Innehållsförteckning för September 10, 2018 från India Today

I don’t normally give much mindspace to ancient Indian history. However, my interest was piqued when Managing Editor Kai Friese informed me about a new scientific discovery on the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), specially in relation to Vedic culture. This, obviously, had some relevance, considering the current dispensation in the country. There is an effort to project the IVC as Vedic and backdate the accepted chronology of the Vedas—India’s most ancient texts. However, now, thanks to advances in genetics, the IVC has started revealing some of its secrets. DNA samples extracted from Citizen I4411, a male who lived in the Indus valley city of Rakhigarhi, in modern-day Haryana, approximately 4,500 years ago, has geneticists in a tizzy. The most startling aspect is the complete absence of the genetic marker R1a1…

It’s no secret that criminal investigation is crumbling—the home ministry even had to issue guidelines in July. DNA evidence is too sensitive to be left in such hands This is an era of databases. There are biometric databases: fingerprints, iris scans, photographs—which are to work with facial recognition technologies—and, now, DNA. The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2018, was introduced in the Lok Sabha during the monsoon session of Parliament. The desire to create a DNA database of the people of this country has been nurtured by the CDFD (Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics) in Hyderabad, and supported by the Department of Biotechnology, since at least 2003. Together, these two agencies had, in a Study Report presented to the Planning Commission in the lead-up to the 12th…

“Perhaps the Harappans chanted hymns extolling the glories of the Saraswati as they watched the river dry up. Perhaps they invoked Indra to break the dams and let the waters flow again.” Sanjeev Sanyal Economist and author of indigenist histories “What can genetics add? It cannot tell us what happened at the end of the Indus Valley Civilisation, but it can tell us if there was a collision of peoples with very different ancestries. Although mixture is not itself proof of migration, the genetic evidence of mixture proves that dramatic demographic change occurred close to the time of the fall of Harappa.” David Reich Geneticist at Harvard Medical School “There are many points that prove the Vedic nature of the Indus Valley culture. The largest concentration of sites appears in…

IN THE SLOW LANE... Several defence technology joint ventures announced in 2012 are yet to take off Aircraft carrier technology The US has offered India Electro-Magnetic Launch Systems or EMALSfor its future aircraft carriers Jet engines India is looking at engine technology to revive its indigenous Kaveri engine as well as for stealth engine technology to power the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) Raven UAVs Short hand-held UAVs that have a range of 100 km and an endurance of 60-90 minutes. Useful for battalion-sized army formations Reconnaissance modules For fitment onboard India’s fleet of C-130J Hercules aircraft Chemical and biological gear To protect soldiers from chemical and biological weapons ...ON THE FAST TRACK Defence purchases and agreements from the US have been the fastest moving element in the relationship Communications…

2007-2008: With economic growth strong, irrational exuberance leads to unscrupulous lending 2008: Global slowdown sets in, growth takes a hit 2014: The RBI creates a large loans database (CRILC) to monitor the status of all loans over 5 crore 2015: The RBI ends the ability of banks to restructure projects without terming them as NPAs. Bad loans increase to 2.67 lakh crore at the end of March 2015 from 2.16 lakh crore 2015: The RBI introduces a debt restructuring scheme to enable banks to displace weak promoters 2016: Parliament enacts the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, which lays down processes and tight deadlines for insolvency resolution and liquidation June 2017: The RBI instructs banks to file insolvency cases against 12 large non-performing accounts Feb 2018: The RBI discontinues all restructuring schemes;…

It was a bicycle thief, not The Bicycle Thief, that inspired Indian-American filmmaker Ivan Ayr to write his first short—the story of a man who finds the thief who stole his bicycle but decides to steal it back from him instead of going to the police. When a thief stole the bicycle he used to get to college in the US, he was gutted. “I wasn’t too sure yet of my ability as a director since I had just begun my learning, but it was important to make the film for my healing,” says the 35-year-old, who enrolled for a screenwriting and film direction course at the San Francisco Film Society, California, after an electrical engineering professor complimented his writing. “My duty is to express my take on life, societal…

