. The shop, that was opened in August 2021, has become sought-after in the city for its flavourful kozhukattais.Vijay Anand, who owns the place, wanted to offer a range of sweet and savoury options of the snack to kozhukattai lovers in the city. “We decided to handpick varieties from different parts of India and offer them at one spot,” shares…

Thrills and chills aplenty as Jamuna Circus visits Tiruchi with its expert performers

01

Feb

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Thrills and chills aplenty as Jamuna Circus visits Tiruchi with its expert performers

An artist performs a stunt in the Jamuna Circus show at Morais City in Tiruchi. | Photo Credit: M. Moorthy “There is risk in everything,” says Pratima, as she parts her gleaming tresses to reveal a spot on her scalp where a trained lion once accidentally scratched her. “The animals are gone, but the show must go on,” adds the agile 40-year-old Nepali cyclist and gun shooter from Jamuna Circus, which is visiting Tiruchi for the first time for a month-long schedule. Founded in 1901 by Sardar Gurdeep and Ratnadeep Singh in Punjab, Jamuna Circus faces the same challenges as…

Video | At the 2025 Kerala Literature Festival

01

Feb

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Video | At the 2025 Kerala Literature Festival

Video | At the 2025 Kerala Literature Festival Imperilled worlds, real and imaginary, came alive in multiple discussions starring as many as six Booker Prize winners and nominees at the eighth edition of the Kerala Literature Festival. At the four-day festival, oft-touted as Asia’s largest festival of letters with 380 sessions, 600 speakers and over six lakh participants, some of the most pressing issues of today — from war, migration, loss, and belonging, to race, gender, and Donald Trump — and the role of stories in shaping our world, were discussed within the large, packed marquees erected on the tawny…

01

Feb

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Chair gazing – The Hindu

Minimalist architect Mies van der Rohe went so far as to say, “A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier.” We can’t be so sure about that, but it does draw attention to how designing seating has always called for extraordinary rigour, whether painstakingly methodical or purposely frivolous, balancing material and form with ingenuity. Chairs and seats are objects of fascination. It’s a fact that a chair has to take a more complex form, unlike a bed which is simply flat. Designers have shaped their oeuvre with the chair as entree, often proving their mettle with…

Here’s how neera is collected from coconut trees at the foothills of the Western Ghats

01

Feb

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Here’s how neera is collected from coconut trees at the foothills of the Western Ghats

A tree climber taps into a coconut spadix to harvest neera | Photo Credit: Siva Saravanan S The nectar falls drop by drop into a plastic cover secured to coconut trees in a grove near the Western Ghats in Anaimalai. In a few hours’ time, it will start its journey to far off cities such as Chennai and Bengaluru, apart from nearby Coimbatore. Known as neera, this drink will be served chilled from dispensers at cafes, coffee shops and supermarkets. Dhanabal Muthusamy, one of the directors of Anaimalais Coconut Producer Company, with neera | Photo Credit: Siva Saravanan S It…

Goa’s The Timber Residence is India’s first home built using mass-timber technology

01

Feb

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Goa’s The Timber Residence is India’s first home built using mass-timber technology

When Sahil Barua, co-founder of e-commerce logistics company Delhivery, approached New Delhi-based firm Architecture Discipline to design his home, he wanted to bring in a timeless approach to design”. This was something he took a liking to during his time at the Louis Kahn-designed IIM Ahmedabad campus, and he also cultivated an appreciation for architecture. “His vision aligned perfectly with our philosophy, facilitating a deeply collaborative process,” says Akshat Bhatt, principal architect at the firm, who has now created India’s first mass-timber home in Vagator, Goa, that uses glulam (glue laminated timber). Akshat Bhatt | Photo Credit: Jeetin Sharma A…

In which Cyrus Broacha warns you of the perils of a New Year

01

Feb

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In which Cyrus Broacha warns you of the perils of a New Year

Illustration: Satheesh Vellinezhi | Photo Credit: Satheesh Vellinezhi Enough of the New Year. It’s done. Please don’t mention it. We can’t go on like this, discussing the New Year into February. January 10 is the cut-off date. After this date, anyone referring to the New Year, who is not actually involved with central or local governance or has an Instagram following of over a million, will be prosecuted.While a host of people are preoccupied with positive resolutions this New Year, there are definitely a few things not to look out for. Hey, I’m not talking about the brand-new gym member, who…