Question, If you are culture vulture on the rampage and you are on the look out for a speedy snack between events what do you do ?

I suggest the momos at the Taste of Tibet stall.

Yes Momos, the crescent-shaped yummy dumplings one of Tibet’s more popular traditional foods, are a light, delicate appetizer, especially when steamed rather than fried. Whether you order the momos stuffed with chicken and vegetables or those stuffed with shiitake mushrooms, be sure to try the fiery dipping sauce, which ignites the flavors of the momos.

I’ve had several plates. Veg Momos 7 Rupees/Plate. Chicken 30 Ruppees/Plate

At every moment in our lives, perhaps, we are to some extent actors, or performers, as well as spectators. When performers and spectators “connect” it creates a very special quality of theater that both transports and transforms all those involved. In India we cherish this strong link between reality and fantasy first through theatre and now through film. All this age old mimicry of life somehow affects us and in return this mimicry is in itself a self-definition of the society we live in. This is what I love about the medium that through a little imagination and snap of a finger we are somewhere else. Taking it a step further many forms of classical dance in India imbibes the same values of theatre mixing them till we get operaish dance put to music.

Yakshagana is one such dance opera I got the opportunity to see at KalaGhoda yesterday. The dance is usually described as folk but this theatre form from Karnataka, the Yakshagana or the song of the celestials has strong classical undertones. Hardly surprising because the dance was born from the Bhakti movement and was designed to bring classical dance beyond its then traditional elitist audience. As the dance unfolded at the Rampant row amphitheatre it raptured the much of the onlookers with its singing and drumming blended with dancing and the quaint endearing kannada dialogues from players, clad in striking costumes in myriad hues and sizes, provided for a very pleasant afternoon.

I was still curious and wanted to learn more may be exchange a conversation with the artists so I some how evaded the Kala Ghoda event staff and went back stage. This is what I saw - A corner clothesline overflows with hair switches, tassels, garlands and `jewels.’ The dim walls are agleam with bright headgear, chest and shoulder armour and the shelves packed with ornaments and anklets. The table is a mass of crushed and ironed costumes. There sat Rakshasha, or a man dressed as one, in front of pictures of an entire pantheon of gods praying; an antithesis if I ever saw one. Very soon I found myself sharing a chai with large men with painted faces and even larger pagades, (a type of head gear) talking about cricket before their next act began.

Tibetans believe you dance to eliminate negativity, to cut through the ego and to bring in auspicious circumstances. Hence, I could think of no better way to start my escapades at the Kala Ghoda Art festival than to watch the cries of Snow Lions. The Snow lion is a blundering beast in cheerful white demeanour that symbolizes the fearless and elegant quality of the enlightened mind. When a healthy and harmonious environment is established by the creative activities of human beings, such as through the performance of sacred purification and healing music, all living beings, here represented by the snow lion, rejoice. Rejoice we did as the snow lions with big golden eyes and large masses of yak like fur paraded through Rampart Row to the beat of a Tibetan drum much to delight of the children watching.

The festivities moved to the Amphitheatre. Seven dancers paraded before us : four in red and three in black and white. The dance itself was a blend of lumbering grace- the dancers hopped on one leg with the other raised in a flexed foot, with turns added to the hops. Drums rang on, marked with more acrobatics arm swoops and torso rotating as well as frou frou of skirts as the women swirled to the enchanting sounds of Tibet. The next three dancers with porcelain faces and ornately brocaded costumes were identified with the visualizations of common men, each dancer danced with a light spring, shifting weight, hopping in half turns. To say the dancers looked like magical beings would not have been inaccurate. The dance ended with a grand finale and the dancers exited to the sound of applause from the crowds. A brief pause before we were yet again graced by a pair of Snow Lions on the stage to end what was a memorable piece of Tibet at Kala Ghoda.

