British-born Canadian artist Nirbhai “Nep” Singh Sidhu’s (@nepsidhu) latest exhibition ‘Unstruck Melody’ — created in collaboration with UK-based arts organisation @withoutshapewithoutform (WSWF) for this year’s London Design Festival (@l_d_f_official) — is steeped in Sikh practices and teachings. On show at the V&A Museum till October 15, it explores the universal “tools of humanity” in an experiential setting that intertwines fine art and embroidered tapestries with sculpture and film. Delving into Sikh history and blood memories, the installations are “centred around the resilience of memory recall, the potentials of sound and the active participation of listening”. “What’s wonderful is that these are tools we all have, regardless of where we find ourselves and what practices we come from. These are tools we can employ to heal and regenerate our approach to life,” says the Toronto-based artist. The exhibit reflects on the impact of the Sikh way of life on contemporary design. The interdisciplinary artist, for whom engagement with community and mindfulness has been a recurring motif, says, “I find that a painting erupts out of deconstruction.” The same ideology can be applied to the large-scale tapestries packed with a multitude of Sikh symbols and images. A publication, available for visitors to take away as a memento, is inscribed with poems, visuals and free-flowing thoughts pertaining to practices and principles like ‘simran’ (the Sikh meditative practice), ‘sangat’ (community) and ‘seva’ (selfless service). “We believe that our knowledge is only accessed through our actions and if we simply refer to it, it is not enough. That is why, sometimes, academia has its limits for us,” Sidhu signs off. Full feature at the link in bio. Text: @avanithakkar_; inputs by @scriptedartist Photography: @mean_kaari __ #InterdisciplinaryArt #ContemporaryDesign #SikhHistory

At the Banaras Hindu University grounds in Varanasi, a group of girls are engrossed in playing kabaddi. Other groups — made up of both girls and boys — are equally immersed in games of kho-kho and cricket. All of them ignore the curious onlookers gathered around. This exclusive shoot by Verve contributor Akanksha Pandey seeks to capture the mood. Talking to Pandey about the challenges she has faced, 19-year-old kabaddi player Neha Kumari says, “Our families feel that playing a sport is only a physical activity. They don’t understand its mental, spiritual and emotional benefits. And our social conditioning teaches us that only college degrees can secure our future. That unless you are playing at the top level, it’s a total waste of time. I feel sports should be made compulsory in schools irrespective of gender.” Cricketer Deetya N.S. chimes in: “Earlier, due to a lack of family support, girls would quit playing after puberty. But this has reduced in recent years. The system can become more women-friendly by including more women in positions of power, like coaching.” Gender-based discrimination and abuse have traditionally been sheltered by the lack of transparency in the sporting context. The challenges faced by women in sports are not new; they infiltrate the highest levels, as evidenced earlier this year, when the state attempted to silence a group of wrestlers — including Olympic medallists — who had gone public with claims of sexual harassment within the Indian sporting ecosystem. Naturally, a large proportion of factors playing out here are fuelled by the sexism and gendered power dynamics in society at large. Cricket coach Rahul Dixit states, “Although the situation is slowly changing, parents still have concerns about their daughters’ safety. Sports programmes should communicate openly with them and ensure well-supervised training environments. Efforts to provide equal opportunities and promote inclusivity are underway, and we hope that this will lead to a more balanced ratio.” Photography: @pandey.akanksha __ #WomenInSports #BreakingStereotypes

