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The world has seen a new horizon on this world honey bee day. I am here at the Central Bee Research Institute at Pune. The day has begun with registrations and everyone has been handed a rose, schedule, notepad, gunmcha (handkerchief), and a pen. All have gathered at the conference hall of the Central Bee Institute; the Gandhi photo has been flowered and lite.

The program has been enlightened with an introduction of our esteemed guests who are Principal Modern College of Commerce, Arts and Science, Shri Dr. Sanjay Kharat, Director CBRTI, Shri Basavaraj, Pune University, Shri Archana Sharbidre.

The day began with a note on Bee Keepers and why this day has been celebrated by Dr. Laxmi Rao. She gave a synopsis of the why UN has given a special day for bee keeping to bring awareness among the globe on the birthday of Shri Anton Jonsa a bee keeper who had setup bee apiary and apiculture at Slovakia. Then making a point of making an awareness of how one can keep bees safe without cultivating or keeping bees, is by planting the trees, using bee friendly pesticides, buy honey and keep environment clean. She also clears up our minds for modern urban planners and rural developers to have bees as pets just like the other pets (stingless bees), Apis Trigona is such species which is stingless and has a supreme quality of honey.

Dr. Sanjay Kharat, proves to be bee friendly and wants a bee healthy nation and environment. He explains his passion for education and how he wants his students to learn about the bee apiculture which can help setup at his institute of Agriculture and Biotechnology at Paud, further announcing a collaboration for promotion for fashion designing with khadi produce. He also expresses his proud moment about his student Samrudhi who had made a rangoli art on the World Honey Bee Day. He also explains how he wants to make this bee keeping a larger preposition in the education of agriculture and zoology.

This gives us urban and rural planners, a new landscaping idea with bee gardens and bee friendly planning. Now new startups will spring in the architectural and art world of making bee hives within our habitat regardless of profit, which can be planned at a later stage in collaboration with CBRTI and bee keepers.

Dr. Daisy Thomas, deputy director, CBRTI has been researching on stingless bees and how they have differently been the good bees among all the species. She presents the different characteristics of these bees, the flora and fauna, how the bee boxes are different from the other bees (Apis Cerana), She mentions travelling to various locations in India and making these bees prominent with her research. The stingless bees are Tetraloguna, Eight named species of stingless bees are known from the Indian subcontinent: Lepidotrigona arcifera (Cockerell), Lisotrigona cacciae (Nurse), Lisotrigona mohandasi Jobiraj & Narendran, Tetragonula aff are found in the Indian Subcontinent. Meliponicultura, as the production of this honey is called, began over three thousand years ago.

The honey was used extensively by Mayan healers to treat eye, ear, respiratory, digestive, and postpartum conditions, and still is in many communities today. Its color varies depending on the native flowers visited by these bees, ranging from nearly transparent to dark amber, and it features more nutritional and curative properties than honey from the common honey bee.

Interestingly stingless bees do their nesting in broken trees of coconut, pipes, majority of stingless bees favor nesting in pre-existing cavities within tree trunks or branches. Further launching her book on this day, about stingless bees available at the library of CBRTI.

Dr. Sunil Pokare, former director of CBRTI, attends the afternoon session to help us understand more deeply about the celebration of world bee day. He shares about his attendance at the post office for launch of post cards by the Indian Postal Service marking this day of bees, apart form that he also shared his collection of stamps, letters of the bees from his collection. He also shared a few moments of his experiences at CBRTI and his early days as a bee scientist. He has published a book on bee keeping with autobiography of prominent bee keepers in Marathi and has a few Bee enthusiast who want to translate it in different languages.

After which many prominent personalities were invited to explain the stingless bees and their nature. Mr. Umesh Patil who has 250 colonies of bees has explained about the features of stingless bees and how they are arranged on a single wall with a pipe. The entrance pipe is used for bees and there are nine security bees who refrain entrance. He explains the process of the stingless bees honey collection.

To ease the process there are flow hives which has no need to dismantle the hives and remove the frames for extraction. No smokers, no centrifugal extractors, no back-breaking work of pulling honey supers. Instead, you just turn a lever which opens the channel within the honeycomb and the honey drains to a pipe at the back of the hive directly into your container of choice. Meanwhile, back in the hive, the bees are virtually undisturbed as the honey drains from under their feet. When you’re finished draining you just turn the lever back and the cells are reset and ready to be refilled. The bees then uncap the combs and start again without being disturbed.

