Kali Puja,
Udang. West Bengal
October 2009

Post a lot of passionate convincing by my parents, I reluctantly agreed to spend my diwali away from the comfort-zone of my home in Mumbai. Diwali would be celebrated the traditional Bangali joint-family way - Kali Puja at our ancestral village Udang, a few hours from Kolkata.

It was to be a family reunion of sorts. Everyone would fly-in from their various perches and camp at Udang for 3-4 days. There would be the usual blur of activities - idol to be brought home, painted, dressed, decorated, the all night long puja with my favorite ceremony of lighting 100 diyas simultaneously at mid-night with conch shell telling off the bad spirits while married women form an O-mouth, barely sticking out their tongues and yell oolllooollloouuuu. And some happy kid gets to have the honor of banging the thick brass metallic disc with a wooden baton.... I had been a part of all this exciting pandemonium for years – until about 8 years ago when I was no longer the lucky kid banging the brass plate with a wooden baton...

The puja was just one part of the tradition. The rest included rituals like the incessant flow of hot cups of sweet tea from dawn to dusk, otherwise responsible adults sneaking off during the afternoon siesta time to steal coconuts, tamarind and other fruits from the neighbor's garden. In the evening, as the sun sets, we would all come together in the central courtyard armed with tabla, harmonium, sitar and tons of jhal muri. The music session would stretch late into the night. The moms would stir up a hot meal and feed everyone in lots of 10-12 while the men would sit around talking politics and discussing rising prices. Some old dadu with a flair for story telling would round up all the little ones and give them goosebumps with freaky village style ghost stories. Anyone who has watched bancharamer bagaan as a kid would know how spooky things can get in a such a setting.

The night sky studded with a million stars, the moon shimmering in it’s nest of clouds, the black palms swishing and swinging against the deep blue backdrop, ominous croaking toads and the sound of snakes slithering in to the darkness, the sudden flap of a bat wing... Imaginative, scary, unnerving and immensely exciting....

But lots has changed from those days - some of my favorite people are long dead and gone, landmarks from my childhood have vanished, replaced by houses or trees or structures. Plastic has unfortunately invaded the landscape, bright synthetic colors have replaced the earthy tones of mud houses and bulbs; naked, bright bulbs with red and yellow wires trailing all over the place have killed the sweet enigma of the sounds and smells of the village night.

Everything changes with time and I can only be grateful for having had the opportunity to enjoy Kali Puja in Udang when it was at it’s best. Here are some photographs from this year’s puja.

Monsoon Metamorphsis

Monsoon 2009

Acrylic on Canvas

48" x 24"

The Black Forest

The Black Forest

Acrylic on Canvas

24" x 24"

Dragon Gate

Koi Fish

Acrylic on Canvas
36" x 24" x 1.5"

A few months ago, I came across some fantastic Koi paintings, tattoo designs and artworks while surfing online. Koi, the Japanese name for carp, is a hardy species of fish that can survive and adapt to varied environments. China introduced the common carp to Japan some 600 years ago. Japan bred them for color in the 1820’s. The humble carp was transformed into the magnificently colorful, ornamental aquarium and pond fish. Koi was showcased to the world the very first time in 1914 at an exhibition in Tokyo. 

As with all things beautiful, stories and legends must follow. According to Japanese (or maybe its Chinese) legend  - a Koi fish swam upstream in the Yellow River, against all odds and succeeded in climbing the water fall at a point called Dragon Gate. As the fish jumped over the rise, it transformed into a majestic Dragon! 

Koi fish do swim upstream. Chinese believe they symbolizes nonconformist and independent thought in a person. Something like not going with the flow! Based on similar lines, is the thought that it symbolizes strength, aspiration, determination, achievement, ambition and perseverance towards one's goals. In Feng Shui, it is the symbol of wealth and prosperity, especially as the beautiful Koi transforms into the powerful Dragon. One of the more sought after decorative pieces is that of twin golden carp swimming atop gold coins. Its considered supremely lucky! Strangely enough or maybe by design,  The Chinese character for Carp is phonetically identical (apart from a difference in tone) to the character for advantage, and the character for fish is the same as that for abundance and wealth.  

This was my first Koi painting and since then, I've only gotten worse for trying. Currently on a break from painting Koi, I do plan to return some day soon to reattempt crossing my Dragon Gate... 

Entwined

Entwined
Oil on Paper

Entwined was painted over 12 years ago. I was still in my teens, trying to piece together the world and make sense of it all. I can’t say for sure what inspired this painting... I was probably exploring the nature of the man-woman relationship. Trying to find something more than the obvious of jobs, bringing up kids and paying the bills. Shared responsibility is great but is that all it works out to?

The titillating freshness of romance in the initial stages gives way to the comfort of companionship in a few years. But sooner or later, everything seems to be over-shadowed by responsibilities, monotonous routines and predictability. I probably painted what I saw. A couple resting after a long day’s haul of working, shopping, cooking, feeding, driving, worrying, fussing, nurturing and pampering their family.

