Designs on souvenirs

Kolkata's Victoria Memorial and British Council joined hands for an interesting souvenir workshop.

Miniature Eiffel Towers from France, Elvis souvenirs from Memphis, model London buses, magnetic macaque figures from Hong Kong, Turkey's hand-painted ceramics with pictures of the Blue Mosque... souvenirs from India?

The usual textiles, sandalwood, seashell photo frames and happy pictures with popular tourist sites as the backdrop. For foreign tourists, include an attack of Delhi belly, too.

Despite India's endless list of world-famous monuments, there are hardly any souvenirs of them that you can take back home, except a disproportionate miniature Taj Mahal in a plastic case.

The business of souvenir shops in India depends either on the boutiques housed in five-star hotels and state emporia, or open stalls and shack-like shops outside the monuments.

Things might change, though. As a first step, the British Council held "Return gift: A souvenir design workshop" at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (popularly known as The Prince of Wales Museum) on December 12-14 in Mumbai, and the Victoria Memorial, Kolkata (December 15-17).

A similar workshop is slated to be held in Delhi in February. The idea is to look at a way of creating visible and tangible aspects of local cultures.

"We bring back souvenirs and memorabilia from all over the world. When I look at something along the same lines in Kolkata, which is where I work, I see nothing," says Samarjit Guha, east India head for programmes, British Council, revealing how the idea of such a workshop came about.

The council invited two UK designers "" Andre Klauser and Ed Carpenter "" and a retailer, who brainstormed with a varied lot "" designers, curators and students and faculty of art schools and NGO trainers.

The ideation sessions focused on how to design small, travel-size objects representative of the place and/or monument in consideration, which will yield a media-ready, photogenic series of prototypes.

"The Bankura horses are popular all over the world. But how does one carry those big things back home? Why can't we have miniatures?" asks Ruby Pal Choudhury, who runs Artisana, which retails handcrafted souvenir craft and metalwork, and attended the Kolkata workshop to talk about retailing aspects.

"We need to clearly differentiate crafts and souvenirs," says Guha. So while the Bankura horses might be a local craft, something will have to be worked around it to make it into a souvenir.

How can these souvenirs be sold? The Maharashtra Tourist Development Corporation (MTDC) has come to the rescue in Mumbai and the spokesperson offered to display the products at their counters, stating that they are recognised by the MTDC.

In Kolkata, the picture isn't quite clear, although C Panda, secretary and curator, Victoria Memorial Hall, felt that something could be done within the compound in terms of gift shops after prior permission was taken from the concerned ministry.

The move might also fill the gap between what you buy at luxury hotels and local stalls. "I strongly feel souvenirs should be affordable for all, not just foreign tourists," says Carpenter, who specialises in large-scale public installations.

Also, such an initiative will create employment for local crafts-people who can be commissioned to make souvenirs using their own medium.

Srila Mukherjee, a blow-glass artist, suggests: "Filigree "" unique to east India "" can be combined with blow glass to make a small gift to take home."

Like other participants, she too felt the workshop was a step in the right direction. "But more needs to change, including mindsets," referring to the fact that the Victoria Memorial authorities turned down the idea of using a theme from the world's largest collection of paintings by the Daniells that are housed there.

There was no dearth of other ideas though. "Although it has been a British Council initiative, you can see that there are people who want such workshops. Also, the abundance of skill here is harder to find than you think," comments Klausner, who designs products and furniture.

From T-shirts with the famous Queen's Necklace view as the neckline, mugs and pen-holders designed as the dabba as a tribute to Mumbai's dabbawallahs, to miniature Victoria Memorial Halls, ideas and suggestions made the workshop a success enough to have more of the same.

Participants in Kolkata also felt there was a need to target children for souvenirs. One of the most-appreciated ideas was to have building blocks that can be put together to make the facade of the Victoria Memorial itself.

"We plan to have an exhibition of the products suggested," says Theresa Barton, arts projects manager, west India, British Council.

Follow-up workshops with a narrower group are slated to be held early next year. "We hope to have things going by June-July," says British Council's Guha.

Soon you may be able to take home a replica of Queen Victoria's crown from the Victoria Memorial statue.