my notebook.
short essays on design, culture, and the forgotten intelligence of indian craft. where research becomes reflection.
How Cheap Imitations Made India Fall in Love With Minimalism
What if our love for minimalism began with a misunderstanding of our own design heritage?
jun 2026
The Forgotten Intelligence of India #3: Kutch Embroidery Was an Identity System
Long before logos, profiles, and personal brands, people in Kutch had another way of saying who they were.
jun 2026
The Forgotten Intelligence of India #2: Lippan Art Was Never Just Decoration
What if beauty was not the beginning of the story, but the result of solving a problem?
jun 2026
We Preserved Our Crafts. The West Turned Theirs Into Desire.
Why do we dream of a Birkin, but not a Patola?
jun 2026
The Biggest Thing We Lost Wasn't Our Craft. It Was Our Curiosity.
we became content with admiring crafts as heritage. we preserved the objects, but stopped exploring the ideas behind them. when we start asking questions again, our past becomes a source of inspiration rather than just history.
jun 30, 2026
Are We Preserving Our Crafts or Freezing Them?
crafts were designed to be worn, used, adapted, questioned, and passed on — not protected behind museum glass. crafts that stop evolving and only exist as objects we admire from a distance begin to lose the vitality that sustained them.
jun 27, 2026
Maybe It's Time to Look Back.
the more i explore indian crafts, the more i realise i'm not studying the past. i'm discovering design intelligence that still feels relevant today. every few hundred kilometres in india, the textiles change, the architecture changes — and so does the way people solve problems.
jun 25, 2026
The Forgotten Intelligence of India: Ajrakh
ajrakh wasn't created to be beautiful. it was created because people living in the desert needed something that worked. and suddenly, the patterns became the least interesting thing about it.
jun 8, 2026