Playing with paper

It is 2014 and the shadow of progress has blotted out much of history's artefacts. Old Devanagri-style bus tickets, record players, old matchboxes—all have been flung into the rubbish heap of the past. The world has moved on to shinier, sleeker things, but not Neeti Mehra.

Mehra's Chamku serenades the past and is inspired by the Bombay and Delhi of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. She says, "My products are based on the thought that beauty stems from simple, regular things. With this line, I hope to keep alive the things that are lost to us now, yet shaped our yesterdays in more ways than we can understand." Clearly, Mehra is an analogue girl in a digital world.

This Peddar Road resident creates art from the churn and tumble of daily life. Chamku's first offering—a clutch of notebooks and pads—uses motifs like records, matchboxes, polka dots, the luxuriant handlebar mooch and old bus tickets. "I had to hunt the streets and raid household helps' pockets for bus tickets since they were discontinued a year before I started looking," she shares. If you ask 'What is Chamku?', Mehra says, "Chamku loosely means blingy and loud; it is a derivative of 'chamku dhamku' that is used more in Delhi but I thought it fits very well with the ethos of the brand, which is bright and colourful and somewhat simple." Certainly looks good on paper!

Chamku diaries come in two sizes (4x6 and A5) and are made of recycled and fine art paper. They are available at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya shop in Kala Ghoda and at the Loose Ends store in Bandra.

For more details, visit http://www.facebook.com/chamku.in