NO PAIN NO GAIN Abhimanyu Dassani’s film career didn’t come easily, though the 28-year-old is the son of Hindi star Bhagyashree and Telugu actor Himalaya Dassani. He was pursuing a career in finance before setting his sights on Bollywood four years ago. And it took him months of auditions before he bagged the lead role as Surya—a young man who feels no pain—in Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota. His parents and friends worried whether it was the right part for his debut. But Dassani followed his “gut feeling” and believed in writer-director Vasan Bala’s vision for the action-comedy—a “new genre to Indian cinema”, he says. As in Hollywood’s Kick-Ass (2010), the movie is a superhero flick where the hero’s only superpower is his inability to feel pain. Dassani spent eight…

Q. Your new film, Laila Majnu, will release soon. Why revisit the classic folktale? I picked up a paperback anthology of folk stories and was startled to know that after all the separation, longing and heartache, when Laila comes to Majnu, he says, ‘I don’t want you’. I feel that to understand something I need to write it. I wrote a few scenes initially just for myself. Then I started getting interested in Laila. Q. This is the second time you are collaborating with your brother, Sajid, after Cocktail(2012)? What was it like? It’s very problematic. A lot of that has to do with the subject. There was nothing from the mind in this film. It’s from the heart. Sajid brought in new things which I couldn’t have thought of.…

Journey of a Jewel If the body is a stage, jewellery is one of its most dazzling performers. Throughout history and across cultures, jewellery has served as an extension of the human body, accentuating it, enhancing it, distorting it, and ultimately transforming it. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition, Jewellery: The Body Transformed will traverse through time and space to explore how jewellery acts upon and activates the body it adorns. This global conversation about one of the most personal and universal of art forms brings together some 230 objects drawn almost exclusively from The Met collection. A dazzling array of headdresses and ear ornaments, brooches and belts, necklaces and rings created between 2600 B.C and the present day will be shown along with sculptures, paintings, prints, and photographs that…

Who says luggage can’t be whimsical or quirky? And we don’t just mean in a wild pop of colour like an eye-squinting buttercup or Japanese Neon. Leather brand Da Milano’s fur trunks, available in three sizes, follow a similar diktat. You may argue against the choice of fur, but it’s never going to be difficult to pick out on the airport luggage conveyor. Visual aid aside, the trunks are handcrafted using Italian calf leather at the brand’s state-of-the-art manufacturing unit using efficient craftsmen trained under Italian technicians. Superb craftsmanship woven with intricate details are just some of the joys of these trunks designed exclusively by Da Milano’s international team based out of Italy. Price On Request Available at Brand boutiques…

One warm afternoon recently, I wandered into Bikaner house to check out the exhibitions. Next to the fine exhibit of the artist, Nilima Sheikh, I stumbled across the extraordinary work of Kshitij Jalori, a young designer from NIFT. Jalori, a graduate of textile design from NIFT, Delhi, was presenting his first collection of fashion garments designed in brocade woven and designed by him in Varanasi. While the presentation of the exhibition was simple, elegant and effective, it was Jalori’s collection of garments that singled him out as a designer to watch out for. He speaks with a voice that is mature using a sophisticated vocabulary that is strongly rooted in Indian design and craft traditions. Adding to the rich repertoire of Benaras brocade, his fabric designs are a strong contribution…

Icould have kissed the ground I walked on, quite literally, as I hesitantly stepped on the red soil studded with rubies at the Montepuez ruby deposit in Mozambique, Africa. A trip to the Gemfields’ Montepuez ruby mine meant picking up a handful of raw, pink-coloured stones from the soil, admiring their luxurious rough edges and in one wicked moment imagining what one of them would fetch on the precious stones market. Unfortunately that’s where my sense of entitlement ended, for as expected, we could not even take the dust back to where we came from. Signifying passion, love, warmth and boldness, rubies—rarer than white diamonds—have beguiled and delighted people down the ages. “There is no coloured gemstone that fuels passion more than a ruby. We live with colour, it surrounds…