Even before Tina and Pratheek Thomas launched their Kochi-based comic book publishing house @kokaachi about a decade ago, they knew that the comic book business isn’t easy money. But they could not have anticipated the plot twist that lay ahead. A chance encounter led them to the Malayalam film ‘Gangster’ (2014), for which they conceptualised a whopping 11 minutes of animation that covered the prologue and the climax. This was followed by Mani Ratnam’s Tamil film ‘OK Kanmani’ (2015) and its Hindi remake, ‘OK Jaanu’ (2017). But they would only reach their final destination — the arena of credit sequences, where they were to make their name — when they broke into OTT with ‘Lust Stories’ in 2018. This segue into the world of entertainment was also crucial because it helped sustain their comic book publishing house, their first love. But their fortuitous diversification didn’t mean that Studio Kokaachi was bereft of challenges. These range from the in-built Skip Intro feature offered by streaming platforms to navigating tricky briefs that force them to limit their creativity lest the credits overshadow the main content. And though credits have been noted for their ability to create a buzz, they continue to operate in a secondary space. However, they do have their own areas of influence. Witnessing a resurgence with the rise of OTT in India, credits are known to function variously: they have the ability to draw the audience in, set the tone and act as a narrative device, even introducing characters at times. Now working on their 25th project, Pratheek says, “With ‘Lust Stories’, people noticed us but we didn’t get calls for too many projects. But when actors began to tag us on social media after ‘Rocket Boys’, there was a sudden explosion of interest. We are not in Mumbai. We don’t go out and pitch. Our social media presence is still relatively small. We are not even on WhatsApp. We don’t quite know how it happened but we have somehow become synonymous with title sequences.” Full feature at the link in bio. Text: @prachisibal Photography: @rosetommyy __ #ComicBooks #Credits #Animation

“Working in fine dining taught me that no dish can be greater than the ingredients used in it. And I think that with Mexican food, that is very true. You can’t just make a mole (sauce) out of a Bhavnagri chilli, for instance. Sometimes, sourcing a good dried chilli from Mexico is crucial. Freshness also plays a huge role in components that are almost served raw, as is the case with most of our salsas and marinades. So freshness takes precedence over everything else and the quality of ingredients can never be compromised.” -Kartikeya Ratan (@kartikeya_r); Kiki & Pastor (@kikiandpastor), Bandra.  “The perception of a ghost kitchen or a cloud kitchen before the pandemic was that it must be a small place, probably not very hygienic. The food wasn’t supposed to be great, just cheap. But over the last three years, people have realised that these small kitchens are often serving better food than established restaurants. And they’ve allowed them to come into their lives on a daily basis.”  -Rishabh Doshi (@rishabhdoshi); Kiki & Pastor (@kikiandpastor), Bandra. At the link in bio, learn more about five chef-driven Mumbai-based cloud kitchens that have given a face to an otherwise hidden operation, while also conveying a strong sense of values. Text and photography: @mallikachandra — #CloudKitchens #ChefDriven #EatingBetter

“We want to show where the food is being cooked and the hygiene standards we maintain, where we’re sourcing our ingredients from whether it is chocolate or flour. Our sources are not a secret. We’re lucky to be able to use them. Everybody just wants honesty today.”  -Anushka Malkani (@anushkamalkani); Masa Bakery (@masabakery.in), Juhu and Andheri.  “Understanding dietary preferences in India, specifically regarding pastry, along with observing a growing health-conscious movement, opened my mind professionally. Even technically, I grew. Many pastry chefs believe that some pastries cannot be made without egg, for example, but it’s just a limitation of our minds. I took that on as a creative challenge.” -Nariman Abdygapparov (@nariman.coach1); Masa Bakery (@masabakery.in), Juhu and Andheri.  At the link in bio, read about young chef-owners who are changing the perception around cloud kitchens in Mumbai. Text and photography: @mallikachandra — #CloudKitchens #ChefDriven #EatingBetter

“Everyone was cooking during COVID-19, but they didn’t necessarily want to make fresh noodles or baos or gyoza wrappers. We wanted to be the place where people would reach out and say, “I feel like eating burgers tonight, what can you do for me?” And we’d say, “We can send you the buns, the BBQ sauce, the pickled cucumber, the hand-cut fries and you just have to put it together.” “The toughest part is figuring out how to get the food or the product to the client in the best possible way. That’s always been the challenge and always will be. Some days you can pull off a dessert and then a few months later it’s so hot that you cannot serve that dessert anymore. There’s a lot of science behind cooking, but it’s very hard to convey that to the customer.” -Divesh Aswani (@divesh.aswani); Commis Station @commis.station, Mahim. Five cloud kitchens are meeting Mumbai’s burgeoning demand for food that not only provides a sense of comfort but also satisfies the growing concern with eating better. Full story at the link in bio. Text and photography: @mallikachandra — #CloudKitchens #ChefDriven #EatingBetter