Our very own Mr. Kamble a bee keeper explains his journey of transformation for a farmer to a bee keeper and how he has been praised and better his life. Kamble was assigned a bee box to be installed in a sugar factory at Atgaon near Latur, this factory is in a dilapidated condition and was an impossible task to reach or develop any bee colonies. But Kamble showed his grit and made it happen. Dr. Basavraj, further explains his recent visit to Kamble’s village or forest to inspect the bee colonies.

A master trainer Mr. Hemant Kumar Dumbre, who recently joined the institute in January 2024, explains his challenges of teaching good bee management practices to bee keepers and how that has helped them achieve increased honey produce. He began b y writing to different institute in England to send books on bee keeping.

For a lighter moment Samrudhi recites a poetry on bees which explains why bees are important, their roles and all of us should own a bee box. A few kids were felicitated and all interns were given a honey bottle.

A national anthem to end this lovely session, this day will be a memorable one for all of us. Hoping to see many such occasions.

The ACE Reflect has made its way to Pune, finally there is some architecture appreciation in town. This time none other than Agriculture College Ground has hosted this event at their ground at Sachin Nagar. You will find the best of materials here and will make your project more robust and attractive with adding these materials and new age technology.

A panel discussion which helped to know the new ideas and construction needs for a city like Pune to discover these there were prominent speakers from the industry. Making a big point to encourage international collaboration for technology and professionals. This will give a cutting edge or sharp building strength to train internal as well as external consumer about new nuances. Among a few points discussed were keeping in mind space constrains in urban areas one has to tackle difficulties of installation and operation of large sized equipment’s.

There were many stalls which offered unique products one among them was an Epson Plotter and printer service provider. They gave free sample prints to Govt. departments, visitors, architects, interior designer, which are of good quality but I could not print my drawing of bus depot, since it was made fit to size and it was printed so small that we could not read the text printed on paper.

A new form of Aluminium Composite Panel that is used to face lift interiors or exterior walls, these are fire resistant and water proof. Aesthetically used on doors, windows, partitions, wardrobes, tables, wall murals or even an exterior board or signage.

NCL Doors, Bison Panels and Concrete blocks were an interesting product to view these can be used as ceiling, floor, wall partitions and roofing solutions. Door panel and doors have a unique feature of hollow with bee mesh and solid with wood dust, these doors can be of various colours and sizes.

Vitrum a new age sliding door and window solution they have a feature of door lock only on pulling the lever. This guarantees the residents don’t lock themselves out in the balcony since most of Pune residences have sliding doors in the balcony with locking only on one side. The sliding can be made hydraulic and may add new feature of remote controlled or automatic setup.

A new range of table tops have sprung at most lucrative prices, these are available in marble and ceramic. With more than 10 – 12 shades and can be customized as per ones needs, these are ready made table tops which have been carefully polished, coated for restaurant or dinning or conference use. They can also be used in labs of large biotech parks or even food testing labs.

 If you have a big garden or a bathroom and want to add a pool or a jacuzzi, Aqua Shark provides wide range of imported and Indian solutions. Located at Banner they are giving these services to best of builders and are very lucratively priced. Make your homes and surroundings more interesting.

A few Alu-form work brands have come to Pune to make way towards new-age construction techniques. These form works help in fast-track your construction without brick laying and less curing time.

Stone decorative have become a part of our culture and have a new dimension with CNC cutting of 3D effects. Nakoda Stones has marble, sand stone material and can do CNC on any surface or any design.

Boski Ashish Kubadia brings out natural colors on silk and this time it is on Jainism. She has a life full of experiments and most of it possible because of a lovely husband. She started her career after an early marriage, she enrolled in an interior design course at a Ghakopar College. She then pursued her portfolio and was selected for textile design at the Sir J. J. School of Art. She made several design on textile for sarees and other textile paintings. She got admission after 7 attempts since she was from the open category.

Then enrolled in a course on Jainism, where she learned about tirthankara and the birth of (Rishabdeo) Adheera Bhagwan at Ayodhya. Boski means divine and purity, hence the purest silk was named Boski. She stated that since the Boski is one of the few fabrics that has a long and rich history due to which it is one of the most expensive fabrics in the world. It is said to have originated from China and discovered by a royal empress when a silk cocoon fell in her tea one afternoon. She has created a series of Jainism paintings which are made from wooden blocks, natural colors on silk. Jainism believes in ahimsa hence have used modal silk. These paintings have given a dimension to art and medium making the nuances in textile explore this new form of art. She is keen on doing a few more exhibitions and is also open to give a demo of the painting.

It’s a pleasure to view paintings from Gopal Ch. Naskar, he has added music to the love of Radha – Krishna and created this art pieces. Each of these paintings have been made in a series of musical and animal characters depicting a group of musicians and one as a divine love of Radha and Krishna. Gopal has incorporated these paintings with musical instruments and have spent time with musicians who have helped him in creating these unique paintings. Expressing this form of love which has known no boundaries and a devotion to music and art giving a rich history of mythology.

Shivlal Saroha a painter from Delhi, who spent his early days in dire straits. He recalls keeping a sketch book handy while his struggle and keeping his head high to fulfil his dream to become an artist. Shiv has a unique style of abstract with animal and figurative art to showcase new age ideas through oil, acrylic, charcoal and mixed materials. He has been all over India and has done many solo exhibitions, a group exhibition and this is the second exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery.

Pradeep Jogdand, is from Mumbai and has qualified from J J School of Art, sculptures represented as figurative pieces made from bronze, brass and marble or black stone. He has expressed his sculptures through male, female duality. He explains his style as a expression of relief from our day to day life struggles.

Anjani Reddy a born artist from Hyderabad has been painting or had the vision of painting or becoming an artist since the age of 9 yrs. She remembers people asking what she would like to pursue as a career and she confidently said artist. Being a Reddy and as per the tradition of the community children are given education at all cost even if it’s by selling a farm land.  She had an interview at Delhi competing P V Narsimha Rao’s daughter and she was selected to give that interview which was a big achievement. She started teaching at university and held many important positions in the university for art education. Having 29 yrs of experience as a teacher, she has described her passion for art same as her passion for food, she states she is fasting till she is satisfied with her art and colours. She has exhibited various works some a gold with knife painting technique showing the story of Ganesha, Krishna and a few moments she experienced while she was travelling or just events or moment she remembers in their life. Sitting with a few friends Mithu Basu has an artist movement which now building awareness of self-discovery of becoming artists.

Gondwana Art Project, modern tribal painters group show by this Non-Profit has curated very rare pieces of art from different regions of the nation. Helping artist from the rural India to create a larger space or an art movement towards creativity and creating non bias for Indian folk-art vs the International folk art. Exploring animal and figurative these artists from the rural have found a new expression of art through geometrical or abstract form, regardless the meaning or the sense it gives an aesthetic appeal to the viewer or the creator and looking at being valued and not priced.

Mr. Sandeep Bhandari, founded this initiative since 2008 and now has become a large movement with 35 artist and many looking to collaborate. The foundation curate’s artistic works from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and northern Indian region. Gondwana has many paintings from the curator’s collection and will have more ideological movement towards international accreditation or recognition.

The DAG art gallery has displayed a show of Bengal Kalighat paintings which are of historic and mythological epitome. Avni explains that these paintings were made from artist at Calcutta and were sold as souvenirs to Britishers. The canvas and paint brushes were imported from Great Britain. As a ritual followed by Sati, that a widow was burned in the same fire of the husband’s cremation. Once this practice was opposed by the Indian legal system, the widows were sometimes forced to prostitution. These paintings were by Kalighat painters in a cheeky A4 size these are called the Babu and Bazaar paintings. These were made on the streets by painters on a daily routine that could earn a per painting made quickly like a sketch.

These are pre-independence painters who have painted some fine moments in Hindu Mythology, Krishna meeting Pandavas, Kurukshetra War, Shiva Avatars and many more. You can also find some oriental style painting on glass which can be lit with a light on the back. Some of these paintings are made with gold and are rare to find, even though the artists are unknown but these have been curated by DAG some them have been collected from european artists who had created these at that era during their journey to India.  

