Kala - Essays on Contemporary Design Aesthetics

Since the dawn of time, humanity has used the visual form to communicate ideas, be it through pictographs and symbols, or through created edifices. This could be attributed to the twin desires of the human eye to seek out beauty and to that of the mind's to strive to make sense of our world and our environment.

As Steve Jobs once famously remarked, 'Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation: Indeed, design lies at very heart of progress, helping us prototype new ideas and embark on a journey of continuous improvement. But more critically it is central to our cultural, societal and even economic progress.

A large portfolio of various ideas of design are conveyed through these brilliant essays by Indian and international intellectuals and influencers, India is seeking to leave its imprint on the global map Indian design too is striving to make its voice heard, whilst not ignoring the richness of our heritage We are all the better for drinking deeply from our past and can stride into the future boldly, knowing that our artistic expressions are uniquely true to our ethos, as is the case with all other countries. But, even as Indian design establishes its place in the global order, we cannot ignore the global influences we draw from, and the cultural exchanges that leave us ever richer such as this recent The Times of India DesignX Festival of Art, Craft, Architecture and Design Etymologies.

Design's broad-based nature cuts across boundaries. It was a pleasure to delve into the inner workings of the minds of maestros from diverse disciplines such as Dr Karan Singh, Martin Lutyens, Amb. André Aranha Correa do Lago, Dr Shiban Ganju, Poonam Muttreja, Dr Vivek Nanda, Dr Alka Pande, Dr Annapurna Garimella, Kelvin Ang Kah Eng, Ar. Ashish Ganju and Ar. Narendra Dengle, Jaya Jaitly, Dr Amal Allana, Dr Jutta Jain-Neubauer, Sharmila Tagore, Ambreen Khan, Dr Pushpesh Pant, Marryam H Reshii, Ar. Sonali Rastogi, Dr Sujit Kumar, Ar Rajeev Kathpalia, Bibhor Srivastava, Dr Shobita Punja, Dr Deborah Thiagarajan, Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, Sundeep Bhutoria, Anjana Somany,Ravi Bajaj, Ar Nanda Kumar, Manisha Gera Baswani, Lady Jane Churchill, Rta Kapur Chishti, Pinaki Mishra, Sumant Jayakrishnan. Rohit Bal, Alberto de Udaeta, Sofya Abramchuk, Ar. Jose Maria de Churtichaga, Manu S Pilllai, Nita Khanna, Dr Mallika Sarabhai,Shoma Chaudhury and Dr Shonaleeka Kaul. I have known them all (and not in any Prufrockian sense), and many for several years. One has cherished their friendships and their conversations. I am deeply honoured that they have chosen to share their valuable essays for this anthology: Kala. In these pages, we seek to go beyond traditional confines and constructs, to explore the many facets of design with some of the brightest minds of our time.

The digital version of Kala was launched by Dr Karan Singh on September 14" 2019, at the Inaugural Function of The Times of India's DesignX Festival.

I am deeply grateful to Bena Sareen for the cover design... a generous, beautiful and creative gift! In fact, at both the book launches, in Delhi by Dr Karan Singh and in Dubai by HE Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture of the United Arab Emirates, one turned the old adage on its head by stating, please only judge this book by its cover, as those were only digital copies for purposes of the book launches The cover was the pièce de resistance! I thank Dr Karan Singh for graciously agreeing to be the Chief Guest for TOI's first Design Festival and for launching KALA. We were all deeply honoured by his presence and his extraordinary scholarship. I would also like to thank the distinguished contributors and writers of KALA, both Indian and international, for this compendium of essays This would not have been possible without their further efforts to their presentations. All of them had presented illustrated and illustrious lectures at the formidable Speakers Forum for TOI's DesignX Festival. Among the contributors are many acclaimed and influential architects and designers, art historians and academicians, authors, institution builders and renowned personalities from the field of cinema and the classical performing arts Many are well-known authors of seminal books. I am also thankful to several other people... to Apoorv Kumar for his enthusiasm for this book; to Sunita Quadros for endorsing one's idea for it; to Madhulita Mohanty, Raj Verma and Subhasish Munshi, Monali Banerjee and Neeraj Bharti of the Times Group Books for their enormous help. I thank the curatorial team of Farah Siddiqui. Kohélika Kohli, Rahul Jain and Gunjan Arora for all their efforts My special thanks go to Gunjan and Kohélika for the many tasks that they undertook which went much beyond their scope of work and appointment. I would also like to extend my appreciation to TOI's Deepak Lamba and Sunita Quadros. They worked sincerely towards the success of this Festival - foremost among them being Mansi Negi and Yusra Hussain, Karan Karayi Vikas Dadoo, Hrishikesh Nare, Rishi Kapoor, Yohaan Nunes, Queenle Nair, Zeenat Khot. Brian Nazareth, Jaqueline Tapp, Sonia, Shipra, Rashmi, Puja, Priyanka, Priyal, Jaya, Deepak, Clint, Bhagirathi and Mehak.