“Most restaurants I have worked at, the hours have been very long, which has been the benchmark in this industry for ages. But I knew I didn’t want to do that. If I was doing that and we were successful and making money, I would have still considered it a failure because an overworked team is not a sign of success. To me, it makes financial sense as well. If you push people so hard, they’re just going to get burnt out and leave in a few weeks or months, or a year. I would rather have people stick around for the long haul, be happy, go home and not think about work.”  “I don’t think anything has been easier than I thought. Most things have been harder than I thought. However, when someone tries your food, especially if it’s a stranger, and tells you that they loved it, you feel good and you feel like it’s all been worth it.” -Rehan Mehta (@raybirdeats); East 7th Pizza & Deli (@east7thpizza), Colaba.  At the link in bio, discover how these Mumbai-based chef-entrepreneurs, who left their promising careers in fine dining to start their own cloud kitchens in the city, are bringing their sensibilities of gourmet cooking into the pure delivery model while breaking free of the unsavoury practices that the restaurant industry is notorious for. Text and photography: @mallikachandra — #CloudKitchens #ChefDriven #EatingBetter

“We produce in limited quantities. We can serve a large number of customers if need be, but everything’s made to order. We make hummus five or six times a day. We try to make everything from scratch. Our breads — pita bread, the whole wheat pita, pide dough, manakish dough — are made in-house and to order.”  “What I’ve done with Arabisque is that I’ve kept the classics but I’ve also tried playing around with them. I have seven different flavours of hummus. Some of them — the truffle hummus, for example — are not authentically Lebanese, but they’ve been doing well. Even the peri-peri hummus has appealed to people. Indian audiences love a bit of fusion.” -Kunal Makhija (@kunalmakhija786); Arabisque (@arabisque_), Mahim.  Head to the link in bio to discover how these Mumbai-based chefs are giving cloud kitchens a new focus and meaning while prioritising freshness and flavour. Text and photography: @mallikachandra — #CloudKitchens #ChefDriven #EatingBetter

The 14th edition of the five-day-long @kashishfilmfest at Mumbai’s Liberty Cinema and Alliance Française de Bombay opened with the world premiere of “Pine Cone” — directed by National Award-winning film-maker @iamonir, who considers the festival “home” — on June 7 and stuck to its usual tradition of starting new dialogues in and around the LGBTQIA+ community. At a time when the Supreme Court is deliberating on the fate of same-sex marriage in the country, the community showed up in all their glory at Kashish, where the majority of the 127 films – from 45 countries – screened included cast and crew from the community. Influencer @poojansolanki, who wore a collared maxi dress with oversized sleeves, said, “What you wear and the way you carry and understand yourself defines so much of your being. Love is love; displaying affection publicly, which is difficult for us, was the main agenda for me to go on a reality show as one half of a gay couple in 2019.” Many attendees admitted to viewing Kashish as a serendipitous opportunity to give voice to their thoughts. Artist and educator @durgagawdestudio, garbed in an all-black pantsuit and carrying a green rhinestone bag, said, “I’m engaged to a woman and travelling with her has been one of the most difficult experiences of my life. We were scared for our safety. We even stayed in separate rooms.” Goa-based Ryan Votla (@rainbow_born), who came down to Mumbai for the festival, said, “I work part-time for Manish Malhotra and I use his saris — the ones that are no longer in use — as dhotis. Kashish is where we show what Pride is, and what being a part of the community is like. It inspires a lot of people to come out of their closets and be proud of themselves because until you love yourself, there’s nothing that you can do for yourself. It’s not only about being known or knowing someone who is very well known within the community; it’s about knowing yourself, and being known for yourself.” Photographs: @itsnaomishah Interviews: @zaral_shah __ #LGBTIndia #Kashish2023 #QueerCinema #Pride

When @palakshah, the 31-year-old founder and CEO of @ekayabanaras, launched the luxury handloom brand over 10 years ago, her aim was to build on her 120-year-old family legacy of working with traditional Banarasi weaves and showcase their potential on a global scale. But in a few years, she would find herself in the unfamiliar business of contemporising age-old textiles — be it through the silhouettes, styling or her fabric line, Thaan, which has been selling handwoven textiles by the metre since 2017. In the process, she would create a new dialogue around heritage weaves at large and effectively overturn the way Banarasi textiles have typically been perceived and presented. The tenor of defiance — and her strong sense of personal style — is reflected on her Instagram feed where she is often purposefully seen playing with a diverse range of drapes and pairings for events. Leading by example, she lends credence to the wearability of the brand’s fresh aesthetic even as she invites us to review it through her eyes and in the way that Ekaya intends it to be imbibed. Intrinsic to the brand’s success are the extensively researched campaigns that have played a vital role in creating the strong imagery that the brand has come to be known for. And for this, she has instinctively relied on her collaborators to extend her vision. Creative director and stylist Nikhil Dudani (@nikhildx of @featartists), who has been instrumental in the brand’s evolution, puts their long-lasting partnership down to Shah’s proclivity to take the unconventional route — despite the risky manoeuvres that it inevitably entails — and the free rein she provides to collaborators. Through an exclusive fashion shoot and interview with Shah and Dudani, we commemorate their latest milestone and decode the key elements that come together to form Ekaya’s intrepid campaign imagery and collaborations, both of which are geared towards challenging the status quo. Full feature at the link in bio. Text: @mallikachandra Photography: @nishanth.radhakrishnan Art Direction: @mallikachandra and @scriptedartist Styling: @scriptedartist and @sarah.rajkotwala _ #ContemporaryHeritage #LuxuryHandloom

The choice of setting for @dior’s Fall 2023 collection at the Gateway of India, a heritage site that is synonymous with the country’s financial capital, is telling. Although a YSL archival collection has been shown at the same location back in 1989, Dior’s show in India signals many momentous firsts. For one, it’s the first time an international luxury brand showed a collection that is part of its seasonal calendar in the country — one that has, for the most part, been depicted as far removed, not just geographically, from the monopoly enjoyed by fashion hubs of the West. So when its creative director of women’s lines @mariagraziachiuri took to Instagram to announce the venue and the French fashion house’s partnership with the Mumbai-based @chanakya.in, it made news. Her consistent acknowledgement, since, of the role of Indian artisans through the lens of the brand, and her over 25-year-old journey with Chanakya, coupled with the larger-than-life show in Mumbai, also enabled a reframing of the brand narrative while ensuring that its spot at the top of the pecking order remains unchallenged. The spectacle might have momentarily succeeded in taking attention away from its larger motive of creating inroads into a robust emerging market that will offset the losses being made in other regions. But ultimately, the PR and marketing coup seemed to lay bare the cultural dominance Dior wields in a globalised economy, turning the monument — built to mark the arrival of English monarchs in colonial Bombay — into a metaphorical entry point, into a market worth billions. More at the link in bio. Text: Shirin Mehta and @scriptedartist __ #DiorFall23 #LuxuryBrands #IndianCraftsmanship

Through an exclusive fashion shoot, we give you a peek into the latest edition of the FDCI Designer Stockroom – the much-awaited sale event that hosted over 70 designers on the last day of the recently concluded Lakmé Fashion Week in Mumbai. As per tradition, it opened up access to a gamut of buyers, who found themselves privy to a plethora of collections, old and new. Although it has earned a reputation for raking in high-volume sales, the initiative is designed to serve many purposes – first off, it provides designers with the opportunity to sell and clear stock. This strategy also serves the customer by making concept pieces from leading and upcoming labels available at discounted rates. And while designers are able to gain invaluable insights by selling directly to a diverse client base, buyers are afforded the chance to explore a range of fresh talent. Three designers who participated in the Stockroom weigh in on how it fills the gaps in the market for the various stakeholders: “Except for our bespoke service, we are usually quite content sticking to ideation and design, largely relying on expert retailers to handle the customer interface. The Stockroom is, however, a unique market access initiative through which we meet clients one-on-one. We hear about their past experiences of our products and what they seek from us. Despite it being a sale, we offer the option to tweak the product to get the best out of it.” -Paras Bairoliya, @geishadesigns “Queries for specific styles on social media drive our decisions on what to put up for sale in the Stockroom. For the March edition, casual summer lines do well. The October event is suited for the festive line since it happens before Diwali, and that really tips the scale.” -Neelanjan Ghosh, @jajaabor2017 “A physical sale is a first for us. We leveraged the popularity and reach of the Stockroom to minimise wastage and promote the textiles of India on a global scale. This drove us to offer our clothes at bargain prices.” -Sangita Gupta, @29india Interviews and Styling: @shwetanav Photography: @itsnaomishah Fashion Assistant: @sashaj22 _ #FDCIDesignerStockroom #LakmeFashionWeek #5DaysOfFashion