Saito's impression of the kitchens she visited appears in the form of hand-drawn blueprints accompanied by her notes

Four years ago, when Nao Saito arrived in India for a design residency with Tara Books in Chennai, the kitchenette at the centre of a small apartment that was going to be her home for the next three months left her stumped. There were some technical differences. The Japanese architect and designer, for instance, had to get used to the idea that the stove doesn't come on with just a twist of the knob and requires a gas lighter. But it were the jars lining the shelves with sundry varieties of beans and intriguing vessels — with one resembling "a stacked stainless steel tower, like a futuristic building" — that got her thinking about the people who used them every day to create a culinary world vastly different from her own.