Jalandhar: Stryco curating art pieces to promote Punjabi tradition

Taking over his father’s business and giving it a new dimension, it has been seven years since Inderpreet Singh Bedi started curating art pieces that depict Punjabi culture and spirituality. Having established his business on the Nandanpur road here under the brand name of Stryco, he has already carved a niche for himself not just across the state but also in the diaspora.

Ranging from items like wall-mounted mandala art forms, car hangings, keychains, dashboard items, wall hangings, pen stands, puzzle games based on Sikh philosophy, designer wall clocks, rotating calendars and tissue paper stands, his collection of over 2,000 designer pieces have been carved using dies in medium density fibre wood, more popularly known as engineered wood or texture wood. His most saleable items are the jigsaw puzzles based on Gurmukhi alphabets, numbers and names of 10 Sikh gurus, a depiction of rivers of undivided Punjab and a wall clock bearing the names of months as per the traditional Punjabi calendar and seasons of the year.

“I print no item other than my main theme of Punjabi culture and spirituality. Every item carries a message on holiness and attaching oneself to God. Doctors are our common clientele as they usually like to put devotional stuff for spiritual healing and acquiring will power. NRIs are the next big segment. They order items in bulk when they visit here and distribute it among the Punjabi community abroad. They want their kids and families to remain acquainted with Punjabi alphabets and Sikhism and thus, specifically pick items with that purpose.”

Inderpreet’s showroom, which is housed within his factory, has a completely different section on puzzle games for children. Every game has been given a twist adding some Punjabi traditional or cultural aspect into it. For instance, in the snakes and ladder game, the ladder takes the player to a height if he reaches a number denoting a good deed like extending a benevolent gesture, rising early, sharing wealth with the poor, etc. On the contrary, snakes are shown to bring the player down upon indulging in greed, egoism etc. Even the tokens used in the game denote a Punjabi letter. The Rubik’s Cube, too, has Gurmukhi letters printed on different colours.

Inderpreet’s adventurism in the products started with carrom board designing in 2018. He started making designer strikers and coins in mandala art, which became a huge hit during the Covid-19 period. “It was from strikers that I picked the brand name, Stryco. My father Parminder S Bedi had started his business in manufacturing casted designer labels for plastic, rubber and hand tool products in the local market way back in 1990. We still run this business by the trademark, Param International. But Stryco is a different range of products of our firm,” he explained.

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