My very first visit to the Kala Ghoda Art Festival

Originally Posted on: Friday, February 8, 2013

One week back... 

2nd Feb 2013, Saturday...
Its 1:30 in the afternoon...

I have just had lunch. My friend Tish calls. Asks me when I will be leaving. I tell him, I will be leaving in a while. Will call him when I leave. I am supposed to meet him at Dadar. But I am facing the Saturday afternoon crisis. My stomach feels so heavy, and my mind feel so light... I curse myself for agreeing to go out with my friends on such a nice drowsy Saturday afternoon... That's the last thing I remember...
I suddenly wake up to the urgent ringing of my phone. Its my friend Tish. Have I left yet? I say, am about to leave. I look at the clock. Its 2:15. Shit! I was supposed to meet him at Dadar by this time. I kick myself out of the bed and into the clothes.

And soon am on my way to Dadar on the train.

I don't mind going out on weekends. Its the get-up-and-get-going part thats the most difficult... Once I am ready and out of the house - you bring it on, baby, I am game!

I am supposed to get down at Dadar, meet Tish, and then continue with him to Churchgate. But midway, Tish calls me that he wont be able to make the rendezvous at Dadar. He will directly meet us at the Final Destination. So I continue an unbroken journey to Churchgate.

Even after being so late, I am the first one to arrive. The others are still on their way.
Once in Churchgate, I ask for directions to an area named Kala Ghoda (which means "Black Horse"). Its right opposite to the David Sasson Library, besides the Jehangir Art gallery. Today the area is decorated - like a bride dressed up for her Marriage - so full of makeup that you wont even recognize her, unless you are her relative or a very close friend. I pass the security check and enter the hustle bustle of what appears to be a modern day fair.

That's how I found myself in the Kala Ghoda Art Festival.

I am not an artist. Neither am I big connoisseur of arts. Ok. May be I do appreciate art in the written form, and some times in its colourfully painted form. But that's as far as I dare venture into the wonderous Artland..
So although I have been hearing about this annually held art festival in this Kala Ghoda area, I never thought of visiting it. Not until a few days back, when one of my friends Sush, suggested this to me. And so here I was, standing there clueless, gawking around at the carnival, like Alice in wonderland...

Sush and gang would be here soon. Meanwhile, I started to roam around but soon found it very difficult. Every step was an evasive maneuver to avoid walking into someone, while avoiding getting hit by someone else. Everyone was busy staring at something or the other - and NOT looking at where they were going... including me... There was suddenly so much to see! In vain, I tried to take in everything at once, and failed miserably. The sensory input was simply too much. Soon I discovered that the best way to actually make some sense out of everything that was on display, was by concentrating on one thing - taking in one art display at a time...

Right at the entrance, besides the security checkpoint, where there once used to be a triangular traffic island, was a collection of various art structures flanked by display kiosks on left and right. The back side facing the street was blocked off by a temporarily erected wall. And the front had a massive imitation of a projector surrounded by life-size photo-cutouts of famous bollywood film personalities. I tried to look around trying to make some sense of the art-forms around me. But the place was too crowded. People were staring at various displays. And I was staring at them all. This did not seem right. When in Rome, do what the Romans do... So I moved off to a display and tried to look at it appreciatively, trying to imitate an art patron, except not really understanding what it was all about.

The place was crowded. Very crowded. Like a Kumbh ka Mela in Mumbai. I noticed that there were 3 kinds of people present there.
1> Those who really appreciated the arts - the collectors and the art-lovers
2> Those who were there for the fun of it. Better to visit the festival than do the usual weekend stuff (namely go to mall or watch a movie). And it saved the money - free-of-charge entertainment.
3> Those who had no clue what the heck was going on and why they were here in the first place.
I certainly fell in the third category.

I proceeded further to an area which boasted some beautiful looking canopy made from little white and red similar-looking pieces joined together. On closer examination, I found out that it was all made from paper - by folding the paper to make single units, then joining the units together to make a square master unit, and then joining these squares to make the entire canopy! I was blown away! Imagine, the kind of effort that was put into making it! And that's when my true trip down the rabbit hole to Artland began!

Sush and gang arrived soon, and then I was no longer alone. We roamed the display of art structures collected at the entrance. There were a lot of structures made up of waste materials - trying to spread ecological awareness, I guess. The rest of the gang was well armed. Sush and Mole had got cameras. And they were busy shooting away. They had also got some eatables and drinking water. Another great forethought - because roaming around can make you both hungry as well as very thirsty.

Most of the structures here looked very haphazard to me - all jumbled up stuff brought together to form a design. It was impressive, but I personally did not find it much attractive. There were 2 displays I liked most. One was the plastic bottle rain. It was a small 7 feet high and some 5-6 feet wide frame. Inside the frame they had hung lots and lots of plastic bottles. And you had to pass through it. When I walked through the bottles, it felt strange - but nice. It was a very different kind of feeling. The bottles would instantly close around you. Would make you feel slightly claustrophobic, even disoriented. The bottles had a little water at their bottom to give them weight. So it felt cool as they brushed against your skin. And after the closed-in feeling, it felt great once you were out. On the whole it was a great idea. Another display I liked was done using lots of paper birds, and a light inside a closed pitch black canopy. That was impressive too.

From there on, the displays kept getting better. There was a huge fish made up of CD-ROMs. There was a horse made up of cardboard. There was a turtle made up by joining marble slabs - separated from each other by about 1 inch - so the effect of the equidistant slits forming the turtle's body, looked great. There were painted auto-rickshaws and cars. One of the cars was covered fully with coins. There was a very fancily decorated cycle. And a scooter decorated to resemble a bee - complete with wings! There was huge skull constructed only using e-waste. And a huge statue of Dabba-wala along with a huge dabba made by joining together hundreds of cans. Another artwork displayed a coffin with hands jutting out of it and holding a R.I.P. placard. It signified not to use mobile phones when driving.

All these structures were arranged in the middle of the road. And on either side of the road were the kiosks displaying artwork from different vendors. The artwork displayed there was great too - but pretty costly. We all refrained from actually buying anything.

We had roamed the entire display. But there was one thing that I was searching for, but did not find. There was no Black Horse in the Kala Ghoda Art festival. There was a Black Cow. But a cow is not a horse... Truth be told, there was a horse. But it was not black.

Soon it was evening. Darkness had descended on the entire fair. And the lights came on. And some of the displays looked even better in the dazzling display of colourful lights. How the time flew away! I never realized this festival could be so much fun! By this time, we were all tired and decided to call it quits.

From there we went on to the Gateway of India. There we had Vadapav, pani-puri, chana-jor-garam, roasted corn (bhutta) and tea. But not in that order. And Sush took a lot of pics.

Then we all decided to have something to eat. And so we went to the famous Delhi Durbar hotel. There we had a very sumptuous meal. I conveniently forgot it was a Saturday (I usually don't eat non-veg on Saturdays) and enjoyed some nice chicken. Then we had some nice paan and soon we were back on our way home.