Love, Paati, which translates to "Love, Grandma" in Tamil, gathers the beauty and wellness rituals of South India: over 140 practices and 100 ingredients collected over six years from grandmothers, mothers, aunts and communities whose lives remain deeply woven with these traditions. Daily rituals built around turmeric, neem, hibiscus and sandalwood sit alongside rarer practices drawing on saffron, gold ash and powdered pearl - knowledge carried for generations by hand, by word and by memory, but rarely written down.
Much of this knowledge survives quietly, passed between women in fragments, routines and conversation. I began documenting it after years of watching my grandmother's rituals reappear as luxury wellness - often unrecognisable from where they came from. The dissonance became the reason to make the record. Love, Paati is a granddaughter's attempt to preserve these rituals within their own context, while that context still survives.
In the press
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
"These are home remedies our grandmothers in South India used to practice. I have lost touch with a lot of them." view video >
"This book awakens us to explore our relationship with beauty."
