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Musavviri Winners Announced

The first Musavviri Photography Competition was held during the World Heritage Week 2022 - 19 to 25 November 2022. Here are the winners of the competition:

Accompanying Text:

Dawasaz meaning Medicinal expertise. Unani influence was prevalent for 2 centuries around Dakhni region. If you carefully observe there are numerous stores by the name Dawasaz around Old city area serving all kinds of ailments with natural elements available from nature. We’re losing the historical significance of how Dawasaz has helped millions of people. Majorly, the Rapid urbanisation, losing our native species of herbs, plants which were the raw materials of this practice. It is alarming to know that we are starting to import them from Nepal to serve the need. Despite there is no clear labelling, they find the items needed by looking at the paper narrow down to it. Given with digitalisation and databases, we still wait for items at pharmacy these days. This disappearing cultural heritage should be carried forward, not just to preserve the knowledge but the medical significance it has impacted over decades.

Accompanying Text: Local boys take a selfie in a chini khana | Golconda | 2022

Chini khanas were a source of pride for Deccani royals and nobles in the 15th and 16th centuries, as they were for their peers in faraway Persia. They can be found all over the Deccan, and were imitated by successive generations to decorate later era buildings as well. When shown off to visitors, they demonstrated good taste and cultural advancement. Today, the chini khana is a favourite selfie and photo spot for local boys visiting Golconda. When the boys share these images on social media to their peers, they are unknowingly engaging in a behavioural continuum that irrevocably binds them to their forebears.

You, by viewing this image, and I, by making this image, have now become inextricably intertwined in the phenomenon of the chini khana that spans centuries and thousands of kilometers.