FIERCE FASHION Collaborations are a fresh way to keep the design aesthetic relevant. Monisha Jaisingh has now teamed up with Shweta Bachchan to create a line that defies the boundaries of age and size. The capsule collection derives inspiration from street fashion, pop culture, travel and movies. The MxS fashion DNA is fluid yet extremely wearable, ensuring that one needn’t necessarily opt for international luxury pret brands all the time. AT Monisha Jaising stores in Mumbai and Delhi PRICE 8,000 to 70,000 The Asian Bowl Sakura Sakura at The Metropolitan Hotel, Delhi, has always been synonymous with Japanese fine dining. Now, in an effort to expand their menu, the restaurant has launched a Pan Asian spread. So you have a salmon ceviche sitting alongside a prawn on…

Finance minister Arun Jaitley is back at work after his kidney transplant. And his office has been redone keeping in mind his medical condition so that visitors can maintain a safe distance. Jaitley’s office will host a number of meetings in the next few days, one of them with global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on August 30 that will, in all probability, discuss the weakening of the rupee and the current account deficit (CAD)—both on shaky ground, adversely impacting India’s rating by the agency. Incidentally, S&P may come out with its ratings close to the general elections in 2019, and it remains to be seen how Jaitley will convince their team. Another major item on the FM’s to-do list will be to take a decision on whether or not…

With this terse tweet last week, SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY, BJP Rajya Sabha member and seemingly the party’s designated loose cannon, triggered a minor diplomatic skirmish. The Indian ambassador was subject to some harrumphing in Malé and the government disassociated itself with what it characterised as Swamy’s personal view. India’s relations with the Maldives have been tense as incumbent president Abdulla Yameen, who imposed a 45-day Emergency in February, is perceived to be backed by China. Elections are scheduled for September 23.…

TheGerman Orientalist Max Müller suggested thatanAryan-speaking population introduced Sanskritic languageand cultureto ancientIndia Dayananda Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj, argued that the ‘Aryas came to this country from Tibet shortly after the dawn of creation’ Bal Gangadhar Tilakargued that the Aryans migrated to India from the Arctic circle in 8000 BC RSS leader ‘Guruji’ Golwalkar suggested that Tilak was right about the Arctic origin of the Aryans, but that the North Pole was in India at the time Swami Vivekanand argued that the Aryans came from India and that ancient India included Afghanistan Sri Aurobindo believed that Dravidian languages were closely related to Sanskrit…

1. C 7000 BC Early habitation at Mehrgarh, beginnings of agriculture in the subcontinent 2. MID-4TH MILLENNIUM BC Earliest city at Uruk in Mesopotamia 3. 3500-2600 BC Early period of Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) 4. 3100 BC Early Cuneiform script in Mesopotamia 5. C 2600 BC Pyramids of Giza in Egypt; trade between Mesopotamia and Indus Valley begins 6. C 2600-1900 BC Mature phase of Indus civilisation, cities at Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, Rakhigarhi etc. Script used across the IVC 7. C 2334-2279 BC Sargon of Akkad rules Mesopotamia, trades with Meluha (an IVC city) 8. 2ND MILLENNIUM BC Indo-Aryan-speaking peoples migrate from the Steppe into northwestern India 9. C 1900-1700 BC Late phase of IVC, cities, script and trade decline 10. C 1500-500 BC Composition of Rig Veda and later Vedic…

The Trump administration has been using a mix of diplomatic, strategic and trade measures against its trade partners for better flow of goods and services to those markets, while reducing US imports. This carrot-and-stick approach of the US has already seen a renewed trade pact being negotiated with Mexico. It is also redefining the US’s relations with countries like China, the EU and Canada. India cannot be an exception. The 2+2 dialogue, in spite of its intense focus on defence and strategic ties, cannot be completely devoid of trade interests. Even if bilateral trade does not take centre stage, strategic and diplomatic issues that can impact India’s current account deficit, overall trade balance and energy security will have to be a part of it. “The most important thing will be…

