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A
new craze for the old PACESETTER Shaheen Mistri Her goal is education for the underprivileged For Teach for India CEO and founder Shaheen Mistri, education is the basis of social change Kavita Kanan Shaheen Mistri has a degree in Masters in Education from Manchester University. The innovation is to bring quality education to under resource municipal and private schools that teach underprivileged children through bright and motivated young teachers. Shaheen Mistri had the best of education in top schools abroad. She had lived in many countries and during one of her visits to India she was appalled by the inequality in education between the haves and the have-nots. Give
your books a shelf life
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A new craze for
the old
Ritesh Mahajan has nurtured an unusual love affair for over two decades. The practicing chartered accountant has been collecting antique furniture from all over the country. His house looks like a museum with beautiful vintage pieces. "In 1990s many people found it strange that I was on the lookout for old and dilapidated furniture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries," laughs 47 year old Mahajan and adds, "That's the time when I picked up some of my best pieces." From ornate cast-iron tables with Italian marble-tops to delicately designed Windsor chairs and from a turn-of-the-last-century hand-painted parlour tables to Mahogany mid-19th century carved liquor cabinet and Chippendale-style furniture with cabriole legs, Mahajan has some exquisite retro pieces. There are scores of amateur and professional admirers and collectors of antique furniture. Significantly, vintage auctions and sales are attracting the twenty and the thirtysomething crowd. But the downside is the genuinely good stuff is drying up. Quality reproductions However, while the prices of authentic furniture have soared, the market for made-to-order lookalikes, too, is booming. Though purists say that fake vintage furniture is sullying the reputation of the genuine owners and sellers, but others feel that quality reproductions are a natural progression. These pieces appeal to those who want to be a part of a trend but may not have money for the real stuff. There's a raging debate about what qualifies as antique. Many leading dealers intentionally avoid the word antique, instead calling this furniture vintage. That's because good furniture styles of the past are still in vogue and keep getting manufactured giving an impression that these are period pieces. A number of leading craftsmen make lookalike furniture which is almost as creative — and expensive — as the genuine antique stuff. They are choosy about the wood they use, the texture and polish, the carving as well as overall impact of the piece. So what is a 'genuine' antique? According to Mahajan, often pieces that are over a century old will make the grade. But such furniture will have a big price tag. Bid & Hammer, India's only auction house that offers antique furniture and artefacts, recently collected Rs 68 lakh from the sale of some real antiques. Demand and supply Earlier buyers and dealers were purchasing stuff mainly from junk dealers or directly from people's homes. But now sites like ebay.com and amazon.com are offering old furniture at prices varying from a few hundred rupees to lakhs. Genuine antiques are in demand but short in supply. Interestingly, just a couple of decades ago there just a niche market for antique furniture which was mainly being sold to small-time dealers and in some cases was even burnt in winter months. The dealers in turn sold it to furniture shops which extracted the good quality wood to make modern furniture. But those who invested in this 'junk' a few decades ago are sitting on a virtual fortune. Online trading sites like olx.com and quikr.com are inundated with ads for sale of antiques, the cost of some of which runs into lakhs. Online stores like heritageindia.com and pepperfry.com also offer a variety of period furniture at reasonable prices. Experts say that it is hard to find genuine antique furniture of the Mughal or Muslim rulers’ eras. Most of these have been destroyed and even if someone has such vintage stuff, it has stayed in the household having been passed on from one generation to another. Colonial legacy Most of the genuine period furniture being sold or auctioned in India is no more than 300 years old. These are mostly the legacy of the colonial era. The four major European colonisers of India — Portuguese, Dutch, French and the British, left their own mark on furniture designing. While the Portuguese style of furniture found in and around the Goa region, was largely influenced by the Italian Renaissance, the Dutch extensively used Mahogany wood which they inlaid with ebony. Many of these old pieces can usually be found around the South and southern eastern coastal regions of India where the Dutch established their empire between the 17th and the 19th centuries. The French who ruled parts of the Coramandel coast, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Bengal were known for their Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI designs prevalent in those days. These furniture pieces are made from heavy wood such as mahogany, rosewood or ebony with decorative bronze edges and upholstered with brilliantly designed brocaded and embroidered fabric with clear-cut silhouettes and symmetry. Britsh design impact The British, of course, left the deepest impression on India as far as art, architecture and design are concerned. Instead of lugging heavy baggage, the Britishers got copies of furniture from back home and got these made by Indian artisans. Thus the Georgian, Victorian and Regency style furniture became prevalent and these are still among the most sought after and most expensive antique furniture pieces. The reason for the clamour to own old furniture is not difficult to seek — these are all steeped in antiquity.
