Guest Blogger : Ashwati Menon : I have been working with the Nalanda Foundation for quite a while now. In my first introductory meeting to the group, five years ago, I was taken through a presentation which talked, in detail, about a project in Ghazipur, East Delhi. Graphic images of a multi-storeyed waste pile, animal…
How Aashiana Creates Not Just Art at Gulmeher but also Paves the Way for Empowering Women
It is late evening at Gulmeher’s East Ghazipur Center. Nineteen year old Aashiana is sitting at her workbench, her steady and skilled hands busy creating the decimal petal outline of a new painting. She joined Gulmeher in 2013, and has been a part of its handicraft unit ever since. To create most of her art…
Hues of Holi: A Phulwa Celebration
Spring is a season of rejuvenation. After the long cold dark of winter, new vegetation sprouts and enlivens the earth. Mirroring this growth in nature, new hopes and dreams are born in us for the year ahead. To mark this awakening of nature from its winter’s slumber, each spring, in the Indian subcontinent, the festival…
Gulmeher Designer Talks About Their ‘Phulwa’ Range of Natural Holi Colours
Vidwata Singh, Chief Designer at Gulmeher, a women’s collective is helping the Gulmeher women perfect the ‘all natural’ colour making process for the upcoming Holi festival. A visit to Gulmeher, a women’s cooperative of waste-pickers turned artisans,turned out to be an informative and delightful experience. As I entered, I came across a unit bursting with…
CRAFTING COLOURS FOR A NATURAL HOLI
Production of all natural Holi colours at GulmeherThis year, we at Gulmeher, have already got to work to make your Holi a vibrant affair, one that is not only bright and colourful but, also environmentally responsible. The production of our ‘All Natural’ holi colours is in full swing and the Gulmeher women are enthusiastically engaged…
Kusumlata: A Gulmeher story of changing not just circumstances but, mindsets
Western philosophy professes the pursuit of happiness as life’s biggest goal. But happiness is like a firefly, that glows for a night and fades out with the coming of dusk. It is 8:30 A.M on cold winter morning. Having finished her morning household chores, Kusum Lata Devi is on her way to Gulmeher’s East Ghazipur…
Amazing India – See it unfold in 2018
Growing up, one of the first things one learned about India was that it’s a country that has a vast diversity of culture and heritage. One was enthralled by the idea of so many states, each having their own different language (and in some cases more than one language!), culture, traditions, cuisine, dance-forms, music, festivals…