This is why I have come to love this festival so much, it seems to transport to you other places and times, a window to many forms of art and culture and all in your very own city.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

Stray cat in a mad dog city. The friendly cat at the David Sassoon Library Garden.

Catching some wink eye beteween shows.

BEST Cartoon near Regal

Vanish.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

Maya in her round-up of Mumbai Poetry Live(11th Feb) said this about the poet Shamshad Khan

Shamshad’s voice was ‘orgasmic’ as a friend put it. He’s going today again to catch her performance.

I personally think it has a lot to do with her crisp Manchester accent. I caught up Shamshad at the noisy Rabbi concert at Azad Maidan. Though a lot of conversation was exchanged most of it was lost in the music. Though some poetry survived.

Spider Women

She spun the argument,
with a thread

he could not follow

Perfecting the delicate
Construction
Until he

Unsuspecting
fell
entangled
to his
gentle

destruction.

As Maya said you can catch a replay today at The Prithvi theatre (Feb 12, 2006)

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

This is some of the results of a Visual Art Workshop carried out by the National Center of Performing Art. The underlying theme this installation art is Mumbai: the environment and issues.This visual art set-up is on display in the foyer of The Army Navy Building.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

“One, two, three, four, in, in, out“, continues the series.

Confused ? Disoriented ? So am I. Dance is not my cup of tea; come to think about it I have two pairs of left feet when it comes to prancing about with pre-synchronized body movements. Dance is immensely Darwinian, and disproves the fact that all men/women where created equal, for on the dance floor it boils down to the survival of the fittest. A dance workshop is not a typical place you would find me but thenagain I was there. Enthusiastic participants tried to mimic the flurry of movements the instructors demonstrated. With out-stretched arms aunties, uncles, students, dadas/dadis, nana/nanis, etc danced in a clockwise direction.

“One, two, three, four, in, in, out” advances to “four, five, turn, six, seven out”

At this point some of the stragglers in the audience (at NC Ghia Hall) joined the motley group.

“Don’t just jump add bounce,” added the talented instructor.

Dance is difficult.

- First comes the feet movements. They are practiced and rehearsed.
- Second comes the hand movements. Also practiced and rehearsed.
- Step three: Synchronize step one and two.
- Step four :Try Step 3 moving in an anti-clockwise circle.
- Step five: Faster, Faster.

Phew !! Oh wait it is not over. The workshop takes its first casualties as the stragglers exit the stage.

More steps are added.

“Side-right, Side-left, center-side” are added to the already growinglist of steps. Up the curve the group moved steadily, now accelerating. “Clap when you are centre and snap when you are on the side and we are done”

The step are repeated one last time, this time with all the participants.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

I walked through the portals into a different realm, into a world old, forgotten, endangered but not lost. David Sassoon Library is one such building that emulates this feelings of time warp I seem to love. Wood panelled chambers littered with ancient, framed etchings of Bombay old and in the background played the cacophonous sound of Mumbai new. At first glance you get a sense you are walking into a old boys club where you will see middle-aged men smoking cuban cigars and drinking single malt whisky in kangaroo leather armchairs. This sense quickly wears out to one of academic enrichment as the wood panelled walls give aways to rows of aged rosewood bookshelves. Crumply, crisp, chlorine free brown pages bound together in leather jackets embellished with worn out titles. I took the passport The Kala Ghoda Festival gave me to feel free and explore. Yippie !!

[David Sassoon in alabaster and light]

Exit to the back and you are in garden green, inhabitated by shady pastures, cats and mosquitoes.

Looking on to the Kala Ghoda, on Rampart Row, this Romanesque structure, completed in 1870, is built from the same yellow Malad stone as the rest of the buildings in the row- Elphinstone College, the Army and Navy Building and Watson’s Hotel.

Source: Kaumudi Marathe in Times of India

[1st Floor of the Library. Rows of books and silient book worms to go]

[Balcony looking onto Kala Ghoda.]

Up a spiralling staircase and you are greeted with more large pannelling windows staring down at you.

Now, to the crowning glory of this grand building - the clock chamber.

That ends our photo-tour of “David Sassoon Library and Reading Room“

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

I’m suffering from a strange malady, a culture overdose. I’ve lost all sense of traditional time and seem to relate everything with the days schedule. 10:30 am Heritage walk, 2 p.m Movie at Cama and so on. This becomes apparent when somebody asks me how I spend my time and I make up imaginary accounts of extra days I’ve spent just roaming Kala Ghoda.

Here are some pictures I think I took yesterday but I’m not quiet sure.
Dilip has a good round up of Day 4 and some these pictures will help you relate.

[*German* Puppet Theatre]

[School Girls take to the stage at Kala Ghoda and give us a song]

[Street Childrens in their cars. Love the detail on all of them.]

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

An additional sound resonated in the background as I walked past Capital Cinema. It wasn’t the usual cacophony of passing traffic or the buzz from the evening commuters walking to the station or even from the bunch of Jhunka Bharkar stalls that line the street peddling everything from Vada-pavs to Indian Chinese. What is that sound? Can it be music I thought to myself in disbelief. Walking towards Azad Maidan the sound became more distinct till my eyes confirmed it, yes music it is. The Giant dustbowl that is Azad Maidan, which is usually inhabited by hawkers, stray dogs and cricket enthusiasts, was converted (a part of it at least) into a stage with lights and everything.

Even though my ears were throbbing and the bass was slightly on the higher side the music was enjoyable. If you are wondering , the Pakistani Rock Star Ali Azmat was playing. If you have not heard of Ali Azmat, he is the lead singer of the well known Paki rock band Junoon. Songs like “Sayonee” got automatic lip service from the crowd. Speaking of the crowd they where divided in two distinct types 1 - who stood at the front and knew the lyrics of all the songs and made strange hand gestures in the air and 2 - curious public who just wanted a piece of the action. Oh,I love free concerts.
Come 8:30 p.m. and Ali Azmat gave way to Alms for Shanti.

“A mix of Hindi, English and allot of Gibberish in between“, is what they promised and what we got was a lot of fast paced fusion rock, a sound I came to enjoy. They started off with well more a chant than a song, ‘Aum Namah Shivay’[mp3 link], Sridar Parthasarathy on the Mridangam made all the difference setting the piece apart. The high point of the entire event was the solo by the percussionist Taufiq Qureshi. He conjured up a brilliant rendition of what he described as - “Two star-crossed lovers talking which turns to bickering in an increased crescendo till of course the girl wins and the boy drives of to the Kala Ghoda Festival on his motor-cycle.” All this expressed with drums, tablas and vocal percussion - absolutely brilliant.

‘Circular spotlights spiral downwards as the percussion intensifies, The light turn red giving colour to the dry ice vapours as they ascend upwards against it. A lone Ghungru pierces the crescendo at every beat until all is momentarily paused to a cry of jubilation from the crowd. The music starts off from where it left off ‘

As we approached the 10p.m BMC deadline - Alms for Shanti belted out thier most popular track - “Kashmakash”

Here give it a listen.

10 p.m came and the crowd dispersed leaving the dusty Azad Maidan with a little more cigarette butts and empty sachets of Goa1000 supari scattered all around.

Comment by zigzackly on February 7, 2006 @ 1:46 pm

Oh crap. I thought this was today. Note to self: lookit the darn schedule after you lay it out.

Nice mood shots, Akshay. And thanks for the links.

Comment by Aditya on February 7, 2006 @ 9:14 pm

enjoyable post akshay - made even more so with the accompanying photos .

