Writing
Two kinds of writing, one standard. Buyer's guides tell you what to actually buy and how to spot a fake; essays are the thinking behind them. Each is researched like a brief — if you can read it in 30 seconds, it wasn't worth writing.
Featured
Buyer's guide
The Dhokra brass figure and what it tells you about 4,000 years of Indian metalworkLost-wax casting is one of humanity's oldest manufacturing techniques. The Dhokra artisans of Chhattisgarh still use it, mostly unchanged since the Indus Valley Civilisation. This guide covers the craft, the economics, how to tell a good piece from a bad one, and where to buy the real thing.
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Essay
What a GI tag actually protects — and what it doesn't"GI-tagged" is read as proof of authenticity, quality and ethics. It's really only about one of those — here's what the tag guarantees, what it doesn't, and how to use it.
Buyer's guide
Bidriware: The Black Metal with Silver Soul from BidarThe jet-black metal with silver flowers — a 600-year-old craft that survives on a soil-borne chemical secret.
Buyer's guide
Jaipur Blue Pottery: the pottery with no clay, and why the cheap stuff isn't itIt looks like ceramic and sells like ceramic, but real Jaipur Blue Pottery has no clay at all — it's ground quartz. That fact is also the easiest way to catch a fake.
Buyer's guide
Madhubani: how to buy an original when the market is 90% printThe wall art of Mithila became paper art the world could buy — then became a ₹150 poster. Telling a hand-painted original from a print is the whole skill.
Buyer's guide
Kalamkari: how to tell a ₹800 print from a ₹4,000 hand-painted oneTwo Andhra towns make 'Kalamkari' — one freehand with a bamboo pen, one block-printed. Knowing which is which is the whole game when you buy.
Buyer's guide
Channapatna toys: the lacquered wood craft that outlived plasticIvory-wood toys coloured with natural lac dye, turned by hand in one Karnataka town since Tipu Sultan's day. A GI craft, and how to buy the real, non-toxic thing.
Buyer's guide
The best Diwali gift under ₹3,000 that isn't a dry fruit boxAn honest, opinionated guide for people who want to give something worth keeping.
Buyer's guide
Longpi pottery: the most underrated kitchen object in IndiaStone cookware from Manipur that cooks better than cast iron and looks like nothing else you own.
Buyer's guide
The best notebooks made in India right nowFrom Jaipur handmade paper to Khadi cotton covers — a field guide for people who still write by hand.
Buyer's guide
Copper vs brass vs bell metal: a buyer's guide to Indian metalwareWhat the metals actually are, where they come from, and why the difference matters when you're spending ₹2,000+.
Buyer's guide
Gifts for the researcher or policy person in your lifeThings for people whose bookshelves are overflowing and whose desks are full. Curated with actual thought.
Buyer's guide
The Kondapalli toy and what it tells you about Andhra's craft economyA deep-dive into a GI-tagged craft tradition that employs over 3,000 families — and is quietly disappearing.