Even before the recent global economic meltdown, Newsweek magazine, in a cover story titled ‘Stealth Wealth’ (July 9, 2007) wrote about how ‘the best things in life aren’t necessarily flashy objects, but discreet meaningful experiences’. Minister Ashwani Kumar, in his interview with Verve in this issue, echoes this thought when he defines luxury as “an endless journey of civilization” and finds “the most enduring luxury” to be that “of spiritual existence…of enough opportunity and time to reflect and to meditate and to enjoy the smaller pleasures of life”.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for flashy objects (as anyone who has seen my bling Rashmi Dogra bag will testify) and like this month’s gorgeous cover girl Sonam, I love my brands and the good life. At the same time, I strongly feel that especially within the context of the recent changes in our world, 2009 is going to be the year when the definition of luxury in contemporary India manages to break away from the branded hedonism that defined it in the recent consumerist boom. Luxury will go back to its roots – to what the Newsweek article mentioned above calls ‘being’ instead of just ‘having’.

I don’t know about you, but I am sensing a general dissatisfaction in the air. There is a quest for connection among people – both to each other and to knowledge, experiences and ideas that can enable them to make the paradigm shifts needed to recalibrate their presence in an ever-changing world where uncertainty is the only constant. So I think that the new meaning of luxury in India this year will be knowledge – the opportunity to learn new things so that you can rejuvenate your mind and soul.

I test my hypothesis when Lakshmi Pratury – the organiser of the first TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) India conference visits Mumbai. I text message a random selection of friends to see if they want to swing by for an impromptu night-safari I am curating for her. Two pleasant surprises. Everyone knows about TED and almost everyone I text shows up. This includes corporate types like Ranjan Das (SAP), Allwin Agnel (Pagalguy.com), Saurabh Gupta (Phonethics), Sunny Balijepalli (Zoomin.com) and Vikram Raizada (IMG), artists like Aditi Singh and Sharmistha Ray, mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik and the filmmaker-musician duo of Elvis and Sonal D’Silva. We gorge on paneer tikkas and beer at Mondy’s, ponk-yam chillas, and multigrain khichdi at Soam, with Moshe’s sinfully delicious desserts as a final nightcap. The ideas from this diverse group fly fast and furiously about who all they would want to see and learn from at TED India, which will be held in Mysore this November.

The global TED, which celebrates its silver jubilee this month in California, is iconic, with 50 speakers (like former US president Bill Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, genomics pioneer Craig Venter, playwright Eve Ensler, architect Frank Gehry, cellist YoYo Ma and Nobel laureates Al Gore, Paul Berg and Jim Watson) making 18 minute presentations to about a thousand attendees every year, over the course of four days. What I find especially interesting is that both speakers and attendees at TED (as well as the forthcoming TED India) are selected by the conference organisers. Which means that just having the ability to pay for the entrance is not enough; you’ve got to prove that you’ll make a meaningful contribution to the conversation in order to get in.

TED is but one of a large global family of upscale conference initiatives. These include heavyweight events like the Clinton Global Initiative and the World Economic Forum at Davos, as well as their Bohemian and artsy counterparts like South by SouthWest in Austin, Texas and Burning Man in rural California. What is common to these events is that they combine learning with exchange within a select group of peers. I predict that over the next few years, we are going to see a surfeit of similar initiatives in India as well as an increased participation in more open-to-all conferences like the Kyoorius Design Yatra, the TIE Entrepreneurship Summit or the International Herald Tribune’s Sustainable Luxury Event taking place next month in Delhi. I for one have decided to allocate a significant part of my resources to the pursuit of knowledge, which is why I didn’t miss the opportunity to attend the Verve-supported Mantles of Myth conference at the charming Diggi Palace in Jaipur.

As the conference organiser Mita Kapur writes in her diary in this issue, the planning stages felt like “we were swinging from a creaking tree branch hanging over a ravine” but the end result was more than worth it. The cool winter sunlight streaming on the lawns of the palace garden, the hot chai being served in earthen clay pots and the chance to make new friends and reconnect with old ones in an intellectually charged atmosphere… it was a memorable experience and Mita captures it well in her diary.

At the conference I had a chance to reconnect with designer Ritu Kumar, who has completed 40 years in the fashion business and been a pioneer in researching, disseminating and translating knowledge about Indian handicrafts to the commercial realm. As she told me in a subsequent conversation (featured in this issue) her journey has been a tremendous balancing act, between work and family, between personal instinct and the needs of the market. More than the catwalk glitz or the Miss India razzmatazz, Ritu’s real legacy lies in reviving handicrafts, generating employment and paving a path for the next generation of Indian designers to follow and this is something that would perhaps resonate with Mital Shah, the founder of Well Souled. I am quite intrigued by how Mital’s label “bridges travel, style and philanthropy” and supports children orphaned by AIDS. I am sure both Ritu and Mital will be happy to read Sohiny Das’ piece on heirloom saris in this issue. The past is a repository of knowledge that one uses as a bridge to the future and the love of the heirloom sari collectors for their precious yards of history is palpable.

This issue is filled with other kinds of love too. Our new columnist (author, cultural curator, design guru) Jahnvi Dameron Nandan loves to travel. Read her postcards from all over the world, starting with this issue, on the most elusive and exclusive experiences to be found in her favourite global cities. If it’s February, it must be Valentine’s Day. Check out the fashion bounty our team has collected for you and read what some of us feel about love in the Verve Romance Diaries. The opinions differ widely! However, one thing that we do have consensus for at the Verve headquarters is our love for Bollywood. So our annual Bollywood Style Awards are always great fun to pick, choose and visualise. I hope you enjoy them, as well as all the other stories, images and ideas that we’ve carefully curated for you this month.

PS: In conferences like TED, while being there certainly trumps not being there, there are still ways to participate. Check out the free talks available online on http://www.ted.com. When luxury equates knowledge, it can also become more inclusive. TED has followed the path of institutions like MIT which have opened up several free courses for the world on their website http://ocw.mit.edu. On a more modest note, we at Verve now have a fully open site too. So while nothing can beat the pleasure of touching and feeling and holding our magazine in your hands, you can now also catch every issue online the same month as it is released on stands, browse through our archives, watch videos on our Youtube channel and also interact with us on Facebook. So, let’s connect on http://verveonline.com.

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