We have an almost-final version of the programme up here. And here’s a map:

[Click on the image for an enlarged version. 314kb.]

We’re planning to expand the team a wee bit. Would you like to join in?

Qualifications:
1. You’re in Bombay during the festival (2nd-10th February) and, barring acts of god, will attend for at least a few days.
2. You can write well. You will need to bring the festival alive to those who are reading the blog.
3. You have some experience with WordPress, or at least Blogger.

How to apply: send us just one permalink to a post on your own blog that showcases your abilities as per point 2, above. Email this to editors at caferati dot com with the subject line I want to join the Kala Ghoda Gazette. If we like what we see, we’ll invite you to the blog. If we don’t, you won’t hear from us at all.

Note: in past years, thanks to either sponsorship or generous infusions from the Literature Festival, we have managed to pay our bloggers a modest stipend. This may not happen this year due to budget constraints.

Once upon a time Maya decided to blog for the Kalaghoda festival. She said she’ll try to blog as much as possible like she did the year before. But Maya’s bosses and her work put the noose around her keyboard to drag it before she could write about Kalaghoda. Oh Sorry! Wrong chronology. They just dumped tons of work on her desk…top…to ensure that she could not go to the festival and then put the noose on her keyboard. What more the TriContinental film festival made sure its last two exciting days clashed with Maya’s first free weekend after ages, preventing her from going to the first two days KG as well. So defying all the bosses and all attractive film festivals of the world (well after 7 pm), Maya walks into Kalaghoda on Sunday at 9:25pm and decides to write about it the next day. But as usual, the devil (boss) wears Prada from Bandra and prevents her from writing. So here she is on a Saturday evening trying to finish her first piece for KG but not able to do so as she has to go to KG today for Caferati. With a mixture of wow and sigh, she gets up and decides to call it a day. “See you on the next post,” she says and lives unhappily ever after. Neighh…

Just a quick note to say that there are many more pictures in this blog’s photo pool (on Flickr). Do see.

And if you’d like to join the pool, just knock, and one of the admins will let you in. (But note, by joining, you’re giving us permission to post your pictures to this blog.)

Hello.

This blog made its debut last year, as an experiment.

It worked well. (Unfortunately, a mishap at our ISP’s servers chewed up all the posts. Woe is us.*) Well enough for the Kala Ghoda Association to want to run it again this year.

We’re busy getting a team together, and working out the logistics, but come February 3rd, we’ll be in action, bringing you the very best of Bombay’s favourite arts festival.

See ya then!

* Update (29th January, 2007): Thanks to The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, I’ve managed to retrieve about 80 of the lost posts. Some comments were unavailable, alas. I will add those posts over the next few days. 80 posts, with formatting, links cleaned up, and all that, will take a little while, alas. And contrary to popular belief, I do have a life offline. Sort of. Kinda. Oh gedoudahere.

Update (3rd February, 2007): Whew. All done. And just before the Festival opens. Ahem. Yeeha.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Yazad Jal

Walked the heritage walk. Stood for Shantaram. Caught a bit of dance. Grabbed a bite of chaat and momos. Breathed the installation art. Peeked into the cinema. Skipped the theatre. My tired legs wanted to go home. A friend suggested jazz at Azad Maidan. My only condition was seating space. Luckily there was lots of that-jute sacking laid out on the ground. We made ourselves comfortable and waited for the Amit Heri group.

I like jazz, but can’t explain it in words. I lay down and let the waft over me. Looking at Orion’s faint belt up in the sky somehow made “The Elephant’s Walk” come through the bass guitar, drums and saxophone. The musicians conversed: smiling, nodding and gesturing. Enjoying the they created together.

The place was half full when we’d walked in. People trickled in. And it wasn’t just us middle-class snobs. We shared space with street children and daily wage labourers who’d walked in hearing the . The kids horsed around a bit. Overzealous security had to be restrained from behaving badly in an attempt to throw them out. Like me, I’m sure the kids found the different, but enjoyable. This is perhaps what I liked most during the weekend. The Kala Ghoda festival is not just for the swish set, but for all. The festival events are free and open to the public. Us middle class wallahs can afford to pay for the performances. Street kids and daily wage labourers cannot. And it was heartening to have them sitting at Azad Maidan listening to some nice jazz.

