Kala Ghoda Art Festival

The absence of ancient Hindu structures in Kashi is something I have always lamented about. The shrines are certainly ancient, and that is something that has always attracted me to the city. However, I miss the beauty of the ancient structures that we see at other sites. This feeling is intensified when I see marble and concrete and tiles in temples that once would have been beautifully adorned with evocative sculptures, and worn by the passage of time, touched by the hands of seekers who came before. This time , this desire to see some remnants of an ancient Hindu structure in Kashi came true when I managed to visit the Kardameshwar Temple. The Kardameshwar temple is not one of the main temples in the city. It is part of the temples on the Pancha Kroshi yatra, a pilgrimage which takes one on a circumambulatory tour of the whole city. The temple is located on the outskirts of the city, on the western bank of a tank called the Kardama Kund. The Kardameshwar temple is one of the...

Kala Ghoda Art Festival - Part 3

This is the third part of my series on the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. Please read Part 1 and Part 2 before reading further.

Continuing with the visual art displays....

This one was entitled ‘Tarevarchi kasarat’, which loosely translates into ‘tightrope walk’. It depicts the tightrope we walk every day, trying to balance our lives, tied down by various threads....

What is an art fest without representation of social issues? KGAF 2013 had its own fair share, what with the state of our country being what it is, offering enough and myriad possibilities for the creative artists.

Violence against women was a major theme this year, with this broken doll house needing no more words of explanation...

This one showing the various issues women face, living as we do, under a tree filled with prying eyes, peering at their every movement.....

And this one at first glance seemed to be a well grown tree, laden with ripe fruits.

A closer look showed us what it really was... the representation of trauma victims, seemingly normal outside, but hollow and empty inside...

With corruption so evident these days, how could it escape representation? This one speaks for itself...

On the other hand, there was this representation of a tortoise... with our five sense organs peeking out, encouraging us to keep our senses in control...

This huge T shirt with Nataraja on it represented Indian culture with western influences...

And this one is ‘Plastic Rain’, which Samhith and the other kids loved walking into!

This untitled work by artists from the British Council was intriguing....

This one was beautifully done... bangles and bangles stacked in a row... seemingly with no pattern.. but move a bit away and you can see an image emerge.. the Mona Lisa!

We had seen this globe being set up on the very first day... and were curious about it... it turned out to be ‘Earth Recycled’, with a map of India covered with LED bulbs... which lit up when anyone pedalled the cycles connected to it!

This one, entitled ‘procession’, was something I didn't even notice on the first day.... it took a second visit to see so many ants, made with just Bullet Bike tanks!

These tetrapods are a common sight on the sea shore at Marine Drive... Here, they form an art installation...

Finally, one more horse, completes my tour of Kala Ghoda....

But before I stop, there are some others who are a regular feature of the festival – the Bahurupiyas. The word would translate loosely into ‘impostors’... these are people who dress up in various garbs and entertain us...

But that’s not all. I have only captured some of the visual art installations at the festival with my camera. There is so much more happening there, so if you are in Mumbai, head out and be a part of it. Here is a link to the complete schedule....

Complete Schedule of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival

And no, I am not yet done with my series. So far, you have seen what I enjoyed at the fest... you have yet to see what Samhith did... and since the workshops for kids are an integral part of the festival, they deserve a separate post, don’t you think? So, that’s the post you can look forward to reading, tomorrow!

Gokarna Part II – The Five Lingams

We continued our Gokarna trip by visiting four other Shiva temples in the vicinity, all connected to the same story of Gokarna. The story of Gokarna mentions the Mahabaleshwara Lingam as the one brought from Kailas by Ravana, and kept at this place on the ground by Ganesha. (See my earlier post- Gokarna – Pilgrimage and Pleasure). However, the story does not end here. It is believed that, in his anger, Ravana flung aside the materials which covered the lingam- the casket, its lid, the string around the lingam, and the cloth covering it. All these items became lingams as soon as they touched the ground. These four lingams, along with the main Mahabaleshwara lingam are collectively called the ‘ Panchalingams’ . These are: Mahabaleshwara – the main lingam Sajjeshwar – the casket carrying the lingam. This temple is about 35 Kms from Karwar, and is a 2 hour drive from Gokarna. Dhareshwar – the string covering the lingam. This temple is on NH17, about 45 Kms south of Gokarna. Gunavanteshw...

Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...

Review of Executive Lounges at New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS)

During my recent trip to Uttarakhand , I was faced with a problem I had never encountered before. We were passing through Delhi, but we had hardly any time in the city. On earlier visits when I have had to change trains/flights at Delhi, I have always arrived in the morning and left again at night, visiting relatives in between. This time, I was arriving in the city at night, and leaving again early in the morning. There was hardly any time to visit people. I would only have a couple of hours with them before I’d have to leave again. For the first time, we considered booking a hotel, but there again, we were hesitant about the actual hotels, the costs involved, and the logistics of getting from the airport to the railway station and then back again from the station to the airport. That’s when we remembered reading something about a corporate-managed lounge at Delhi station. We soon figured out that we could book online and pay by the hour. Besides, we also learnt that there wasn’...

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