Saraswathy Nagarajan

Oct 22, 2024 | thehindu.com | Saraswathy Nagarajan

Anna Samuel gifted her a father-in-law a potted succulent on his birthday. He kept it on a shelf with his collection of cacti. “When it was time to cut the birthday cake, I brought it to the table. That is when he realised it was a cake!” says Anna. The architect-turned-baker’s Anna Bakes had made a name for customised edible art. She began crafting hyper reality cakes during the lockdown when it became the rage all over social media.

Oct 8, 2024 | thehindu.com | Saraswathy Nagarajan

For conceptual artist Lakshmi Madhavan, the gossamer fine cotton cloth woven with gold zari (kasavu) is her chosen medium to explore a people’s stories, culture and social mooring. The Mumbai-based artist uses the kasavu-bordered cotton textile to explore her identity, her roots and her efforts to bridge the different facets of her life while juxtaposing her quest with the lives of the weavers.

Oct 1, 2024 | thehindu.com | Saraswathy Nagarajan

For Avani Pannicker, a student of Secretarial Practice from Kollam, the spacious SNV Sadanam at Bakery Junction in Thiruvananthapuram is second home. “I have been staying here for seven years now and it really is my home in Thiruvananthapuram,” she says. It has been a second home for generations of young women who flocked to Thiruvananthapuram to study.

Sep 12, 2024 | thehindu.com | Saraswathy Nagarajan

A burst of colours greets commuters on the dusty, busy, and congested Vattiyoorkavu junction in Thiruvananthapuram. Yellow, orange, and white marigolds and scarlet blossoms of Bachelor’s button dance in the breeze, giving a splash of colour to the bushes and creepers laden with vegetables. Onam arrived early in this corner of the capital city thanks to an initiative of VK Prasanth, Member of Legislative Assembly, and Thushara Chandran, Agricultural Officer at Krishi Bhavan, Vattiyoorkavu.

Sep 10, 2024 | thehindu.com | Saraswathy Nagarajan

Six-year-old Shivaparvathi is a picture of concentration as she nimbly fills in the colours on a figure sketched on a red-painted, flat piece of wood. In the company of her father, cousins, uncle, grandfather and his brothers, she is busy finishing work on the ritualistic Pallivillu, also known as the Onavillu.