Bhuli art reviving the culture of Uttarakhand

In today's world everyone talks about western culture and practices. Very few people look upon the rich traditional culture, art and practices of India.

Tanya Kotnala (Founder of Bhuli art) and Tanya Singh (Co-founder of Bhuli art) are among those few people who are trying to revive the tradition of art and culture of India, specifically the culture of Uttarakhand. Tanya Kotnala holds a degree in Fashion Design from NIFT, Shillong and Tanya Singh holds double masters in Food and Nutrition and Food Communication from IHM, Pusa India and University of Gastronomic Sciences, Italy.

After finishing their education, they have worked in rural clusters of India, in their areas of expertise. This has helped them both to run Bhuli (their enterprise which was established in March 2017) and promote the 3 things they are focusing on, namely art, craft and food of Uttarakhand.

The term Bhuli means younger sister in Garwali (the dialect of Uttarakhand). Bhuli art is promoting the Indian culture by drawing illustrations of the culture, cuisine, flora and fauna, costumes, practices, history and basically everything about Uttarakhand . They also sell these beautiful pieces of art online. Their intagram and facebook page namely Bhuli features beautiful piece of art showing the beauty of India.

They say "Uttarakhand is a state which is not recognized in terms of Arts, Craft and the cuisine. The prime motive to establish Bhuli is to make a platform for the state where its essence can be celebrated and it gets the recognition it deserves."

Here is the glimpse of their work

Bhuli art showing bride of Uttarakhand

Bhuli art showing Himalayan Monal, the bird of Uttarakhand

Bhuli art showing history of Uttarakhand (chipkoo movement)

Bhuli art showing Garwali women preparing the local dish of Uttarakhand 

Bhuli art sharing recipe of the local dish

Bhuli art spreading awareness about flora of Uttarakhand

Bhuli works in two phases;

• Government Collaboration -The government projects help them to outreach remote areas, thereby helping them to get a better insight of the persisting problems in the community. In the past Bhuli, did a 'Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign' where the posters designed by Bhuli were displayed at 19,000 Anganwadi Centers across Uttarakhand. On the occasion of 'International Breastfeeding Awareness Week' these posters were used to educate the caregivers of the children on the importance of breastfeeding.

Currently they are in the process of making the Anganwadi centers of Uttarakhand attractive for kids to make the process of learning fun for them. Every month they go to one of the district of the state and paint an Anganwadi center.

• Self-Initiated Projects Apart from collaboration with the government -Team Bhuli conceptualize creative projects around social causes while promoting flora/fauna, arts and crafts culture of their home state Uttarakhand. Through these self-initiated projects, they try to generate revenue to fuel their future long-term goal that is to upgrade skills, (trying to minimize the effects of Palayan (migration) in rural areas of Uttarakhand) bring development and innovation in existing products trying to make it attractive for the masses.

In their entire journey their family and friends have been supportive throughout, but still they faced two major problems.

Our societies have always been male-dominated and no matter how much the times have progressed, these deep rooted traits always crop up somewhere or the other. A woman exhibiting entrepreneurial prowess is presumed as wanting to take over the role of the male.

Second problem that they face is balancing time between business and family. They say "Guilt of not being able to devote sufficient time to home creeps in sometimes, which negatively effects both, the entrepreneur and the enterprise".

But they have taken up the challenges with open arms and are facing them as they come.

At the end of year, they also plan to celebrate the diversity and culture of India as a whole through their beautiful cultural calendars.

Stay tuned to know more about India's culture, practices, beliefs, tourist places, best hotels, cafe/restaurants, offbeat places and inspirational stories of the people of India.

-The Roving Feet