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Published: October 30th 2008
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My glasses are covered in dust, my eyes are sore and my finger nails are black, I have a cough and my hair feels like I have been working in a concrete factory for weeks. You guessed it! I am in Delhi. Getting here was a chore and our accommodation was, well to say the least, not very clean; it took two hotel changes and three room changes before we got a room that wasn't sprawling with cockroaches. To be fair we have been staying in the less desirable area of Delhi but we did expect a reasonable degree of cleanliness at the very least. Even the street that led to our hotel(s) was home to a public urinal at its entrance, which as we have seen throughout the city are everywhere. Good you might think. However when they are full, gents just pee next to them, oh and if you're a lady? Well, ladies don't really seem to exist or at least it seems that way. I really want to write a positive blog about India's capital and I will but I can't give the impression that its all rosy because it really really isn't, that is unless you have
plenty of money. Money will get you anything here, we assumed that getting around India on a budget would be easy but in the cities a back packers budget won't get you very far - its actually proving to be more expensive than many of the other countries we have visited. Suffice to say our impression of Delhi is not good, the people are intrusive and demanding, constantly gawping in very unfriendly ways and even the monkey's aren't friendly - one went for Helen by grabbing at her shirt while we walking along! Within a day of being in Delhi we were ready to leave but then we picked up a copy of 'Time out Delhi' and discovered there was much more to the city, it also meant we could get off the tourist trail, where it seems most of the undesirable aspects are.
It turned out that a new gallery had just opened up in central Delhi and the India International centre was hosting an arts festival, this was perfect for us and offered a respite from the overwhelming experience that is Delhi. The gallery called arts.i was very good. Modeled on international galleries it would have been
perfectly at home in New York or Europe. The inaugural show hosted work from artists from all over India with some of the artists having international reputations and educations. This was very apparent in their work which felt less 'Indian' and more international. That's not to say that many of the themes weren't Indian, they were. One artist had produced work based on Paan stains. Looking like action art they depicted the spat out red stains of the betel nut which can seen all over India; Indian's everywhere (mostly men) chew the betel nut (paan) which produces a deep red that covers their teeth and dibbles from the sides of their mouths before they spit it out, anywhere. I even saw stains on the pillars of the museum of India in Kolkatta! Maybe by turning the image into art it will encourage discussion and make people realise how disgusting the practice is and how bad it looks, or maybe it will just elevate its status and people will do it even more. It was nice to be in familiar territory and very welcome. The gallery has been one of the best I have seen on our travels. It seems that
Indian art and well, Asian art in general is beginning to make its mark on the international scene which I think is great, not only does it offer further cultural exchange but it can also give a voice to those who otherwise may not have one. What I mean by this is that I feel that art (mainly visual art) is generally inclusive and classless and so in a country like India where class plays a big role, contemporary visual art could offer a platform for those less fortunate. I would like to think so anyway.
Our next cultural experience was at the Indian InternationaL Centre (IIC) who were hosting their 5th annual festival of the arts. Set next to Lodi gardens the IIC is a haven from the bustling city. Even if you're not into the arts Lodi gardens are beautiful and are the perfect place to get away from it all. We only caught the tail end of the arts festival but still managed to see quite a bit. Everything during the week long festival was free except the food festival which I think is brilliant, each evening a different performance was held in the grounds; we
saw a performance by Bombay Jayashri on our first night and a play by M.K Raina called 'Stay yet a while' on the closing night. Jayashri is a carnatic vocalist who was accompanied by a 4 piece band which included sitars, mridangam and ghatum instrumentalists. Normally this type of music wouldn't attract us but I am really glad we went to see it, I can only describe it as mesmerizing, so much so that the hour and half show felt like only minutes. The play was just as good. It was essentially a dialogue between Mahatma Gandhi and the highly revered poet and writer Rabindranath Tagore and was based on letters and publications the two had written to and about each other. It was just as engaging as the music from the previous night and offered really unique insights into the two figures as well as India's struggle for independence. The IIC were also showcasing films from around the world by renowned directors including Fritz Lang, Tarrantino, Guilermo del Toro and Billy Wilder. We managed to see 'Some like it hot' with Marilyn Monroe which was brilliant, I hadn't seen it before but am glad I have now. Its like
a Sunday afternoon film that you watch when you have nothing else to do and it's perfect if you need a laugh. So thanks to Helen's insight we managed to escape the craziness and senses-smothering chaos of Delhi simply by picking up the local listings, and everything we did was all free!
While we have been in the city we have also visited the Gandhi memorial and Gandhi smitri which was the former home of Gandhi and the place where he was assassinated. It is now a very impressive museum where thousands come to pay homage to the forefather of modern India. The memorial and museum were also free but were so good that I would have happily paid something to visit. The organisation of the museum and grounds and the sheer amount of information about modern India and Gandhi was astounding and worthy of the three hours we spent there.
Delhi it turns out, isn't all bad.
Next stop is the Le Corbusier designed capital of Punjab, Chandigarth, which we are told is 'clean and green' - can't wait...
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