There is a crowd, people all over, scattered, rattled beings, when I turn around there is more, people everywhere, and spaces so scanty, breathing would indeed be a strain. But then they try to take us through, call our names and play those games, a drop at a time they scatter by, and one can see further, screens, glowing ten feet high monitors- reading lives of millions.
The heat has escaped, so have a few, queues jostling by, threatened by an air of doubt. Yet even outside these walls, the hope and pain is there, people populating lanes and zones of rugged mortar, the heat they are fighting, the sweat it takes to get there, here and across lands of brown bare sands and deep unending woes of dark sunken blue.
Among all the chaos, heat and commotion there are arenas of untroubled stanzas, poetic claims and vivid stories of art. The hot summer days are merging into humid mornings and monsoon clouds.
Photographic essays and a talk bring in a spate of cool air into grim tired days at the India Habitat Centre, Delhi. ‘The Glorious Night Sky of the Himalaya,’ takes us into a visual journey through astronomer and photographer, Ajay Talwar’s collection of photographs which he brought together, capturing the night sky, these pictures now aligned into mesmerizing short stories.
An arty break in this summer heat can lead one to intricate passages of longhand sites. Art of Calligraphy and Beyond: Arabic and Persian Inscriptions on Decorative Arts Objects, an exhibition for the type form extends till the 12thof July at the National Museum in Delhi. The exhibition curated by Anamika Pathak and Zahid Ali Ansari includes beautiful inscriptions on metal ware pen-cases, bowls, plates, alams, wooden boxes, mendicant bowls, tawee'z, amulets, bracelets, textiles and costumes.
Displacing fantasies we walk on paths of yesteryears, childhood days of those dripping pops and memorable times of grandma’s tales. Unique in every way, our lives separate, timid, lazy, hate, love and fear, places to create, spaces to explore, ideas to deliver. Delhi at Eleven explores the works of four young filmmakers from New Delhi, as their original and thought-provoking films become a part of this narrative.
My Lovely General Store by Ravi Shivhare, Why Not A Girl? By Anshu Singh, My Funny Film by Aniket Kumar Kashyap and Children At Home by Shikha Kumar Dalsus, are fifteen to thirty minute long films by four eleven year olds exploring Indian family and daily life. Delhi at Eleven will be screened at the India International Centre, Delhi on the 8th of July.
Things to do yet again, a roof over our head, below the basking sun, protected, secluded with poetic minutes, a few more people, a crowd, alike, now displaced, under mundane, shiny-gleaming rays.
So childlike, we explore our days under the sun; humid, playful, careless days. A walk out that door, a time machine, as it plummets to a stop, that green box on wheels, right outside gates of black, iron willed-iron grilled. Now we walk the same paths in different parts, playful, careful, scornful days, trivial conversations and eccentric plays.
-The Glorious Night Sky of the Himalaya, a talk and photographs by Ajay Talwar: on 28th June at 1900hrs, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi
-Art of Calligraphy and Beyond: on till 12th July at the Special Exhibition Hall 2, National Museum, Janpath, New Delhi
-Delhi at Eleven: on 8th July, 1830 hrs at C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium, India International Centre, Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi