26/11/2025
IN THE PRESS: We are stoked to share that our Aanakambam dining set was featured in the Oct Nov issue of Elle decor India.
Deeply grateful to Mrudul Pathak Kundu, Shriti Das and the Elle Decor India editorial team for featuring our work.
As cultural signifiers go, one would be hard pressed to find one as ubiquitous to the Malayalee identity as that gentle giant - The ‘aana’ or elephant, which also holds the distinction of being Kerala’s state animal.
For us, it was this nostalgic connection to Kerala’s beloved animal that drew their attention to a core childhood memory growing up- the annual Thrissur Pooram festivities.
Because nowhere is the reverence for this beloved pachyderm more on display than the grand celebrations each year at the revered Vadakkumnathan temple in Thrissur featuring a fleet of 50 to 100 elephants decked in their best finery. At the center of this finery is the Nettipattam - one of the main traditional decorations worn by the elephants on their foreheads during the Pooram processions. The ornament holds deep cultural and spiritual symbolism during the festivities, and it became the starting point for the design direction for our new collection Aanakambam, featuring a minimalist dining table set.
We set out wanting to create a tribute to these majestic, gentle giants. The result was an interplay of two contrasting woods - teak and wenge, creating a restrained silhouette of a Nettipattam clad elephant.
But beyond the visual iconography, we chose wenge as a subtext for the complex character of the elephant. Popular culture may reduce the elephant to the usual tropes of ‘gentle giant’ and ‘kind, reliable pachyderm’ but for anyone who chooses to explore the history and actual temperament of this revered animal, the truth is far more complex. Elephants are temperamental, highly intelligent and are capable of deep emotional depth. The choice of wenge - a typically tough timbre of wood to work with- was a deliberate, symbolic choice to add a layer of added meaning.
pathak .h.r.i.t.i
