Pukka Indian

The idea of what comprises ‘India’ has attracted immense dialogue and debate ever since the notion of an ‘identity’ was thrust upon us by forces we did not invite. And even though not all of us will agree with each other’s definitions of it, our every day lives have a very different story to tell. They’re united, not by the language we speak or the region we reside in, rather by the objects we use in the closed spaces of our homes. Jahnvi Lakhota Nandan’s Pukka Indian is a pictorial attempt at exploring ‘100 Objects That Define India’ and how they’ve transformed through time.

As someone who has studied architecture, Jahnvi’s interest in observing the peculiarities of commonplace objects and a close relationship with trying to understand what ‘home’ meant, led her to explore elements of Indian design in objects that one is likely to find lying around in some corner of the house. “The sheer number of noteworthy objects makes choosing what to include and what not to in a book like this extraordinarily complicated. So I chose to create a portrait of Indian design”, she writes.

Bindi, Ghungroo, Hindustan Ambassador, Bartan—Pukka Indian is a photographic collection of 100 such objects that have been quietly existing for decades and centuries. The book traces their evolution over the years and the silent mysteries surrounding their origin.

Link to the book