Kerala should aim to become the world’s design capital

livemint.com:

Every time I have to board flight from Kochi airport in Kerala, I make it a point to go a bit early. I have never experienced heavy rush at this airport. But I always try to reach early only because after all the security formalities are over, I want to spend some time at the book stalls inside the airport terminal.

At these stalls, I spend most of my time in the Malayalam section. I randomly pick up any book in the language that I can lay my hands on, whether or not I have any intention to buy it. But I do this because I want to look at the cover designs of those books.

Nowhere else in the world have I seen book covers that are quite as artistic. Being in the Malayalam section of a bookstall is pretty much like being in an art gallery. Kerala is endowed with the some of the most scenic natural beauty in the world.

But many might not know that the state is also endowed with yet another potential: that is, its creative talent. Kerala, remember, is the land of Raja Ravi Varma. It is the land where world-class filmmakers like Adoor Gopalakrishnan and G.

Aravindan came from. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale art festival is just the latest expression of the state’s creative genes. The design culture of Kerala is not a recent phenomenon.

One only has to look at the distinct temple architecture of Kerala to appreciate the depth of the state’s design capabilities. I had often wondered whether the huge untapped design resources of the state will ever be fully explored. In recent years, we have seen how South Korea has transformed into an entertainment juggernaut and a major cultural-product exporter in its own right.