Comment by addytorials on February 7, 2006 @ 11:40 pm

wonderful write-up. and the photographs are a treat. makes me wonder why i wasn’t there.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

[Artwork by Mangesh Bhayde]

Look out of the window and you will find at least a pair of them. Lazily soaking in the Bombay sun on your air-conditioning unit or the lines of wire that dissect the sky . Birds they are but in their behaviour there is something human about them . No wonder some call Mumbai, the City of the Crows. Good art is always a reflection of its human surroundings and its relevance is only magnified by its expression. The collaborative new media art show at Kala Ghoda, Crow.ds, Meeting of Minds has its underlying theme as the crow.

The show is really hard to miss as it takes up the expansive pavement on the rampant row in front of the Max Mueller Bhavan. For some reason I found it fascinating and every time I was in the vicinity of the exhibition I discovered a different artistic modelling of the common crow. This fascination got the better of me and I decided to find out more. Digital Art is a young medium and as such I wasn’t surprised to find a young curator, Yogi Chopra, who was enthusiastically shepherding the visitors through this well crafted collaborative effort. I chatted with him for some time and found him to be quiet a pleasant chap.

[Yogi Chopra]

One question that troubled me when I took a look at the show was why the crow ? I went ahead and asked this to Yogi. The idea came to him while he was on the terrace of his house shooting pictures and he found that the most common living being he could see from his terrace overlooking the city was what else but the crow. Also a crow in visual depiction is nothing but a silhouette in the sky and its features are all but black. What is a better subject for collaboration ? To express something so expressionless yet so vivid . The end results of the collaboration are 26 different art works , all unique yet all having the same subject - the enigmatic crow.

[Artwork by Harshvardhan Kadam]

Interestingly they have a website you could check out - Meetingofminds.in. Also the show will be on all through the duration of the festival so please do check them out.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

He sits there on the edge of the table sprawling on the tablecloth. Dressed in red and a bifurcated jesters cap, staring at me blankly with motionless black beady eyes. It is hard to believe he is not flesh and blood but wood, paint and string. Let me introduce you to “Der sternäugige Schäfer” or the “Star-Eyed Shepherd“; and as you may have guessed he is a puppet.

Theater Am Faden [link] which translates to Theatre on String are Stuttgart based puppeteers and are adding much needed colour to the Street Festival at the Kala Ghoda by bringing to us a glimpse of the rich European Marionette puppeteering tradition. Helga Brehme who started this theatre company in 1976, tells me ‘Der sternäugige Schäfer‘ is adapted from a Hungarian folk tale and is a story that both children and adults will enjoy.

“Der sternäugige Schäfer” runs tomorrow at 12 noon at the Amphitheatre at Rampart Row.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

There is never a dull moment at the Kala Ghoda Art Festival. If yesterday was fun, today just took fun to another level. Activities, people, art, colour, all and all a photographers dream. The place was literally buzzing with a strong congregated energy which was quiet interesting to capture on film. Lets dive into some picture from Day-2 shall we ?

[Where art is - can Bollywood be far behind ? This was one of the many entertaining props that made up the visual art set-up called “Bollywood Bole to Jhakaas“]

[More Bollywood Kitchdi]

[Surround yourself with art]

[A parked cycle I found on my way to Horniman Circle.]

[Art lovers enjoying the exhibition at the Jehangir Art Gallery]

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

As I exited the cab I saw a small crowd assembled around what appeared to be large bronze plaque. They were congregating around a youngish looking woman in a salwar kameez, who was in the middle of a rather expressive monologue. The small motley bunch where buzzing with excitement, their eyes twinkling as they processed the information shared with them. I was late and all I could hear straining my ears was Times Archives and V.T.

Next the crowd was herded into the Times of India building and pushed into an elevator. It is here that I was re-acquainted with my co-bloggers Sidin and Yazad. We shared some “where were you” looks [mostly directed at me], and we continued on.

[Here’s a map :20 - Capital Cinema, 21 - Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, 22 - BMC Building, 23 - The Times of India Building ]

Stop 1: The Times of India Archive

Come to think about it there is not much ‘heritage’ in a public archive except the archive itself. I was expecting to see the hidden corners of the Grade 1 heritage structure that is the TOI Building and the history and stories one would associate with them .In that sense I was disappointed but the Archives were interesting all the same.

