artnlight: Dhoop

Dhoop

This will be my second post on Dhoop, Bandra's fantabulous gift & decor store. And I had promised a tete-a-tete with Aradhana Nagpal, the brains behind that show. After many months of co-ordinating schedules, we finally met. Whatever I may have expected Aradhana to be, I had not expected someone so young and I had certainly not expected to meet someone with such a tremendous academic background. Background not withstanding, what really shines through all that Aradhana speaks is her real passion and commitment towards Indian handicrafts and culture. This girl really feels for it. If I ever in some corner of my brain worried about the dying or dwindling of the enormous artistic heritage we have and what we are doing to conserve it, meeting Aradhana puts that to rest.

I love Dhoops large sunlit Balcony/Terrace

Speaking of Aradhana's qualifications, what began as an 'experimental' Liberal Arts programme in Ohio ended in a double major in Anthropology and Indian culture and History from Xaviers. After working with the NCPA and in India Book House, Aradhana just wanted to travel and get away from it all. (Me too, me too!) She headed straight to the North East. I have yet to meet someone with such a prfound love for a region as Aradhana has for the NorthEast and the tribes that live there. She just loves the Nagas. So after staying in the Northeast for almost 2 months, Aradhana came back to Mumbai- as she says "over the permitted weight by atleast a 100 kgs, I had shopped so much!!!" And that is how Dhoop began and it never looked back.

Dhoop has beautiful ceramic cups from which you can drink water

tea

and coffee :)

The beautiful cups from Northeast.

Once you've met Aradhana you'll never see Dhoop the same way again. You will see it the way she sees it- as a beginning, as a journey, as a place where culture and art is celebrated. I heard her as she told me with childish excitement that Raghu Dixit had come down & and how they had cleared the centre of the shop and people sat all around and watched him perform. She was even more happy when Maoris from Newzeland came to the store. It is her dream that Dhoop will one day have a book corner where people can quietly read and there will be talks by writers and artists.

Every product in Dhoop is beautifully packaged and like Aradhana says "Every product here has a story behind it"

Tealights, mirror and incesce holder in the Jaipur pottery style

Dhoop's jewellery collection is to die for...

And its beautiful lamps promise to bring

Beautiful light

They have some neat storage solutions as well

But what I love are pieces like these. Fun unique pieces. This is a coin holder & you need to shoot your coin in- neat!

These are part of the Indian Board games series

I've never seen a Krishna with the serpent wound around him quite like this...

Gods galore...

Serene Buddhas

And an antique insence holder

This is the new Bollywood collection

Shree 420 Hooks can now beckon your clothes :)

Kashmiri papier-mache style painting but on steel cups!

Pretty beaded shell curtains

These butterflies are stunners

Stylish metal tableware and huge brass urns of all sizes

These snails stole my heart. Don't they look like the gentlest souls?

And I'll close this post with my favourite picture of these brass lamps which close like a bud and open like a flower. And I'd have completely missed it had not Mr Rammy Nagpal (Aradhana's dad) shown them to me, meticulously explaining how you hold the turtle head to open it.