SCALE OF FOOTFALLS BOTTLENECKS 1.Entry gate to the east (Fatehabadi Darwaza) 2.Entry gate to the west (Fatehpuri Darwaza) 3.The white marble floor and mausoleum HIGHEST TICKET SALES On weekends and in August, November and December AT ANY INSTANT The number of tourists found inside the premises On a weekday 11 am: 2,000 approx. 2 pm: 3,000 approx. On the weekend 12 noon: 7,000 approx. On special days 12 noon: 10,000 approx. SUDDEN RUSH 10-11 am and 5 pm Maximum sudden crowd expected 6-7 am and 4-5 pm Least number of people inside…

Nadia Akbar’s debut novel, Goodbye Freddie Mercury, has been met by whoops and hosannas from breathless reviewers apparently unable to believe that feckless, rich, young(ish) Pakistanis swear, drink, take drugs, have sex (sometimes consensual, often exploitative), and have ambivalent feelings towards the cities of their birth. Akbar is equally breathless, dazzled by her own irreverence, by the brazen ‘politics’ of having her female protagonist, Nida, be unlike “most desi girls”. That repeated refrain soon becomes wearisome as it translates into an affected nonchalance toward the crude debauchery you witness, a ‘been there done that’ insouciance despite having been nowhere and done almost nothing. Nida is cool because the boys in the novel keep telling us she is. Nida appears to have no opinions of her own. She’s a piece of…

Netflix’s On Children is less a TV series and more an anthology of five feature-length films of childhood misery set in urban, modern Taiwan. Why watch it? The stories—each featuring a surreal element reminiscent of The Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone—are strong and the performances powerful. All five are centred on ferocious parents bent on improving their children’s lives. ‘Mother’s Remote’ concerns a device similar to a TV remote, with which a mother can force her son to keep repeating tutoring classes a day, until he follows her orders. In ‘Child of the Cat’, an adolescent boy cracks under parental pressure and enters a violent alternative dimension triggered by a clutch of little kittens rescued by him. ‘The Last Day of Molly’ involves an overambitious mother who cannot stop…

WHEN YOU BLUR THE EDGES OF CREATIVITY to bring in a sense of wonder, the result is almost always fantastic. India has had a history of producing the finest textiles, and designers here of working with local crafts and showcasing new and old India through their creative enterprises. Fashion has always been a means of expressing a cultural shift. While many of the designers of the 80s and 90s have struggled to reinvent themselves in the face of competition and shifting goalposts, the truth is that every year, a group of intense, conscious, mindful, young designers are coming into their own. In this month’s cover story, we highlight four such designers who deserve their moment in the sun. For this, we decided to get a number of experts to give…

Naushad Ali is a designer with a minimalist aesthetic that revisits designs from history and contemporises them to fit a modern narrative. When he showed his collection at Lake Fashion Week (LFW) as a stall-only designer in 2016, his commitment toward Indian traditions and crafts, as an emerging designer, was promising. Since then, his design identity has become distinctive and stands out amid a litany of handloom designers. As winner of the last International Fashion Showcase (IFS) at London Fashion Week, there is added pressure to live up to global expectations and we are happy to have chosen Ali as the designer who can effectively bring to life the theme of sustainability at the global platform. IFS’s overarching theme for 2019 is sustainability and we see an organic fit with…

How does Indian Fashion evolve? With practically every young designer wanting to enter the bridal market, the current scenario is one glittering mess! But there are quieter voices that strike an alternative path, with designers like Rajesh Pratap Singh, David Abraham & Rakesh Thakore who have created a space where luxury does not necessarily mean a bridal viewpoint. They have viewed their collections through a prism of heritage art and craft, helping modernise and make relevant again the sensibility of ‘handmade’ in India, showing the potential Indian products could have in international markets. A few months ago, I was in Tokyo for a tribute exhibition for Martand Singh, being organised by the Issey Miyake foundation. I realised how much the Japanese value Indian khadi and other textiles, which for long…

Scarves are some of the most versatile accessories you can have in your wardrobe. Whether you’re going for a traditional look or a contemporary one, you can easily add a scarf to add a little ‘oomph’ to your ensemble. I feel a scarf adds individuality to any outfit. It enables you to create your own unique style and lets the observer in on what’s your style. While we’ve had a number of favourites as we set about designing collections over the years, the styles featured here are among some of the classics I love the most. Learn how to style it right and make a statement using this popular accessory. The Neckerchief Tying our silk square scarf securely around the neck. The perfect accessory with an open neck shirt. The…

From jewellery design to high jewellery to watches, how did you make the transition? I started out very young, working in jewellery design in Geneva, right after I finished my studies. After working for several years for high jewellery companies in Geneva and Paris, I discovered watchmaking design in the 2000s. In watchmaking, the approach is much more technique, but the two universes have their similarities. When we design high jewellery pieces, we want the stones to perfectly reflect the light. When we design watches, we also play with the light to find the right shape or angle that will make the case shine. From another point of view, with feminine watches, we work with the idea of creating high-end watches with jewels, reflecting from the wrist. What is the…

Time and sport are joined at the hip. What would sport be without nail-biting finishes and one-hundredth of a second misses. Enter timekeepers and their crucial role as arbiters of victories and fortunes. On the cusp of its third season as the official timekeeper of Manchester United, Swiss watch brand TAG Heuer is launching two new models sporting the colours of this famed football club: the TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 01 and TAG Heuer Formula 1. Both models boast contemporary design with cleverly contrasting use of red and anthracite grey. The first model will be the TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer 01—a special edition where the striking red of Manchester United takes centre stage on this sporty piece, featuring the TAG Heuer shield on the bezel at 12 o’clock, while the…

ECLECTIC EASELS Shrishti Art Gallery's latest edition of Emerging Palettes showcases a fresh batch of upcoming artists. The exhibition has the works of 12 art students from across the country who have graduated in the last four years. In varying styles and themes, these works go to show the immense potential of these promising new artists. ONTill September 18 ATShrishti Art Gallery, Road No 15, Jubilee Hills DETAILS shrishtiart.com SOUTHERN SOJOURN Enjoy Chef Sakala Sankara's specialties for Dakshin as he dishes out a range of popular and lesser-known regional cuisine from the south. On offer are delightful surprises such as Mokkajana vada made with corn and Meen Pollichathu, a popular fish dish from Kerala, alongside familiar fare like Telangana Kodi or chicken pulao. ONAll through September ATITC Kakatiya, Begumpet TEL…

At an all-party meeting called by the Election Commission on August 27, among the disagreements over issues such as malfunctioning of voting machines and electoral rolls, there was a moment of near-unanimity: all parties wanted a cap on election spending. All that is, except the BJP. Even the Congress said it would “welcome” a formula that capped party spending by multiplying spending limits per candidate. The AIADMK proposed that elections be funded entirely by the state. As for the BJP, it is so much richer than every other party that a cap on spending would remove one of its most significant electoral advantages. $5 BILLION Or around Rs 30,000 crore. The estimated spending of political parties in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections 3,426 CR The official cost of the 2014…

Sood describes the paranoia developing as a result of electronic eavesdropping by governments Writers on intelligence face two problems. First, intelligence is a low-profile job where there is no place for dabanggs. Stella Rimington, MI5’s first woman chief, had famously said that “the best and most successful spies are the quiet, apparently boring and dull people”. But readers expect them to reflect Ian Fleming’s ‘Bond’ stories. Second, even retired intelligence officers resent it when such books do not highlight drama. Allen Dulles had said that the legendary British Second World War SOE (Special Operations Executives) “who set Europe ablaze” were agitated by the “staid and sober” official history by their military historian, whereas the media had glorified them. The Unending Game by former R&AW chief Vikram Sood is a low-profile…