The Archive holds every Times of India newspaper the Bennett, Coleman & Co have ever published, since Saturday, November 3, 1838 . It was then called “The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce“. Now you know where the popular (Page 3) supplement of the Times inherited its name!!

All the editions have been recorded on microfilm and are available to the public for a fee of Rs.50 an hour.

Our guide at the archive was friendly and garrulous - how I like my them and he attended all the questions asked to him well. If you are keen on additional information [on the Times of India] have look at the Wikipedia article in this [link]

Stop 2 : Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Formerly: The Victoria Terminus

As we were ushered through the gates into the quadrangle in front of this building, it was hard not be dwarfed by the overall splendour of the building. The building stands there symmetrical, overpowering, inhumanly huge, ornate - a classical example of “Victorian Gothic Revival architecture” the guide tells me. It is a symbol of Mumbai and the second most photographed building in India after the Taj Mahal.
But sadly the best part of this building is closed to the public. This is the first time I am inside the building (though not for want of trying). Each time I have approached its grand wrought iron gates to take a better look I have been quickly shooed away by over-zealous guards. It is sad that a heritage so rich is “out of bounds” to the general public.
The crowning point of the entire of walk and a memorable moment all around was when we were taken to the main atrium of the building under the glorious octahedral dome. I know this is starting to sound a little clichéd but it was truly a sight to behold. A cantilever staircase circled upwards, intricately carved basalt lined the walls and for the centrepiece was the dome with stained glass surrounding it. As sunlight filtered down onto our faces the only thing all of us could do was to look up open mouthed in complete awe.(Sorry no photography was allowed,so just go for the next VT walk)

Kohlis, Marathas, Sultanates, Portuguese, British - Seven Islands, endless rulers and a lot of history. I am going to look out for this history in the several heritage walks organised by the Kala Ghoda Festival. If you are interested as I am don’t miss the other walks - the details of the program are provided here.

Today’s walk is the Kala Ghoda Walk which starts around 4:30p.m.

Comments

Comment by Samudrika on February 6, 2006 @ 9:52 pm

Random Trivia: The Victorian Gothic Revival Architecture also called the Neo-Gothic style became popular because as more people moved to live in cities, they yearned for the countryside with its flora and fauna. Hence the huge amount of flowers/leaves/animals that are depicted on these structures.

I enjoy reading about the history of Mumbai too. So I liked reading the posts about the heritage walks.

Comment by akshay on February 7, 2006 @ 2:04 pm

Samudrika thanks for the trivia. I always thought that Neo-Gothic has a very dark aspect to them - even they do have a natural element to them they’re uneven symmetry makes them stand out.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Akshay Mahajan

Day 1 has come to an end and for those who missed it, don’t despair there is always tomorrow and till then you can satisfy yourself with some vicarious images from my day at the festival. Actually in all probability I wouldn’t have been able to take any pictures today. Why? The doofus I am - I left my camera battery at home. A few frantic calls and several minutes later I got someone to scuttle the battery down to me.

Now to the pictures

[Go to Gateway of India or any tourist attraction in Indian and these basuri-wallahs [flute players] are a dime a dozen but what made me take this picture was the visual art in the foreground - gives it a cool effect. By the way the basuri wallah in the picture asked me to mention his name which is ‘Haidut’.]

[More street vendors, at Kala Ghoda]

[Visual Art: Fragrance by B Singh, Medium: Steel]

Comments

Comment by charu on February 5, 2006 @ 11:42 am

Akshay, lovely picture of the bansuri wala. brilliant! he was still there when I went rambling late in the night after the dance!

Comment by nikita on February 5, 2006 @ 12:45 pm

the baansuriwaala’s photograph
is indeed a striking one

visual art
or visual artistry?

perhaps, great timing

cheers : )