6 home-grown magazines for lovers of art, culture, and aesthetics

You know the feeling when your favourite magazine arrives at your doorstep one afternoon? It smells of the paper envelope it is packed in and the freshly printed glossy paper. And then, there’s more. You flip through the pages, gazing at the vibrant and aesthetically positioned photographs before you begin reading the first print page—usually the editor’s letter that sets the tone for the rest of the read—and so on an so forth. With the advent of everything digital, print was slowly and steadily phased out, and given lesser importance by the day, until we realised that we miss it, and miss it dearly. 

For a reader, print magazines are collectibles, they’re those precious possessions to make cut-out collages out of, and stories saved for a later read. For a writer, there’s nothing better than to see your story printed in a magazine, for it’s here to stay. 

Today, a whole new wave of Indie print magazines, along with already existing ones, are striving to bring back everything local and desi with an aesthetic upgrade. A case in point is Gaysi, a media platform founded by Sakshi Juneja to create a safe space for queer desis to express and spread awareness about queerness as a philosophy, its role in politics, and more. She says, “Through our print initiative, we are trying to make our existence known through offline spaces—institutions, libraries, bookstores and word-of-mouth social networks. Essentially the zine is our way of connecting more people in the Indian queer community to much needed stories and resources of empowerment and pop culture.” We crave to go back to flipping pages over swiping screens. Founder of Baporiyu magazine, Nihar Desai, says, “Today, it is more important than ever to interact with stories, poems, and photographs without the interference of technology. It gives you the much needed alone time as well as helps you deepen your sense of enjoyment.” 

Home-grown magazines, today, are setting out to tell the stories unheard and away from the digital space, stories from the homes of India. These are stories, essays, photographs, graphics, and comics expressing various themes and ideas. Art historian and editor of Marg, Naman Ahuja says, “Online and print mediums must not be seen as being in competition. Rather than an either/or situation, it has evolved to complement each other. . Books in the field of art, architecture, heritage and more broadly in the domain of culture, are heavily reliant on photographs and graphic design and not just the written word.” Print as a medium has much to offer, and we’re rooting for it. Here’s a list of magazines you can flip through for the glossy feel and much more. 

Arts Illustrated 
This pan-India magazine is focused on exploring the different facts of contemporary art forms in India including cinema, art, photography, design, theatre, and literature. Delving deep into the visual art and design narrative, the magazine offers a unique perspective on current cultural trends changing the creative landscape. From writing about films and shows such as Loving Vincent and A Suitable Boy, to exploring themes of beauty in Indian cinema, the stories offer much depth and insight. Their photo essays forage into an exploration of intersectional themes of identity, gender and more and are, of course, a treat to the eyes. You can eagerly await the magazine, which is published once every two months. 

Baporiyu 

Baporiyu, in Guajarati translates to ‘an afternoon nap,’ and is a print magazine for those lazy mid-days with chai. This in-house publication of Bay101 Film Studio, covers ‘fables of food from the Indian continent’ through stories, photo essays, illustrations, and poems. In the time of home deliveries and instant gratification of food cravings, the magazine fills you with a sense of nostalgia and takes you back to the days of eating simple, traditional home-cooked food. “With Baporiyu, the primary idea is to make people fall in love with home cooking again—and make them curious about going to the market and exploring newer ingredients. Almost 40% of the magazine is just recipes, and notes from the contributors about how they created the recipes. When you don't have a pop up or a DM distracting you from this kind of content, the process gives you enough mental space to sit and think about what you would do differently in this recipe, or who you would make it for, etc. There are a few textures, pigments and printing techniques also that we've worked with—for example mixing offset with screen printing, which gives the reader a tactile experience that is lost in digital,” says editor Nihar Desai. 

Mixtape 

Taking you back to the days of Tinkle and Champak comics, Mixtape is a print magazine with anthologies of short, black and white comic stories by creators across the country. The first volumes featured Vivek Thomas and Rupesh Aravindakshan’s ‘Pursuit’—where a man chases a pickpocket, and just like in movies, runs through dark alleys and faces multiple obstacles only to reach a dead end. Published by Studio Kokaachi founder, Tina and Pratheek, this magazine is a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon filled with laughter. 

Art India 

Started in 1996, Art India defines itself as the art news magazine of India, giving a platform to both artists and critics to indulge in dialogue, debate and discussion about various art forms such as new media art, photography, installations, graphic art and even the performing arts. The quarterly magazine has dealt with a range of themes including Indian craft, the evolution of photography in India, gender, street art, and more. The stories are layered with ideas of politics, philosophy and art appreciation, and are a great read for all art aficionados. 

Gaysi 

Founded in 2008, Gaysi is a media platform for queer individuals from South Asia to express themselves in the best way they can. The Gaysi zines are short stories and graphic novels about the queer community, with an aim to develop a critical understanding of the queer identity and philosophy. “Our desire is to not get lost in the digital noise. While digital is more easily accessible and shareable online, it’s also so easy to lose track of all the many things we consume online plus the divided shorter attention online which reduces recall and memory retention whereas the print form is more tangible, and not as easy to lose. Wandering off the digital path, our print zines and books bring together voices of the desi queer folks and words on hope, angst, love, affection, hunger, heartbreak, banality, separation and ambiguity to its most accessible form—the pages of a book,” says founder Sakshi Juneja. 

Marg 

Founded by Mulk Raj Anand in 1946, Marg carries with it a legacy of history, culture and Indian traditions exploring the Gandhian aesthetic narrative, the history and journey of Indian textiles, infrastructure and development in the context of design, documentary filmmaking and its various facets and so much more. Talking about the importance of print, general editor, Naman Ahuja says, “Printed matter has archival and reference value because it puts an onus of responsibility on the publisher. Retractions and emendations are easy in the digital domain, but something once printed stands as evidence and proof of the writer's and publisher's opinion. The ephemerality of the digital platform allows opinions to be altered constantly and without fixing dates of publication, referencing shifts in opinion is not easy. Our goal with Marg has always been to provide artists and policymakers, academics and students, new ways of thinking about South Asia's cultural history.”