There is a display of small bazaar paintings 50 arranged in a row and column to make this a wall full of such paintings. Is a collage of bazaar and babu paintings as referred by the Bengal Artist Groups.

It’s now the mid-April and Ram Navami has begun we have also noticed that we will be at the rhetoric level of achievers exhibiting at the Jehangir Art Gallery. Starting with women, Mrs. Poornima Athawale is a Warli painting artist and has created a great passion for it by teaching this skill to the tribal girls near the Lonavala and Nasik belt known as the pada.  Poornima has also been part of several other initiatives such as tree plantations, food delivery during covid and medical camps for dental and eye diseases. Meeting her helped learn about the Sadgun and how she has transformed the community by teaching sadgun she has created the feeling of spreading good thoughts and good deeds.

They have exhibited Warli Paintings, which are only for display not for sale. Poornima wants to color some houses near her village and will be done by December or October. She has been accompanied by Sayeed Shaikh for this mission or aim to better the tribals.

Meeting the couple who has decorated the Jehangir Art Gallery walls, they met at college at Indore the city that produced artist like M F Husain. Pradeep is a fine art graduate from Indore along with his wife Mansa, they have articulated the time and its balance in life, as the famous song, “Zindagi Ke safar me guzar jaate hain to makaam who phir nahi aate, who phir nahi aate.” A clock in every painting has made us realise that time is best spent at the present and also that time is very precious. The moments captured are very symbolic to all our lives and have given us these memories to make a life better.

Our most beloved Punekar Mr. Laxman Chavan has showcased his abstract work before buddha, since buddha was married at 15 years of age and died during meditation and his last wish was to be burn in a pan and his ashes been spread in different parts of the Shakya republic. Laxman has been working on these Before Buddha for the past 15 years and has been at Jehanghir Art Gallery for a solo exhibition which is very unique and symbolically depicts Buddha Meditating with birds and Garuda. Buddha has many such significant instances with Buddha Meditating and conversing with birds and animals.

Just as a bird, wherever it goes, flies with its wings as its only burden, so too, the bhikkhu becomes content with robes to protect his body and with almsfood to maintain his stomach, and wherever he goes he sets out taking only these with him. Possessing this aggregate of noble virtue, he experiences within himself a bliss that is blameless. Said by Gautam Buddha.

A group of artist who have displayed various works and are from different regions of the country. Rainbow 7, is the group of artist who will have collaborated for this show, sculptures from Ms. Nivedita Mishra an artist form Delhi has tried to show the Yogini’s and used bronze with railway tracks from the junk yard. Suresh Moon shows the democracy or mother India is in the last stage will be interesting to learn from reactions from people who want improve the nation or what to help build a better nation. Shuba ji puts her experiences in life on canvas through a mix mediums. Murlidharan has put up with abstract with making imagination of his life for a color and material mix. 7 of them together have put up a great show.

Tvastra a new age NGO founded by Mr. Sumit Sharma, Mrs. Priya Sharma and Mr. Manoj Sharma. They aim to train students or children from BMC schools by artists to be able get skilled in arts and further make a name in the world of art. Displaying their daughters work as she turned 21 yrs. She has made these memories from her school, art classes and self-taught journey of an artist. Based in Andheri they want to help build a art resource for the less fortunate to learn and earn from art and its allied industry. A unique give away is photo-frame with a magnetic strip to be stuck on the refrigerator.

Being a Holi special and Banaras or Varanasi is symbolic to holi festival and colour, Shri Nanasaheb Yeole has presented a series of Banaras, Ganga River Bank scene paintings named as Kashi Dham. Depicting holi temples and pandits along with the boats and colorful people. A very rustic yet a modern approach with new age color tones of the dusk and the dawn. An alumnus from the J. J. School of Art and having several shows across the world has setup a show for a delightful banaras paintings. 

We will find a group exhibition of 7 friends who met long ago and decided to put up a show just on this colorful occasion. They are all unique, Akash Suryavanshi, mix media in canvas displays mode of transport. Babar Shareef, displays art between dreams and reality. Mahesh Mankar, mix media displays why we are so foolish or absurd. Narottam Das, ceramic, terracotta clay, sculptures display traditional and tribal scenario in a rural setup. Pankaj Itkelwar, comparing human emotions and the life situations with crows. Ramesh Chandra, black and white marble souvenir that showcase a connectedness with earth and all forms of life with spiritual and physical world.

In any form of god spirituality exist in our life, be it paintings, essays, scriptures, songs, manuscripts or even an act of kindness. We are now witnessing a fine artist from Pune, Shri Shankar Devarukhe has put his soul in all his paintings from Krishna, Ganesha, Modern art to portraits.

Looking forward for more enthusiasm inn our coming painters.

This Holi we have a special photographer from Rajasthan who has displayed stories of a common life and now not able to capture in the old or vintage times. Photographer Tarun Chauhan does justice to all travellers and photo story ideates for a glance at the vintage ambiance at he Jehangir Photogallery on the terrace.

You can try asking some ideas on which camera to buy and a few angles to try while clicking family or your girl friend.

IDAC’S 5^TH Edition had all eyes on the Chief Guest Gauri Khan, the celebrity Interior Designer and owner of D’Décor. At the inaugural session along with other celebrities. Discussing how the design and fashion industry should collaborate and co-work to get new brands on board to explore more opportunity and increase market share. 

Moving towards the Expo’s many stalls, we can find Embellish which is hydraulic curtain fitting along with music and some new revealing art and motion collaboration. Completely developed in-house a heavenly theme with prints of Greek mythology and revealing the Sun God or the angels’ wings. These can be adapted at the penthouse or a sea-facing apartment with hydraulic door glass closers along with music and lighting to complement the ambience. Ms. Tracy Dias heading the Hyderabad Branch, giving a demo to all viewers and fellow exhibitors, many foreign nationals have been noticed to have attracted to this concept.

You can find very many tile manufacturers but to differentiate we have Agglotech Architectural Terrazo a marble chip particle tiles, they can be costume built as per the shape and size required. In collaboration with Italian conglomerate Agglotech SPA, manufacturing in Germany and India. These can be treated well to also deal with oil to suit the needs of a table top for restaurants and kitchens. 

Not missing on Klaus Lift or Parking Lift management systems which can help reduce parking trouble at your malls, society, restaurants, hotels and at many other locations. Having a factory in Munich, Germany, they also have an office in Pune. Discussing their most challenging job at Bengaluru with 8000 installation which is happening phase wise and they have completed 2000 parking installation. Now on a trial basis Klaus has come up with a new bike parking system which can help reduce chaos and integrate the bikes as well.

Woven or Non-Woven your upholstery decides the sheen of the wall and the floor matching the ambience and the aesthetics of your home, office or any other interior. Warwick is a high-performance brand with many features like anti-termite, fire resistant, stain resistant, easy clean etc. to set itself apart from the rest of the brands. Manufactured in Australia and they have a robust dealership across India and would like more dealers and distributors in the coming fiscal year.

Mulberry, is offering a special prefab home design for rural or beach resorts and with FRP, steel and mixed materials. Amod Barve and Archana Nair describe their work as versatile as villa’s, offices and many other forms which will help make a distinct feature for your home or construction requirement.

Lightlabs, a light service provider having multiple brands under its aegis and making lighting professional for every need, customised the standard product line of various types of indoor and outdoor architectural fixtures, decorative, LED, electro luminescent, underwater, fiber optics and cold cathodes lights with innovative finishes and coatings. On special requests or to meet specific project needs, the company also imports fixtures from Spain, Italy, Germany, USA, China and Far East.

Comlux, is a luxury bathroom fitting showroom located at Andheri offering various bathroom fitting and fixtures for making a good connection by and between design and purpose. A wide range of wash basin, commodes and bathroom fitting to cater to Interiors, Architects, contractors, dealers, distributors and of course end users. 

Looking for bespoke furniture Magus Designs gives you a wide range of options in setting up furniture or to custom design your home or kitchen or any space for that matter. Magus Designs has a special team for upholstery design and wood working they personally visit to the site and make sure they personalise every piece of their furniture for their client be it an individual or a corporate.

It’s 3:00pm and the first panel discussion is going to enlighten us about the Facade and Hi-Rise building norms and challenges. The moderator Ar. Vivek Bhole and many prominent architects present their challenges faced ad their journey from a liaison architect to starting their own architecture firm to practice as a consultant or a joint venture. Discussing various technology to create a parking facility in ratio of the FSI and how the FSI norms have changed in the modern age municipal and RERA laws.