Comment by charukesi on February 6, 2006 @ 7:56 pm

Yazad, I know what you mean by the street kids being there - I saw the same faces on both days I ws there - and they were having such a blast, dancing and painting and generally enjoying themesleves . art for once is accessible and that to me is the success of the kgaf!

Comment by akshay on February 7, 2006 @ 8:34 am

I’m glad to here that the festival is accessible to everyone - especially street children. I saw them too yesterday at the Alms for Shanti.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Yazad Jal

As a child, I often wondered where or what was the “Kala Ghoda”? Was it a prancing horse like that on a Ferrari? Or a wild animal escaping from a Husain canvas? Or a black beauty imported from England?

Alas, reality was a let down. During a visit to the zoo, my history teacher pointed out an old, ordinary looking statue of Prince Edward astride a horse. She said that it once stood imperiously over the Fort area and people called it the Kala Ghoda. After independence, we removed all statues that reminded us of British rule and dumped them in secluded corners of zoos.

But the statue doesn’t really matter. It’s the idea of Kala Ghoda that still hovers around a small corner in Fort, not just during these nine days every February, but throughout. The idea of a confluence of activities in an urban space. A place for art, business, education, shopping, a place to just hang out and admire the architecture. Apart from writing about the events and the atmosphere during the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, I also hope to capture a bit of that idea of Kala Ghoda.

Retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Originally posted by Peter Griffin

This blog starts out with its demise foretold. It will run for only for the nine days of the Times of India Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (that’s the 4th to the 12th February).

During that time, we plan to bring you a bhelpuri of blogposts. Previews and impressions, reviews and reports, text and photographs. If we can wangle it, maybe some podcasts and video too.

During that time, we hope to prove that there is power in collaboration, that citizen journalism is coming of age, that this experiment in giving creators and their audiences fresh, new alternatives is a damn good idea, and the foundation for other experiments of this kind, maybe even *gasp* a model for more of the same.

Bu hey, forget about all that. During that time, we basically plan to have a lot of fun.

We hope you do too.

Comments

Comment by Leela on February 4, 2006 @ 11:04 am

Looks great. Sounds great. Will be around. All the best.

Comment by satish on February 4, 2006 @ 1:37 pm

Can we have pics n video of the festival pls. should be cool..
cheers n all the best

regards
satish

Comment by nikita on February 4, 2006 @ 2:44 pm

this is brilliance!

we support citizen journalism all the way
and we shall live here , unto death

the best of all,team!

Comment by Shivam Vij on February 5, 2006 @ 9:42 pm

So heartening to see Zigzackly use WordPress, for one!

Comment by zigzackly on February 6, 2006 @ 2:42 am

Leela,
Thanks. See ya around.

Satish,
Plenty of pics. Video, we’re trying. Maybe audio.

Nikita,
‘Allo, brat. Glad you approve.

Shivam,
Credit where it’s due: it’s all Megha’s doing. I would have happily bumbled on with Blogger.

Comment by Jane Bhandari on February 7, 2006 @ 1:34 pm

Nice to be called effervescent!
The Poetry for Youth reading was actually the second step taken to present the possibility of having modern Indian poets (rather than English victorians) on the school syllabus - the first having been a seminar on Jan 23rd at Max Mueller Bhavan where we discussed how best to introduce poetry to young people in a way that would make them want to read more. Eventually we hope to have an anthology of poems by Indian writers, in fact, several anthologies, aimed at three or four age groups. The more I think about it the more passionate I get.
This has been such fun, I am looking forward to day 3, and eventually, to reading and judging the sms poems.

Flash Fiction, what a marvellous idea. writing a story in such a limited number of words is quite difficult unless you have had lots of practice in precis writing.