enjoy the journey…
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Darjeeling
By Isla Quinn Cold air. Steep slopes. A small train that has been climbing since 1881. Where it is Wikipedia places Darjeeling in the northernmost part of West Bengal, in the Eastern Himalayas, at an average elevation of 2,045 metres. It says Kangchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain at 8,598 metres, rises to the north. The…
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Varanasi
By Rafe Calder The river gets the attention. The looms are in the lanes behind it. Where it is Wikipedia places Varanasi on the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, 692 kilometres south-east of New Delhi and 320 kilometres south-east of Lucknow. It gives the 2011 census population of the metropolitan area as 1,212,610. It says the…
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Dhokra: Wax, Clay and Pour
By Rafe Calder Dhokra casting is easy to describe and hard to do: wrap a clay core in wax, cover it in clay, melt the wax out and pour metal into the space it left. Wikipedia calls Dhokra non-ferrous metal casting using the lost-wax technique and says it has been used in India for over…
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The Toy Town Under a Hill Fort: Kondapalli
By Isla Quinn The toys are carved from a wood the sources call Tella Poniki, and almost everything else about them seems to be held together with paste. Kondapalli sits in the western part of Vijayawada, in Andhra Pradesh, in the Ibrahimpatnam mandal of NTR district. Wikipedia gives a 2011 population of 33,373 on 30…
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Bidar, Karnataka
By Ines Keane Bidar has a fort, a pocket of soil and a black metal with silver set into it. The soil is the part people repeat. Wikipedia places Bidar in Karnataka, on the Deccan plateau at an elevation of 710 metres, with a 2011 census population of 216,020. It says Ahmed Shah Wali Bahmani…
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Pochampally, Telangana
By Porter Lang The village that gave its name to a sari also gave its name to a land movement, and both stories start within a few kilometres of each other, east of Hyderabad. Wikipedia places Bhoodan Pochampally in the Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district of Telangana, roughly 40 to 50 kilometres east of Hyderabad, on 28.42…
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Mirror, Thread, Migration — Kutch Embroidery
By Ines Keane A finished piece of Kutch embroidery moves when the light does. Small mirrors, called abhla, catch it and throw it back across dense stitching. “Kutch embroidery” is not one craft but many. The region has well over a dozen styles, each tied to a community: the Rabari, Ahir, Mutwa, Meghwal, Sodha Rajput,…
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Why Channapatna’s Toys Are Still Turned by Hand
By Isla Quinn Spin a Channapatna toy and the lacquer catches the light in a way plastic never does. A little uneven. A little warm. Clearly made by a hand, not poured from a mould. The town’s toy trade is usually traced to Tipu Sultan, the eighteenth-century ruler of Mysore, who was a known patron…
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Jaipur’s Blue Pottery, Made Without Clay
By Porter Lang Pick up a piece of Jaipur blue pottery and it feels lighter than you expect. That’s the first clue that something unusual is going on. This isn’t fired earth in the way most pottery is. The body contains no clay. The “dough” is a mix of quartz stone powder, powdered glass, multani…
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Bagru’s Mud-Resist Printers
By Ines Keane Cloth doesn’t turn blue in Bagru so much as it earns it, slowly, over days that involve mud before any dye touches the fabric. The printers belong to the Chhipa community, a name tied to dyeing and printing both. Bagru sits about 30 kilometres from Jaipur, and printing has been practised there…
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