Further emphasising on the social spaces within the skyscrapers in the residential context and keeping the psychosocial factors of human need of interaction and to socialise and celebrate festivals, personal events. Sports and recreation have been a part of our societal norms and it is enhancing the need to make ourselves better, but sometimes it also makes the feeling of staying at one place and wants you go out as a choice to explore more in the same context is to socialise or be sporting. All the speaker and guest architects were given a token of appreciation as a memory to the IDAC.

Knest was the sponsor for this discussion and they are the aluform works company that help build lasting structures with their aluminium casts which are later filled with concert for timely delivery of projects, fast execution and long lasting structures. Upon discussion they can be used for slum rehabilitation, redevelopment, sky scrapers and to add a new dimension can try rubber buildings.

The event was for 3 days, 7, 8, 9 March 2024, followed by Miss World at 7:30 pm on 9 March 2024. Hopefully I have tried to cover most of the stalls and information to make this an interesting visit to the arena or convention spreading knowledge and awareness about architecture technology and materials.

As the year has begun, we have now hope for changing our level of professionalism and creativity. Visiting Jehangir Art Gallery in 2024, we see some very successful painters every year this year it’s The Art Society of India displaying works of selective artists who enroll for the contest and shortlisted ones are awarded and some are displayed. These artists are from different regions of the nation and express their creative arts and sculptures to make a sense of modern as well as traditional art. The founder Shri. Madhav Parandekar , Shri. S. L. Handalkar and Shri. Balaji Talim, have left a legacy of giving a helping hand and a path to success to new age and upcoming artist who want to explore and earn an achievement through arts and art related events.

Mr. Deepak Naphade, Hon. Secretary, of the Art Society of India, expresses the need to increase the number of platforms where artist can showcase their work and to make a presence in the mainstream art exhibitions. He explains how it has been in the last 106 years of making successful artists who need proper guidance and reach for their art to be viewed and appreciated. He further explains that this organization has been working on a non-profit model. 

Mrs. Vora, explains the process of the contest as each artist is allowed to give paid entries as per their category, they have a jury which judges these artists and the ones who qualify or pass the criteria for an award are awarded. The entire collection has been listed in a form of a catalogue for art enthusiasts and learners to refer as a case study or even keep as a read for a leisure. 

Artist C. R. Shelar show Shutters and Strokes has been recognised by many Indian and overseas awards for photography and painting. Photography is his profession and passion but now he has made paintings that complement his photography. He has been to several shows all over India and this is how 7 show at the Jehangir Art Gallery. The next week he has an exhibition followed at the Raja Ravi Verma art Gallery at Nehru Auditorium at Pune. Raja Ravi Verma Gallery showcases many photography contests and also have a photo contest named “Click”.

All artist and art enthusiast have once visited the esteemed Sir J. J School of Arts that houses the Kala Sanchalaya, Maharashtra. Every year artists from Maharashtra participate in the group exhibition which is felicitated by Govt. of Maharashtra and J. J. School of Arts. Many among known chief guests and eminent jurists were the CM of Maharashtra – Eknath Shinde, Dean of Sir. J. J. School of Arts, Mr. Rajiv Mishra and many professors and artists have given their devotion and passion to make this show happen.

The J. J School of art announces a contest for artist to give their entry and make a presence at the Jehangir Art gallery for this prestigious art exhibition and awards. This february has also highlighted the promotional designs and advertising posters / magazine ads / materials as published works of artist from all over Maharashtra. Having learnt from J. J. School of Arts these artists who have participated from different regions are also among some well-known alumnus.  

We have summed up our show with making more artists come and view the art and purchase some for the art for commercial or personal use. Nowadays, self discovered artists have made their mark and have achieved success through contests and awards. Since the show was on 19 February 2024, on the occasion of Shivaji Jayanti this could be a future thought of curating painting and sculptures of Shivaji Maharaj and make this a collaborative effort towards keeping arts and history connected and also have more theme based contests or exhibitions. Then inviting large organisation to announce scholarships to deserved and hardworking artists.