Design
Ambassador cars, shuttlecock and vivid turbans: Find the essence of India in this picture book
APR 19, 2018 | By Ayman Contractor
Photographs by Shivani Gupta; Published by Roli Books. “What was important was to take things that were born in India or have become a very important part of people’s lifestyle of India," Jahnvi tells us.
Photographs by Shivani Gupta; Published by Roli Books.
When Jahnvi Lakhota Nandan was studying architecture design at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, she developed a curiosity for the vernacular designs of India. This lead to the idea for Pukka Indian, a visual encyclopaedia of quintessentially local items that have an impact the lives of almost all billion people in the country. Elaborating on the selecting the right objects, Jahnvi says, “What was important was to take things that were born in India or have become a very important part of people’s lifestyle of India. Take the Ambassador – you have cars all over the world, but the Ambassador car in its form is only in India. It’s things that either were remotely born in India or have acquired a life in India.”
Shivani Gupta expertly captures daily items like Kohlapuri chappals, shuttlecock, choti, the sari or our colourful rickshaws, which opens the reader’s eyes for the things that we take for granted living in the country.