Less than four years after they voted him out—and with the Congress’s lowest tally in the state ever at that—Haryanvis are coming out in droves again to Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s rallies. The two-term chief minister, who launched his Jan Kranti Yatra from Hodal on February 26, says he is “intent on wiping the BJP off the face of Haryana”. Upturning the BJP’s ‘Congress-muktBharat’ slogan, he is already causing some consternation amid the saffron leadership. In Mahendergarh in mid-August, thronged by thousands of Jat farmers, Hooda pressed home the early advantage. “The BJP leaders claim their government is performing well. If that were the case, why are people coming to me?” he asked, drawing huge applause. The former CM confidently lists the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government’s “failures”. And while he…

Since coming to power, the Hindutva lobby has accelerated its project of rewriting Indian history to backdate the accepted chronology of the most ancient Hindu texts (the Vedas) and project the Indus Valley Civilisation as ‘Vedic’ DNA samples from the 4,500-year-old Rakhigarhi skeletons belonging to the Indus Valley Civilisation undermine such projections The skeleton’s DNA showed that the people of ancient Rakhigarhi were a mix of ‘Ancient Ancestral South Indian’ and ‘Iranian Agriculturalist’ populations What the Rakhigarhi DNA lacked was the steppeland genes that are strongly associated with high-caste North Indian populations today This comes as further evidence that a post-Indus population of migrants from the steppe were associated with the beginnings of Vedic Hinduism and suggesting a rupture rather than a cultural continuum The Rakhigarhi findings reinforce the conclusions…

India and the US are to embark on their most significant bilateral summit on September 6 when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mike Mattis begin their first ‘Two plus Two (2+2)’ dialogue with Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The 2+2 dialogue is to build a high level of trust between the two countries and promises to be the first of an annual series of dialogues held alternately in each country. India’s tango with the US comes on the 10th anniversary of the landmark Indo-US civil nuclear deal. However, the smiles and photo-ops are unlikely to disguise the fact that the Indo-US relationship is going through one of its worst phases in the decade since the nuclear deal was operationalised in 2008…

Kerala chief minister PINARAYI VIJAYAN was still in office on Tuesday night after a series of meetings in the day. Reviewing relief operations, meeting donors and charting out action plans, he has been working almost 14 hours daily for the past few days. In what has been an extraordinarily challenging situation, his leadership, crisis management skills and positive approach have won the hearts of the people of Kerala. In an interview with JEEMON JACOB , the CM talks of rebuilding his state from the ground up. Q: The state is facing its worst crisis in a century. What is your strategy to deal with it? It is indeed one of the worst moments in our history. Still, the first phase of the disaster is over,…

1. Start double ticketing system: first, for entering the Taj and then additional or separate ticket for going up to the main mausoleum 2. Fix the hourly sale of tickets, so that the mausoleum does not get choked at a particular instant. There is a need to understand the inflow rate of tourists and fix it by the hour 3. Restrict the residence time around the two peak hours (10 am and 5 pm) 4. Record the hourly ticket sale data to better understand the trend of tourists visiting the Taj. This is easily possible if the tickets are computerised, with timings of ticket sale 5. Prepare the management inside the Taj premises to be in sync with such a crowd regarding facilities (like water and sanitation) 6. Taj security…

FORGERMAN ARTISTMARIO KLINGEMANN, NEURAL NETWORKS ANDCOMPLEX ALGORITHMS ARENO DIFFERENTFROM PAINTBRUSHES ANDCANVAS Q. How did you get into artificial intelligence? I had been fascinated by AI since I read The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky in the 1980s. Unfortunately I had to wait almost 20 years until the hardware and the science had reached the level where it was possible to make visual art with it. To me what we call ‘AI’ is a toolkit of complex instruments that allows me to transform and translate the complex information of the world between different media. Q. What is your process? In AI art, rules are not defined by literal instructions, but by training neural networks on a set of data—often images—that I select. This selection involves thousands of images that I…

