Arzaani Atelier Prive - current show "Dakhin | Dilli – A Sacred Dialogue"

 

Arzaani - Atelier Privé founded by Raseel Gujral Ansal is based in New Delhi

the luxury design atelier with a showroom at Bikaner House, New Delhi, showcases Products designed to merge Indian artistry with contemporary design

"Dakhin | Dilli – A Sacred Dialogue"

ongoing exhibition till 30 May 2026, 11am - 8 pm:

Theme: a dialogue between North and South Indian devotional traditions, featuring Tanjore paintings, Mysore artworks, and Pichwai art.

Raseel Gujral Ansal lighting a ceremonial lamp at the exhibition

From the collection of Raseel Gujral Art Legacy - Raja Ravi Verma Oleographs on display at the exhibition

Raseel Gujral Ansal is a famed designer known for her pioneering work in interior, spatial and product design, blending art, design and heritage.
daughter of Padma Vibhushan Satish Gujral, Raseel is especially laudable for bringing Indian heritage and craftsmanship into mainstream Artworld

read more on her page:

raseelgujralansal.com

https://raseelgujralansal.com

Arzaani - Atelier Privé - focuses on "slow luxury" and artisanal decor, featuring

Sculptural Furniture & Decor: Pieces include items like the "DAMIAN BUST SCULPTURE ON MARBLE BASE"

Artisanal Items: The collection features curated objets d'art and high-gloss lacquer butler trays, such as the "Kundalini - Butler Tray"

In-house Creations: The atelier combines its own designs with work from master artisans.

Read more at:

Arzaani Atelier Prive

https://arzaani.in › ... › Raseel's Edit › Media & Press

PLAYFUL PLAYFOOD the José Lévy Collection by Deepika Jindal's Arttdinox

 DEEPIKA JINDAL hosted an exhibition of José Lévy's artworks under the banner of her organization Arttdinox

at #BikanerHouse, New Delhi in April 2026

Aptly titled "Playful Playfood" - mundane foods turn into charming artworks, from gambolling aubergines to engaging capsicums, rendered in enticing hues, sculpted in high gloss stainless steel.

the designer with his aubergine sculptures

José Lévy is a enowned Parisian artist and designer known for blending fashion, decorative arts, and design, often collaborating with luxury brands like Serax and Saint-Louis. 

Read more about him at:

Cristallerie Saint-Louis

https://www.saint-louis.com › designer-jose-levy

Deepika Jindal creative director and managing director at JSL Lifestyle Ltd,has founded Arttdinox for promotion of artworks created with stainless steel.

Budh Purnima 2026 on 1 May

 On 1 May 2026, the birth anniversary of the Lord Gautam Budh was celebrated

at the World Buddhist Centre, East of Kailash, New Delhi.

Prayers were offered in 4 languages - Pali, Tibetan, Vietnamese and Japanese.

The Venerable Nakamura Gyomyo, a monk of Japanese origin, founded the Centre in 1996.

He addressed the gathering in Hindi.

Free lunch was distributed to the gathering and community by dedicated volunteers.

The Centre is a popular spot for local community to gather for prayer and to honour the life & teachings of Gautam Buddh.

Mukul Dey (1895-1989) Indian artist from Santiniketan in Bengal, pioneered drypoint etching

 

#MukulDey (1895-1989)

Artworks & text from exhibition at Bikaner House, New Delhi, April 2025, by

www.greatbanyanart.com

Pioneering Indian artist, Mukul Dey revolutionized art of #drypoint #etching in India,

blending western techniques with Indian themes.

Student at #RabindranathTagore’s #Shantiniketan, in Bengal, India.

Was mentored by #AbanindranathTagore.

#MukulDey “Gopala Milking the Cow”

hand coloured #etching 9 x 11 inches

 

#MukulDey “Thrashing floor, Hazaribagh”

hand coloured #etching 8 x 12 inches

#MukulDey was first Indian to have studied #printmaking abroad. 

He travelled to #Japan, #America & #Europe, enriching his intaglio techniques.

His themes centered on everyday life in India, vibrant bazaars in Calcutta, soulful Baul singers, serene river scenes of Bengal, rustic charm of Santhal villages in Birbhum. 

First Indian principal of Govt School of Art, Calcutta (now known as Kolkatta).

He emphasized on Indian identity, and established a womens section at the institution.

Adwaita Gadnayak, a visionary Director General of NGMA, New Delhi

Adwaita Gadnayak in his term as Director General of National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi implemented major progressive ideas and changes, to make NGMA a world class museum.

Important exhibitions on a grand scale including several shows bringing hitherto lesser exhibited artists like Dhanraj Bhagat (1917-1988), Delhi based sculptor and professor at Delhi College of Art. Modern techniques and Digital technology was drawn on for enhancing the viewers enjoyment of the exhibitions.

At the Nandlal Bose (1882-1966) exhibition in July 2022, Gadnayak enunciated his vision of bringing about synergy between senior artists and general public.

KAKI the Japanese Persimmon

KAKI 柿

Kaki or persimmon is a favourite fruit in Japan.

It is rich in nutrition being high in vitamin C and A and dietary fibre.

It has a luscious orange hue and I found the taste somewhat similar to cheeku or sapodilla or mudapple, but less sweet. Also cheeku is soft and mushy while the  deliciousness of kaki lies in its crunchy texture.

While studying at Doshisha University, Kyoto, as a Japan Foundation Fellow, I lived in the student housing for foreigners called "Hawaii House"on Imadegawa dori and next to the Gardens of the Gosho or The Imperial Palace. From my room I could see this tree which was ok looking, but in September it shed its leaves and turned resplendent with orange fruit - it was Kaki, the Japanese Persimmon!

I discovered this fruit in New Delhi a few years back, in Hindi it's called ram-phal.

Locally grown in India, ram-phal lacks the crunchy texture that Japanese kaki has which I especially enjoy. I bought these from Sarojini Nagar Market in New Delhi.

The fruit bearing season is approaching –  september onwards.

The humble fruit assumes an esoteric identity in the famous ink painting

“Six Persimmons” by Chinese painter Muqi, in the collection of the Daitokuji Ryokoin Zen temple in Kyoto, Japan.

Displayed in 2023 at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, below is a description by the Museum:

“Attributed to the 13th-century monk Muqi, Six Persimmons and Chestnuts are exquisitely subtle compositions painted in Song-dynasty China. At some point in the 15th or 16th century, they crossed the ocean to the hands of Japanese collectors who displayed them at tea gatherings, before being donated in the early 1600s to Daitokuji Ryokoin Zen temple in Kyoto, where they have been revered ever since. Apart from a brief exhibition at the Miho Museum outside Kyoto in 2019, both Six Persimmons and Chestnuts typically remain out of sight for those who are not members of their home temple community.”

https://about.asianart.org/press/the-heart-of-zen-international-debut-of-revered-masterpieces-six-persimmons-and-chestnuts-exclusively-at-asian-art-museum/

 

Japanese artists too have found the subject of the persimmon fascinating.

An example is “Persimmon Tree” by Sakai Hōitsu, dated 1816 in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45392

  

Many haiku have been written on persimmon:

“Poet Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902), who loved to eat and was quite partial to the persimmon, penned this famous haiku:"Kaki kueba/ Kane ga naru nari/ Horyuji." (Eating persimmons/ The bell of Horyuji temple tolling.)

Shiki explained in his essay that he heard the tolling of a temple bell when he was tucking into a bowlful of persimmons at an inn in Nara.” Source: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13059844

 

Some interesting info on persimmons in this blog, plus some recipes using persimmons

https://en.shokunin.com/archives/50450022.html

FITNESS FOREVER series - Talk by Dr Vandana Shiva at IIC

 FITNESS FOREVER

 

The Soil’s Health is our Health :

Why Organic Farming is vital for health of the planet and people

 

An Illustrated talk by

Dr Vandana Shiva

founder Navdanya 

 

Moderator: Dr Anu Jindal

 

Wednesday 30 March 2022

Seminar Rooms I to III, Kamaladevi Complex

Indian International Centre, New Delhi

"Our health and the health of the planet is one health. It is connected to the health of the soil, seeds and plants we grow, the food we eat, the insects and microbes on which we depend, the water and the climate which sustain life. Our health begins in healthy soils, that are living systems. Doctors are increasingly finding that the roots of multiple chronic diseases lie in the health of the gut microbiome, which is connected to the health of soil biodiversity. The soil, the gut and our brain are one interconnected biome- violence to one part triggers violence in the entire interrelated system.

Chemically produced food has far less nutritional content, however regenerative organic agriculture increases nutritional content of food. Our bodies are not machines, food is not fuel to run the machine. Food is living, and eating is not a mechanical act, but the most significant act - a spiritual act, an ecological act, an agricultural act.

Health begins in food - Annam Sarvaushadhi Let Food be thy medicine"

Dr Vandana Shiva

Dr. Vandana Shiva is trained as a Physicist and did her Ph.D. on the subject “Hidden Variables and Non-locality in Quantum Theory” from the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

She later shifted to inter-disciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy, which she carried out at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore.

 

In 1982, she founded an independent institute, the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in Dehra Dun dedicated to high quality and independent research to address the most significant ecological and social issues of our times, in close partnership with local communities and social movements.

She founded Navdaanya, in 1991, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources - especially native seed, the promotion of organic farming and fair trade.

In 2004 she started Bija Vidyapeeth, an international college for sustainable living in Doon Valley in collaboration with Schumacher College, U.K.

Dr. Shiva combines sharp intellectual enquiry with courageous activism, and has been recognized for her sterling work through accolades and numerous awards.

Time Magazine identified Dr. Shiva as an environmental “hero” in 2003

and Asia Week has called her one of the five most powerful communicators of Asia.

Forbes magazine in November 2010 has identified 

Dr. Vandana Shiva as one of the top Seven most Powerful Women on the Globe.

Dr. Shiva has received honorary Doctorates from University of Paris, University of Western Ontario, University of Oslo, Connecticut College and University of Guelph.

Among her many awards are the Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood Award, 1993), Order of the Golden Ark, Global 500 Award of UN, Earth Day International Award, Lennon ONO grant for peace award by Yoko Ono in 2009, Sydney Peace Prize in 2010, Doshi Bridgebuilder Award, Calgary Peace Prize, Thomas Merton Award in the year 2011, The Fukuoka Award, The Prism of Reason Award in 2012, the Grifone d’Argento prize 2016, The MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity 2016, Veerangana Award 2018,  The Sanctuary Wildlife Award  2018,  International Environment  Summit & Award 2018  and Amrita Devi Award 2021.

The series “Fitness Forever” focuses on making good health & building a strong immunity to be disease free, an integral part of our lifestyle.