Articles by Kiran Keswani

In the past few months, I've been looking at how people continue to worship trees in Bangalore and how this can generate community space for a neighbourhood. I have been specifically looking at the Peepul tree and its ability to create places of memory and cultural value. The Peepul tree, also known as the Ashvattha in Sanskrit literature is a type of Fig tree (Ficus Religiosa) and the platform around it is locally called ashwath katte. While my research focus has been on how the practice of tree worship contributes to the territorial production of urban space, I have also been…

In the past few months, I've been looking at how people continue to worship trees in Bangalore and how this can generate community space for a neighbourhood. I have been specifically looking at the Peepul tree and its ability to create places of memory and cultural value. The Peepul tree, also known as the Ashvattha in Sanskrit literature is a type of Fig tree (Ficus Religiosa) and the platform around it is locally called ashwath katte. While my research focus has been on how the practice of tree worship contributes to the territorial production of urban space, I have also been…

I was on my way to a temple in Dodda Mavalli because it was Gowri Ganesh and I had been told it would be a day when devotees would come both to the Maramman temple and the Ashwath katte next to it. I was just curious to see what the rituals were like on this day. The autorickshaw driver abruptly stopped at the end of a narrow lane much before we had reached the temple. In front of us, there was an open space between small houses and there were tempos parked there. Small idols of Ganesha were being carried…

I was on my way to a temple in Dodda Mavalli because it was Gowri Ganesh and I had been told it would be a day when devotees would come both to the Maramman temple and the Ashwath katte next to it. I was just curious to see what the rituals were like on this day. The autorickshaw driver abruptly stopped at the end of a narrow lane much before we had reached the temple. In front of us, there was an open space between small houses and there were tempos parked there. Small idols of Ganesha were being carried…

The questions: ‘what is art for?’ Or, ‘why man creates?’ have been asked before and answered many times in many different ways. And yet, I want to ask again. It is like the question ‘what is the meaning of life?’ and the only answer to that question that makes sense to me is “forty-two” – the answer that the science fiction writer Douglas Adams brings to us in his book ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. Perhaps, it means that there is no answer, or at least no meaningful answer. Here, I am sharing photographs of the two kinds of…

The questions: ‘what is art for?’ Or, ‘why man creates?’ have been asked before and answered many times in many different ways. And yet, I want to ask again. It is like the question ‘what is the meaning of life?’ and the only answer to that question that makes sense to me is “forty-two” – the answer that the science fiction writer Douglas Adams brings to us in his book ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. Perhaps, it means that there is no answer, or at least no meaningful answer. Here, I am sharing photographs of the two kinds of…

That afternoon, we had been looking for the Durga Book Store in Shivajinagar. I had been told that it might still be there, a bookstore where residents of Frazer town and Benson town had shopped in the 50s as had others from the city. There were many who had memories of going there during their school days. It had been the popular bookstore at that time. We found it. It was still there. Just across the road from Russell market. In a little lane off the Noronha road, right at the corner. When we went in there, it was in…

That afternoon, we had been looking for the Durga Book Store in Shivajinagar. I had been told that it might still be there, a bookstore where residents of Frazer town and Benson town had shopped in the 50s as had others from the city. There were many who had memories of going there during their school days. It had been the popular bookstore at that time. We found it. It was still there. Just across the road from Russell market. In a little lane off the Noronha road, right at the corner. When we went in there, it was in…

This is a series of photographs that documents the visual evidence of territoriality at the morning flower market in Bangalore. Within this periodic marketplace, a metal fence appears repeatedly at various locations demarcating vehicular and pedestrian zones. The flower vendors seem to use the yellow fence to both mark and defend their territory. The fence is randomly positioned - sometimes to place flower garlands and sometimes to create small enclosures within the large expanse of this urban space.  The boundaries are both physical and non-physical drawn both by the vendors as they sell flowers and by the public as they…

This is a series of photographs that documents the visual evidence of territoriality at the morning flower market in Bangalore. Within this periodic marketplace, a metal fence appears repeatedly at various locations demarcating vehicular and pedestrian zones. The flower vendors seem to use the yellow fence to both mark and defend their territory. The fence is randomly positioned - sometimes to place flower garlands and sometimes to create small enclosures within the large expanse of this urban space.  The boundaries are both physical and non-physical drawn both by the vendors as they sell flowers and by the public as they…