Glimpses from Surajkund Crafts Mela 2010 - 1

Isn't that rich! Finest offerings of India's multilingual, multicultural, pluralistic richness from 29 states and 6 Union Territories are all on display and sale for a fortnight at the Surajkund Crafts Mela.
Hay, straw, jute, metal, textiles, clay, paper mache, paper, wood, porcelain, bamboo - that's the variety of material used by artistic hands to produce thousands of articles ranging from small keychains to solid furniture. Applique lampshade (Orissa)
Hay portrait (Kerala)
Pottery (Khurja, Uttar Pradesh)
Wooden Sculptures (Tamil Nadu)

Tanjore Paintings (Tamil Nadu)
There were stalls from a few neighbouring countries - Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Gross National Happiness! - Bhutan's stall
Tajikistan's ware
The carpet-seller from Afghanistan
Masks, Batik designs and coconut shell carvings from Sri Lanka
We wandered around taking in the sights, and came content away with pleasant memories and stuffed pixels.
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Iron Pillar and Qutub Minar

The Qutub Minar and the Iron Pillar, with a Jain temple re-used pillar in the foreground
For a walk back in time, stroll at leisure anywhere within the Qutub complex in Delhi. The complex initially housed 27 Hindu and Jain temples; which were destroyed to give way to victorious armies' monuments. The Iron Pillar dates from the 5th cenury CE, or even earlier.
Intricate carvings
... and disfigured sculpturesThe tallest brick minaret in the world...
Practical history lessons!
My takeaway from our visit? The impression that this country has always granted all that every visitor demanded of her, even if the intentions were malafide - just like this tree at the entrance to the complex. A contented neem that lives and lets live umpteen other species under it - like Bharatvarsh (India) will ever continue to do...
Visit many more wonderful worlds...

Sanskriti Museum of Terracotta

Sanskriti Foundation's Museum of Indian Terracotta is located on Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, at Ayanagar, just outside Delhi. Terracotta artists and potters from all over India have created on location a variety of exuberant and sophisticated figurettes and panels; these pieces are housed in aesthetic mud-walled enclosures.




Entry is free, and the Foundation offers residency programs for artists and scholars to reflect and contemplate, interact and get inspired, and create.





Sanskriti Museum of Everyday Art and Sanskriti Museum of Indian Textiles are co-located in the same campus. The former showcases plenty of metal objects from the last couple of centuries, and the latter displays rich textile traditions from all over India. Here is a piece of info that is put up at the textiles hall - at the time synthetic indigo was produced in Germany in 1897, India was exporting 8 million kg of the natural pigment....

Visit and enjoy plenty of other worlds

National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, New Delhi

It's always a pleasure to discover and rediscover treasures from the past. And we did just that all day Sunday on a visit to the National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum in New Delhi. Relics from all over the country, belonging to bygone eras are on display accompanied by unobtrusive, thoughtful descriptions. At the Village Complex are hand drawn carts, region-specific huts, and period utensils from across the country. An artisans enclosure houses stalls where you can see artisans at work, and buy their fare.

A bronze figure of Lord Krishna

A chariot

Metal art from Chhattisgarh - (this is half of a gate at the entry to the village complex)

An irrigation system

A kashmiri artisan working on a shawl, that will be completed in about a year's time.

If you ever find yourself touring in Delhi, do visit this museum (entry Rs 10/ for adults, Re 1/ for kids).
A similar concept can bee seen in South India, at Dakshinachitra, 35 km from Chennai. We were fortunate to visit there too, just a few days ago.
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Airport Restaurant menu - Beware!

In May this year, a friend's flight was delayed in Mumbai by nearly 8 hours (the airline revealed the delay(s) in gradual 2/1.5/2/1.5 hour slots). With a hungry kid in tow, they found the waiting time irksome. Assuming that the airline was likely to be considerate enough to provide some options for a snack to 'valued' passengers, they decided to find out.
Apparently the airline did, and the passengers - just the few who took the trouble to approach the staff - were told that they could visit a certain eat-out adjacent to the lounge and take away snack worth at the most Rs 800 (about US$16).
They were bemused -to say the least - when they tried to 'digest' the rates listed in the restaurant's menu card. One decent tummy-satisfying meal would have cost them no less than Rs 1200 (about US$25), which is Big Deal for the average non-business non-leisure Indian traveller. That's why many prefer to travel across India, in comfort by train for that princely amount.
For the delay that extended nearly over 2 meal sessions, the airline decided that the 'whining' passengers could make do with a light snack!


(Each item is priced at 8 times its average worth elsewhere)
This in a nation where hundreds of millions subsist on half a dollar a day.
That's one of the less bright sides of my developing world. Discover plenty of other worlds.

An old-world briefcase

Grand-father-in-law was a very special person - if you were to hear his twin grandsons speak of their 'muthachan', you would agree readily too. Krishnan Kutty Menon was an agriculturist, who tended daily the small plot of land he had in Annanad, in central Kerala. He would escort the twins to school and back while patiently giving satisfactory answers and examples to (millions of questions)X2. One can easily attribute the twins' respect and regard for, and awe of, the land that feeds, nature that nourishes, trees that live and give - to this simple genuine villager who was untouched by material possessions.
Here are pictures of the single (singular!) item that dates to his lifetime, (most likely earlier), from the family home. It is a simple wooden briefcase (called kaipetti - a handy box of rosewood) that may be valueless, but is nevertheless priceless! The size is about 18X12X4 inches.





I wonder what those small nooks, crevasses, and other sections held. Whatever that was, it could never have been more precious than the old-world knowledge, wisdom and values that their owner passed on to the next generation. I missed meeting him by just three years, but his presence continues to be evident - in the trees that he planted, the home and village that he cared about, and his grandchildren's evergreen recollections.

And what would I wish everyone? - Hope you get to be a grandparent like him!
That was a glimpse into my world. Here are others who wish to share theirs.