When day breaks tomorrow, they will be up with the first rays of the sun; revived and ready to take on a new day. Over time, their roots will dig deeper into the warm soil and build a strong and secure foundation. Their arms will spread and branch out. There will be children, pets, friends and relatives. There’ll be occasions to celebrate, victories to rejoice, disappointments to contemplate, change of seasons and fortune, quite moments, loud moments, anger, frustration, love and forgiveness, whims and indulgences, thoughts and opinions, tears and laughter... Through it all, they’ll be together, entwined as they intended to be in their wedding vow. Living the destiny they had unknowingly created in the enchanted days of whispering sweet nothings. 
  

Everyday Is A Winding Road

Saved by the Headlights!

Oil on Paper

I love to getaway.... just pack my bags and go. But not all my impromptu jaunts go well. Like the time my mom tried talking me out of going to Gandhi Nagar during the floods in mid-1997. I was 19, impulsive and stubborn.

Gujarat had received more than half of its entire quota of rains in just 7 days resulting in heavy floods and water-logging. The State Government’s relief and rescue operations were taking place on a war footing with 1,500 army men and 6 Indian Air Force helicopters assisting the local authorities in evacuation. Media reports said that the helicopters had been airborne for about 50 hours and did 60 sorties dropping 23 tonnes of food packets, others essentials and carrying people to safety. Authorities claimed that nearly 50,000 people had been evacuated in the past 7 days.  

On the day I chose to travel, the death toll had crossed the dreaded 100 mark while another 25 people were suspected missing. Electricity and communication lines were down. Trains and airlines had temporarily stalled their services to the region. I managed to locate the one and only bus leaving for Ahmadabad from Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi that afternoon. And to my utter surprise and amusement, I wasn’t going alone.  Amongst the 23 passengers lined up to board the bus, was my friend and room-mate. I’ve no clue why she followed me into this madness... Leo’s and their warped sense of loyalty, I guessed!

The 24 hour journey stretched into 30 plus hours. The incessant rain, ominous clouds, thunder claps and the strong wind knocking on our deceptively fragile glass windows finally drove in the realization – this time I’d bitten off more than I could chew. To top it all – I was responsible for my friend’s safety. I wondered what my mom must have felt watching me board the last bus to Ahmadabad... The highway was free of traffic. Not a soul in sight for miles, only the trees creaking, bending and swaying wildly punctuated the eerie monotony of the ride. Abandoned and disheveled trucks, buses, jeeps, vans and cars lined both sides of the dark highway. Our food ration consisted of a few puffed up packets of wafers – with no dhabbas in sight and 2 bottles of water that didn’t last all that long, we drifted in and out of sleep for most of the journey. The atmosphere was somber and deathly quiet intercepted at intervals by the embarrassingly loud noise of a passenger unwrapping food, followed by self conscious chewing in slow motion. 

We arrived in Ahmadabad past midnight and except for the issue of wading in thigh-high cold water and going hungry that night, the rest of my trip turned out to be worth all the trouble and heart ache. It was actually fun! I headed to Gandhi Nagar the next morning and stayed on for a week. I spent my week wading the waterways to and fro my hostel and design school, packing up all my stuff to take back to Delhi with me. Said my goodbyes to the dhobi, canteen’s maharaj, juice and Amlette center, Pau Bhaji walla, Rajshree theatre at the celebrated Sector 21, my faculty, classmates, seniors and neighbors and so on. I was going to start my next term back in Delhi and there would not be a reason ever to come back to this quaint and supremely friendly township in Gujarat.

The painting here is one from my days in Gandhi Nagar. It’s called “ Saved by the Headlights!” for lack of humor and creativity in the face of peril. This is a sordid incident which took place on the Gandhi Nagar and Ahmadabad Highway but hey, I’ve survived both and much more and lived to tell the tale... that's what I chose to celebrate in this painting. Everyday is a winding road and it's all good. 

Painting demystified: it’s a highway, lined with trees on both sides and the stark glare of the headlights cutting through the night fog and thick undergrowth. 

Long Bonds

The Drinking Buddies

Oil on Paper

“ I know there’s something terribly wrong with her. I can feel it. But should I call?!” my friend confided over drinks one evening. The story goes, he’d been dating the woman of his dreams for seven long years and then somehow things didn’t work out. It was a long distance relationship across continents. But probably or precisely because of that, he’d developed this keen instinctive sense of knowing when she needed him the most - irrespective of the expanse of land and water and time zones separating the two. Was it ESP, were they somehow connected, how did he always know? A few days later, as it turned out, he was correct. She’d been ill for a week and had to be hospitalized. He had decided against calling her but it just so happened that her sister called him and shared the news... and now she’s well, of course.

Their friends used to call them the drinking buddies ( quite self-explanatory, I presume) and this painting is inspired by the special connection these two shared and still seem to do till date.

The conversation did upset me. It’s painful to see people in pain. So as I sat around playing with paints that night, I came up with a theory, if nothing else, at least it would help me sleep in peace. The theory goes - that once you love someone ( irrespective of the relationship and outcome), there’s a part of you that forever protects them...thus the womb in the center. The concentric reds, yellows and oranges are the levels of love, trust and protection you share... Running into the greens and blues which are the individual lives we continue to live. 

They were technically wine drinking buddies but at 2.00 am, I figured a beer bottle was just semantics.