DISENCHANTMENT Matt Groening moves to streaming with a by-the-numbers story of a medieval princess who manages to be a shade too similar to Bart Simpson without being a tiny bit funny. Take another gander at Shrek instead. Netflix HOME Habib Faisal’s 12-episode series is based on the Campa Cola Complex case—in which families who’d been living in apartments built in violation of regulations fought to prevent their homes from being demolished. AltBalaji JACK RYAN Fans of the Tom Clancy character first played by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October won’t be disappointed with this web series reboot, which injects some needed pace to a thicket of flashback-padded offerings. Amazon Prime…

1. ANNA MURPHY FASHION DIRECTOR, THE LONDON TIMES Murphy keeps her eye on luxury fashion and high street styles. She loves examining what the evolving wardrobe of the modern woman reveals about her life. 2. JASPREET CHANDOK VP AND HEAD OF FASHION, IMG RELIANCE Chandok’s fashion mission is to give Indian fashion, textiles and crafts a new impetus in both domestic and global markets. 3. DAVID ABRAHAM CREATIVE DIRECTOR, ABRAHAM & THAKORE Founder of one of the oldest fashion houses in India, Abraham has been designing for over two decades, quietly pushing the borders of Indian fashion at home and abroad. 4. PRASAD BIDAPA FASHION CONSULTANT An alumni of National Institute of Design Ahmedabad, Bidapa has over 40 years of experience in the Indian fashion industry as both…

One of the reasons I picked Santanu Das’ Maku as a designer to look out for is because when I first returned to India, one of my biggest inspirations was a woman called Asha Sarabhai. She was a designer who used to make wonderful products in India as well as create beautiful clothes for the Miyake Design Studio in Japan. The big revelation for me, having grown up in India before the big fashion revolution took place, was to be able to take Indian handloom fabric and design garments really beautifully with an exquisite finish using only local craft techniques, whether it was pintucking or the kangri jali detail. Her clothes were available in India for a very brief period of time. Several years later, when I saw Maku’s line,…

Haute Creations Let in a fresh touch to your wardrobe with the All About Yu collection by Shades of India. Pick from a collection of breezy cottons designed for the monsoon season for the contemporary Indian woman. Inspired from the Oriental culture, this collection fuses the layering style of ensembles from Oriental dressing with Indian techniques like mukeish. The result is a collection of tunics, scarves and even saris created with a difference. In a combination of bright and subtle shades, these Indian fusion creations are perfect style statements for a casual do or as work wear. ON Anonym, Road No 92, Jubilee Hills AT storeanonym.in…

“When I was five, I used to tell everyone that I wanted to grow up to be an engine driver, and by the time I turned 10, I had the entire railway timetable of Kolkata memorised,” shares Deepak Sapra, 43. His love for trains went beyond the usual window seat experience as a child, for he eventually ended up becoming a railway engineer. Sapra loved everything about trains, and his recently launched novel The Boy Who Loved Trains captures some of the “vibrant chaos” associated with them. Written in simple and engaging prose, the book contains several interesting and colourful anecdotes from Sapra’s days in the railways. His work involved being posted to remote stations like Andal or Burdawan in West Bengal. “Life in most of these small towns was…

WHAT TO WEAR Under Wraps PR AHNA AYA If you've always loved the effortless grace of a saree but tire at the thought of draping it, check out Prahnaaya’s fusion saris. “We converted a saree drape into a modern piece of attire that is suitable for both day and night events,” says owner and designer Preeti Aneja Ghosh. She works with handloom khadi as well as raw silk to create kaftan jumpsuits, crossed lungi skirts, dupatta jackets, half sarees and lungi dhotis to give your everyday ethnic a serious dose of quirk. Look out for bright pops of colour in Prahnaaya's line. PRICE 3,800 onwards AT 7/1 Jadunath Sarkar Road Second Floor (by appointment only) TEL 9874737417 STYLE TIP "Don a geeky-chic look with braids and thick-framed glasses teamed with…