By Krish Kapoor Vidaa by Purva H Dolas
Thesis Statement:
Vidaa, thesis on Maharashtrian culture, done in collaboration with Direct Create. It displays heritage culture, authentic art, and handcrafted products from Maharashtra. Also, highlights one of the most important custom of offering Vidaa, which led to the design of a paan daan.
For my thesis, I worked with Direct Create – DC, Delhi. Direct Create is a platform which enables collaboration between the designers, manufactures
and the buyers. Their work is highly inspired by the authentic art and craft around India. I got the opportunity to work for ‘The Thaali Project’ which focuses on creating efficient and crafted range of tableware/cookware collection that takes into account, India’s unique cultural preferences. Indian cuisine differs across its diverse regions as a result of variation in local culture, geographical location and economics. Maharashtrian culture is one of the most heritage one. The food culture and the authentic cuisine has been carried till today, but there has been a shift in the use and making of handcrafted products.
This led to the degradation of certain practices which were very popular in the history
of maharashtrian traditions. One of which is offering a paan or VIDAA (inmarathi). Typically Vidaa means a pair of betel leaf and an areca nut. Paans are more complex and consists of number of ingredients along with it. Offering Vidaaor a Paan is an important custom, and still today it is practiced by a large population. Paan daan is a box which contains all the ingredients of the paan. The final product is an outcome of a contemporary design of a retro paan daan. Material exploration and aesthetics have been the key elements of the product.
