An interesting historic pattern.

I visited a Craft council of India exhibition recently. Manju purchased a few Kantha Sarees from there. I like the art of embroidery on the sarees and was curious to know its origin. It s quite an interesting story.

1. First Connect – Kantha art was used in Bengal for stitching quilts from old used clothes; it was a great process of using 3 to 4 layers of old cloth to create a quilt. First process of design in society.

2. Second Connect – Some other designer picked up the quality of designs which was applied in building these quilts. Excellent Embroidery patterns brought this art from villages to city.

3. Third Connect – Now the same pattern of embroidery is applied on Sarees and thus Kantha range of Sarees got produced. This form of embroidery got the Kantha branding.

This is a good example of understanding Competencies of Rural India and Connecting the competency by design to create the right product and creating market for these products under Kantha Art Brand.

More than just a dash of colour

I observed that the Holi festival, which looks like a simple fun-filled fete, has some deep design principles embedded into it, which may help in social harmony and social development.

1. HOLI – Festival of Forgiveness. On this festival, anyone can enter anyone’s house. Everyone welcomes the other. During the year, we develop multiple conflicts. This day is the day when we let go the conflicts and start it all over again.

2. HOLI – Festival of Confidence. Confidence is defined as ‘Absence of fear’ or ‘Absence of inhibition’. The festival is celebrated in pure uninhibited form. In the beginning of the day, inhibition exists against cold water or colour on the face, but once someone put a bucket of water on you or put a colour on your face then all inhibition goes away.

3. HOLI – Festival of Equality. Once all the people are submerged in colours, all look alike, all look equal and all behave in a similar manner.
Amazing design of the festival which cleans the 3 key evils of the society – Fear, Inequality and living in past.