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PACESETTER
Shaheen Mistri Her goal is education for the underprivileged For Teach for India CEO and founder Shaheen Mistri, education is the basis of social change Kavita Kanan
Shaheen Mistri has a degree in Masters in Education from Manchester University. The innovation is to bring quality education to under resource municipal and private schools that teach underprivileged children through bright and motivated young teachers. Shaheen Mistri had the best of education in top schools abroad. She had lived in many countries and during one of her visits to India she was appalled by the inequality in education between the haves and the have-nots. Having lived a privileged life seeing children in Mumbai slums whiling away their time or those on Mumbai roads selling things disturbed her. She joined Mumbai’s prestigious St Xavier’s College and would often visit the Cuffe Parade slums and interact with young kids there. In spite of the language barrier, as she knew only a smattering of Hindi, she tried to communicate with them. It was her determination to do something positive that despite many hurdles she was able to reach out to these slum children in municipal schools and through interactive informal way started teaching them. Later, she founded ‘Akanksha’ to teach slum children as college students turned volunteers to teach. After 17 years, it was time for Shaheen to launch ‘Teach for India’, a movement that aims to bring equal educational opportunities to children of lesser means. Teach for India started from 33 schools in 2009-2010 with 87 fellows in Mumbai-Pune region. Shaeen’s vision was that one day all children will have access to an excellent education. Teach For India strives to bring quality education to children through its innovative method of education system. At present the movement has spread to five cities (Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai) having 730 fellows, 437 alumni teachers that teach 23,000 children. The ‘Teach for India’ aims to place 1,500 Fellows in 10 cities impacting 65,000 students by the end of year 2015. The teachers recruited here are fully paid fellows that teach full time for two years, who are given intensive training not only to teach their students but training themselves to become life-long leaders to bring educational equity in the society. These fellows are outstanding graduates and young professionals (age 20-35 years) selected through rigorous process. Teach for India model is primarily based on Teach for America; however in India they recruit young and experienced professionals, with experience in diverse sectors ranging from 2-10 years rather than just fresh graduates. About 43 per cent of their Fellows have prior work experience across diverse sectors. Fellows teach all subjects and serve as class teachers in the school they are placed in. A lot of emphasis is given to train the fellows so they become excellent teachers and effective leaders to impact educational reforms.
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Give your books a shelf life
Re-inventing the bookshelf The bookshelf will never go out of fashion. It has re-invented itself as a room showstopper or as a place to display your decoratives or even as, what it was meant to be in the first place — a shelf to display books, vinyl records and other collectibles. Even though there are some compelling reasons for publishers to go digital, there is a renewed interest in bookshelves for their vintage value as also for their intellectual appeal. Just as television couldn’t make a dent in the sale of the newspaper, likewise e-books and e-readers would not be able to take away the printed form off the shelf. Books make a household seem educated and cerebral which the virtual readers can never hope to achieve despite their obvious advantages. And those who enjoy reading are usually seen to be meticulous about how these are stored. Many booklovers are known to spend as much or even more on a bookshelf as they would on precious books. This explains why there are so many leading furniture companies and online outlets retailing bookshelves of all shapes, sizes and shades. There are the free-standing ones and those embedded in walls. Some come in disproportionate sizes and look much like installation art. Vintage appeal That bookshelves have a vintage appeal is a given. These seamlessly add practical and aesthetic attraction to take a drawing room or a study to the next level. Customised and bespoke bookshelves are an ideal solution not only for storage purposes but also to enhance the visual effect of a room. People, who have vintage bookshelves, passed on to them as a legacy would do well to fill these with classy tomes. This would not just add greater visual lure to a room but also help inculcate the habit of reading. However, having a bookshelf as a family heirloom is one thing but going out to specifically buy one is quite another. Depending upon your budget and your requirement, you would do well to remember a few points before selecting and bringing one home. Shelf thickness: First of all, the most important point of consideration is the strength of the bookshelf. Since it would have to support a pack of some really heavy books, it has to have the sturdiness. The shelves should be a minimum of one inch thickness. If the shelves are made of lighter material, these will tend to get bow-shaped because of the weight of books. Height is important: This is a vital point to be considered, especially when buying a free-standing bookshelf. The height should be no more than four feet. The logic behind this is simple. No matter how sturdy these are, free-standing bookshelves have an in-built risk of tilting, or even falling when people lean against these. Remember, the lower the bookshelf, the safer it will be. Growth potential: If you are buying a bookshelf that is wall mounted or secured to a wall and is in no danger of toppling, then go for a design that allows you the freedom of adding to its dimensions. As your interest in reading increases, so will your books. A shelf that has the potential to expand horizontally or vertically will come in handy as your book collection swells. Once you have bought the kind of bookshelf suited to your requirement, the next important step is its display. There are a few points to consider here as well. First of all sort books by their topics. Do not display books that have a torn cover or spine. These can be placed elsewhere. Stack only the presentable ones. Do not exhibit books according to height. Place these vertically and horizontally for a great display. For added effect, you can embellish the shelf with artefacts or book-enders. This will not just add a new dimension but is also guaranteed to up your style quotient.
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WHAT
a scarf is to sartorial dressing, a bookshelf is to your home. It adds
character, shows your style and complements the overall decor. More than that,
it is a conversation opener. Not just the shelf but your choice of books
contained therein. It is a glimpse into your personality. Or, as novelist
Walter Mosely says, "A man’s bookcase will tell you everything you’ll
ever need to know about him." But isn’t that an over-statement in this
age of e-books and Kindles, which have digitalised the written word? Fiction
and non-fiction no longer need paper, ink and printing. They have gone virtual
and the bookshelf is an anachronism. Right? No, wrong.
Tic Tac Toe bookcase
Zigzag modern rosewood bookshelf
Curved Sherwood bookshelf
Raccanto plurale multimedia shelving
Tag connections wall bookcase
Baroque-style bookshelves
Two drawer Henry bookcase by John Lewis
Winsome 5-tier
ladder bookcase
Dinosaur bookshelf with drawer
Konnex wall-mounted sectional bookshelf
Set of 3 MY-DNA bookshelves
Remmington heavy duty bookcase
PAC-MAN IN A MODERN PACK
HAIR GROOMING GETS STYLISH
A PARTY ON WHEELS
SPEAKER WITH A VIEW
LAMP ART
COLOURFUL WHEELS
WITHIN WHEELS
HOME MOVIE EXPERIENCE
PAST TIME
NETTING OLD SOUNDS
LOUIS VUITTON PUTS PEN TO PAPER
MONEY UP IN SMOKE
FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE