Whose Land is it Anyway...

Truckers @Bijwasan

At the outset, tea was the focus; my window to the world.  I was looking at people on the streets who made and sold tea; at truck drivers sipping tea at the chaiwallah[i] stalls or dhabas[ii] as I passed by the Hindustan Petroleum depot at Bijwasan en route to Delhi, and more. This street life interested me but gradually I saw that drinking and making tea was integral to everyone’s daily life. Whether it was going to an exhibition opening or interviewing an artist, dropping by to see a friend, reading a book or reflecting over the previous day’s events over a morning cuppa, everything seemed to be linked to tea, including the dramas with my domestic help. However, the flavour that one found in the street settings was in many ways a contrast to this. And these people with their different life-styles and culture added that extra dash of colour to the canvas of my ‘garam masala chai’.   

Govind

When I started consciously looking around me, my first encounter was with Govind from Bihar who had a moveable cart as a tea-stall, just outside Celebrity Suites in Palam Vihar. I had barely left home when Bhupinder, who was driving my car, pointed him out to me. I was surprised not to have noticed this stall in all the years I have taken this route to Delhi, so ventured enthusiastically to take photographs but Govind was hostile. I was not about to be derailed on my first stop so explained what I was doing. He was neither impressed nor interested and barely seemed to listen. It was not a great start for me but I persisted and it took a good half hour or so before he eased up. He made some tea; I’d just had some before leaving home, so Bhupinder had a cup. Govind kept his utensils clean and neatly arranged. He served biscuits and gutka[iii], supari[iv] and crisps along with tea. People came and went, but not many. He was rather self-conscious and did not respond affably to questions about his life. Physically, he made quite a picture: well built with a growing pot-belly, bulging out from beneath his pale blue T-shirt, under a khakhi-coloured jacket whose buttons were left open and, his odd, sort of pointy, knitted cap.

Bhupinder drinking tea at Govind's tea-stall

 He was not to be seen in that space for a long time, after that. The cart lay abandoned for months and then, one day, he was serving tea again. I went up to say hello and asked where he had been and was told that he’d gone home to tend the fasal[v]. Sometime later, I found someone else at the stall. His younger brother had come to take care of this business while Govind handled farming duties back home.

On my exploration, I was to discover that numerous tea stalls, in and around Delhi, were run by people who had migrated from other parts of the country. I was also intrigued by the idea that tea, which was not really a native drink, but ‘imported’ into the country by the British, had somehow become the mainstay of the man on the street, both as a beverage and a business.

Naina Devi's customer

Historically, this expansion of tea consumption, brought about through the development of ‘chai’, occurred only after 1947. The evolution of this kind of tea, made by boiling tea leaves in a mixture of milk, water and sugar, with optional spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, clove, ginger and black pepper, came about with changes in the technology of tea processing. The full-leaf black teas were replaced by CTC ("crushed, torn, and curled") leaf which not only enabled tea estates to double their production but consumers could brew stronger infusions from smaller quantities of the more potent, tightly-rolled leaf granules. This lowered the cost of producing tea, making it accessible to the common man on the street, such that sixty-five years later, it has acquired a strong ‘Indian’ identity. 

Coming from Gurgaon on the outer Ring Road, just near Vasant Vihar, an old woman sits near tyres and tubes catering to a steady custom from the neighbouring petrol pump. White haired and petite, she squats comfortably on the pavement, making tea and omelettes. I love these omelettes rustled up on the street, with plenty of green chillies and stuffed between two slices of white bread. She also serves mathris[vi] favoured by workers from the petrol pump. 

Ramvati at work

There was a tremendous amount of curiosity from helpers at the gas station and passersby as I took photos of this diminutive, forlorn looking woman busy at work. But she was too busy serving her customers to even notice or care who came and did what, as long as you drank and ate something from her stall. It was winter and she was clad in a pink saree with a russet, almost dirty brown coloured shawl, carelessly wrapped around her shoulders with cheap nylon socks covering feet that were awkwardly shod in black plastic chappals[vii]. Sitting against a discoloured, greyish wall, surrounded by bright white eggs, dull aluminium pots, black tyres and tubes, she made an interesting study.

Every time since whenever I passed by, I saw her dressed in the same printed, pink polyester saree I’d photographed her in, when I first stopped by for tea and an omelette. Then, I noticed she was missing from her spot by the petrol pump. I thought that the MCD[viii] must be doing some sort of clean-up and she had been asked to move. Some months went by, I kept looking out for her and then one day her pink saree caught my eye. 

Ramvati on my second visit

 I was curious as to why she had been missing for so many months so stopped by to talk to her. It turned out that her son had cirrhosis of the liver.  He’d been admitted into hospital, so she’d shut shop to take care of him. She complained that he drank too much and as a ‘baccho ka baap[ix]’ his behaviour was irresponsible. Ramvati and her husband Hangal had come to Delhi from Burari in Uttar Pradesh, as she recounted: “When India fought the 1965 war with Pakistan and Lal Bahadur Shastri was the Prime Minister of India.”  Ramvati was, by her estimate, over sixty years old, had been married at the age of fourteen. She and her husband lived in a jhuggi[x] near a private school in Vasant Vihar.

I came across another migrant tea-stall lady in Palam Vihar, right at the Delhi-Gurgaon border post. The ample bodied Naina Devi was dressed in a printed salwar kameez[xi], wearing a pale olive-ish green sweater embroidered with red and white flowers over this, and a peacock-ish blue dupatta covering her head. She sat crossed-legged on her cart, inside it, making tea. Her young daughter Poonam played nearby while Naina served a steady stream of customers. Residents of posh Palam Vihar, labour working on construction sites, local policemen, drivers from neighbouring houses to passersby who came on foot or riding motor-cycles, all patronized her stall.  Naina Devi hails from Ajmer, Rajasthan. Naina was the only one left here with her stall because at the time of the CWG[xii] clean-up, the authorities had moved everyone else away. She now had her cart positioned at the periphery of some private farm land and paid to park it there. 



Naina Devi with her daughter Poonam[top left],

 the security guard[top right and bottom left] 

serving some customers[bottom row centre] 

Her husband worked in Delhi for a ‘company’ while she sold tea. Naina was friendly and asked why I wanted to take photos of her and her cart. She posed obligingly and so did her customers. Her clientele was mostly labourers who took the tea in plastic bags because it dispensed with the tedium of buying, carrying and storing an aluminium kettle. To others, she served tea in plastic cups. Unlike most chaiwallahs she did not make tea in the ubiquitous aluminium kettle. She used a cup-like ladle to pour milk into a dekchi[xiii] where she ‘cooked’ the tea. This was also used to pour tea into cups. For those who took tea in the plastic bags, a small, ridged, thickened, greenish glass, often seen in a chai ki dukan[xiv], was used as a measure.

Serving tea in plastic bags

A pile of debris lay beside her cart. I assumed it was either left there or swept into a corner at the end of the day and wondered why a dustbin could not be used instead. Some labourers drank the tea sitting on their haunches on the pavement, crouching on a large stone or on the ground itself, comfortable almost anywhere it seemed. But when it came to disposing of the cup, they just chucked the plastic cup in the air, letting it land wherever it did, uncaring of cleanliness. 

Dhabas outside Bijwasan Oil depots

Most of these people seemed to come from rural areas and small towns. They come as labour to build other people’s homes or as businessmen, selling tea in between harvesting the crop in their village lands.  Did this create lack of a sense of belonging? Was it their reason for not keeping the place clean? I also noticed that the dhabas patronized by truckers in Bijwasan just threw their garbage onto the street.  The trucker drivers didn’t seem to notice or care. They kept their vehicles in tip-top condition but did not care the same way for the streets they roamed. Mongrel dogs sat at their feet and fed off the garbage whilst they sipped tea and chatted. This apathy reminded me of countless occasions when I’ve seen even relatively affluent households sweep garbage away from their doorstep onto the street, as if the responsibility for cleanliness and hygiene ended there. It has always irked me to see people deface the walls, throw refuse onto the streets from moving cars, spit and urinate on the road. They do not think the streets belong to them, which really baffles me because, if they do not belong to citizens of the country, then to whom do they belong? 

Post independence, advertisements promoting tea encouraged the idea of an energy-enhancing drink which was good for individual and national health. Some even suggested that tea had the ability to create “alert, energized citizens”, free of the "lassitude" that the British commonly attributed to their native subjects”, towards building the ‘New India’.  Sixty- five years on, a lot has changed: we have been advertised as ‘India Shining’, ‘Incredible India’ and more. Tea, once the elite Colonizers’ drink has become a national beverage but has it made us the “alert, energized citizens” of the envisioned New India? [xv] 

Glasses and mugs being brought around for sale to dhaba
owners at Bijwasan

Realistically speaking, neither tea nor any beverage for that matter, can possibly take on such an onerous task; however we can, but do we? The larger question that troubles me is why is it always someone else’s problem, fault or garbage?  When will we start taking responsibility for little things in our daily lives and feel a sense of belonging? Delhi is made up of a large migrant population. My own father’s family came here after partition and there are many of us who have thus become Delhi-ites or residents of Gurgaon. These migrant tea-wallahs made me question the idea of belonging: what does it take to claim ownership in little the things that make up a nation?

 

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[i] Tea sellers

[ii] Roadside eatery

[iii] Tobacco mix

[iv] Beetel nut

[v] Harvest/crop

[vi] Savoury biscuit

[vii] chappals

[viii] Municipal Corporation of Delhi

[ix] Father of children/parent

[x] Slum dwelling

[xi] Loose,pleated pants and tunic

[xii]Commonwealth Games

[xiii] Saucepan/cooking pot

[xiv] Tea shop

[xv] Quotes from Tasveer Ghar

Minding My Cardamoms...

I find it difficult to function when there’s too much going on inside my head. I need a fair amount of time to put things into perspective, whether it’s an exhibition I have seen or people I have met or even articles or books that I have read. These engagements lose their charm when I have to switch off and tend to mundane issues or push all the connections I am making with myself, through these interactions, to put my mind elsewhere. Some may see it as not being disciplined and often I wonder if indeed I do not have enough self discipline and am indulging myself too much by delving deep into things that do not necessarily have an apparent function in the everydayness of living.

This week was an intense one. I enjoyed every bit of what I did.  Some exhibitions that I saw were thought provoking and the ideas were reiterated by things in the world around me. One artist had made a video of birds flying, talking about the logic of birds. The concept was evocative because I have a lot of pigeons living around me and ever since I saw that video, every time I see them make those formations in the air, I begin musing. This adds to my tension because there are articles and reviews to write, emails to respond to; the plumber had promised to come but hadn’t and on top of everything else, my internet and phone line was down. Could I really afford to sit idly contemplating pigeons in flight?

Be present, I keep reminding myself, deal with things as they come up. I know that when I do so, life is easier to handle and complex things fall into place effortlessly, but I still falter. I enjoy being deep and intense as much as it irks me because everything seems to take an age to put into perspective and ideas keep coming up, often when least expected. There is always so much to do that 24 hours are just not enough. The older I get, the more I want to do and explore in life; I feel restless, thinking, will I ever get it all done?

This morning, I decided I wanted a different flavour of tea. Earl Grey or masala chai made by Mahipal or Puja didn’t appeal, so I decided to make some cardamom tea. Not the pakki hui chai[i] they brew on the stove, in the kitchen. No, I opted for the elaborate process of mixing the tea and spices in the tea pot itself, for a more delicate flavour and fragrance.

Mittals in Sundar Nagar have a ready-made pack of cardamom tea, which is part of their ‘natural range’ and it’s already got the cardamom seeds mixed in with Darjeeling tea leaves. I find Darjeeling a rather tricky brew. If you leave the tea leaves a tad too long it becomes karva[ii]. I like a good colour but the lighter brew, so I add some loose leaf tea.  For each cup of tea I plan on drinking I grind three to four hari elaichi[iii] along with their skin and let it sit in hot water for a couple of minutes and then add the ready-mixed cardamom tea with a pinch of loose leaf tea. It’s a delicate and involved process. I have to keep a close eye on the colour, adding more of the loose leaf if need be. I taste the brew till I get it right: neither sweet nor bitter. I then strain the tea into a thermos to keep it warm, which I then sip leisurely, most often as I write. 
 I like a white cup to drink my tea in. It shows off the colour of the tea to its best. Today, the tea has a lovely orange tinge, veering somewhere between a mild russet to auburn, softened by the whiteness of milk. It’s a warm, mid-tone, delicate in hue and on the tongue. But, while brewing, it tested my nerves, especially when I stirred it well to ensure the leaves were infusing all their flavour in good time [so as not to let the tea get bitter]. It was so muddy that I never thought I would get this delicate flavour. It looked completely undrinkable, almost as bad as dirty dish-water. And when I added the milk, it looked like a complete disaster. I hadn’t done this ritual in a while, so felt as though I had lost the knack of getting it right. But then I let it settle a bit, and as the dull green leaves, fully opened, and settled at the bottom of the glass pot, I felt reassured. All was well; I had not brewed it too long or added too many tea leaves. 

In those tense moments - yes, getting the tea right does create some measure of tension; I was reminded of the way thoughts brew in my mind. When it gets crowded, as this week had been and everything gets stirred by added stimulus of going places, meeting people or surfing the internet. When I have to deal with all manner of things from household repairs to a neighbours brush with the condominium management, pay bills, contentious dialogues with the servants and so much more, the blah, blah in my head screams overload! My body goes into a sort of paralytic mode, refusing to get up in the morning and then moves as if it is a leaden log. It certainly feels like something nasty is brewing inside.

But, as I do yoga, write in my journal, meditate and do some healing and affirmations, let it all settle, the different feelings and thoughts find their own space, and the previous day and its events and engagements are gradually put into perspective. In a sense, I do what I did when making the cardamom tea: keep looking at the brewing thoughts, feeling my way through the information that has built-up quite sub-consciously, to ascertain, through the maze of ideas, what it is that I am really thinking. This sometimes takes the better part of the day and requires a great deal of discipline to see through but it feels good once I have done it. I find that it’s all right, life’s good! The brew has a perfect flavour and colour. Everything is exactly as it’s supposed to be.

All is well in my world. I haven’t got lost in the maze of ideas. There really is no conundrum, its completely clear, well a little diffused because I like milk in my tea, but the crisis that seemed to loom in my head is under control. It is uncanny how making this particular tea this morning, needing to focus, because I had not made it in a while, ensured I was fully present to its process. In that mental silence, distracted from the weeks cacophony of events, the correlation I made between the process of brewing tea and thoughts mulling in my mind reassured and reminded me to have faith in the elaborate ritual of introspection that I had cultivated.

For no matter how intense it gets, or how hellish the brewing in one’s head can seem, it really is not that dissimilar to making a cup of flavourful, cardamom tea.

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[i] Cooked tea

[ii] bitter

[iii] Green cardamoms

One Woman's Choice

She is shy. She never looks me in the eye when she talks, but neither does she look away either, just tilts her head to one side, looks down, then up and asks some oblique question. Often when I addressed her, asking her to do something, she’d nod silently in a way that made me doubt my request had registered, but it would be done without a fuss. And it took a year for me to understand how much she processed in her mind, without articulating, or letting you know what she is feeling.

The other day, when reprimanded for taking too much time off from work, she revealed she had been sick for the better part of the month, but had come to work nonetheless. I felt guilty; knowing her temperament I should have realised there would be good reason. It was about ten days later that I was apprised of what was troubling her when she said “mera pati mujhe pareshan kar raha hai, vo kehta hai ke naukri chod do, kisi ne shikayat ki hai, ke mein aur mardon se zyada baatein karne lagi hu![i]”He had apparently been pestering her for a while and she could not deal with the tension anymore.

Her husband Ranjeet works with the local municipal department as a sweeper and earns a modest salary of about four thousand rupees. He and Priti live in Shankar Vihar, on the periphery of Palam Vihar, across the railway line that comes down from Gurgaon to Bijwasan. Isha, her neighbour, had brought Priti to work for me. Ranjeet had accompanied them for the interview and seemed a decent sort of guy, so I was surprised at the things I kept hearing about him.

 A few months ago, the cook’s temporary replacement Neha, had been making erotic calls to Ranjeet while Priti listened in. This came to my knowledge because of some other issue When Ranjeet discovered that I knew, he demanded that Priti leave the job. She didn’t want to. I suggested she assert herself and not refer to the incident again, as most likely he was not proud of what he had indulged in. She never brought it up again and work continued as per normal until this morning, when she said that someone had told her husband that she was cavorting with Mahipal, an old hand who has worked with me for twenty years.

I was as surprised to hear this as she was, not because Mahipal is a saint, but because Priti was reserved and I had not heard her speaking much to the other staff. There had been an incident a couple of years ago when Mahipal and another maid had got romantically involved, creating a major upset in my household and his marriage. But I thought that I had given him such a hard time as had his wife, so he must have learned his lesson, at least as far as my maids were concerned.

Priti is petite and pretty, is about twenty years old and her daughter is four. She dresses decently in clean and colourful salwar kameezes with matching dupattas. I’d see her walk into the complex, alone, every morning while Mahipal rode in on his ‘Scooty’. They came to work independently but at the same time. However, Priti left earlier and the chance of anyone seeing them chatting together, except those who work inside my apartment, was really an off-chance. It troubled her because she said, “Mein toh kisi se baat nahin karti hu”[ii], all the other women chat up the drivers and guards, but I just sign in and take the lift up.”

She also revealed that Ranjeet would drink and beat her up in his inebriated state, and often walked around the colony in dirty clothes even though she had new ones stitched for him. The neighbours would taunt her by asking what his problem was, why he behaved this way, citing that she earned as much as he did, kept a good home and they ate well too. I too thought the same: Why would any man do this?

Why was he insecure? Did he think she was too beautiful for him? Today, he finds fault with a male employee in my home, even though he had no qualms about flirting with another woman under his wife’s nose, indulging in erotic sexual tele-talk. Tomorrow he’d find fault with someone or something else. I asked if my talking to him would help, thinking I could explain that these situations could come up wherever she works and that he had to find the capacity to trust her. But is the problem really about trusting her, or his lack of confidence?

She kept saying, “Aadmi toh aadmi hota hai, guzara toh karn hai[iii], I’ll have to do what he says” elaborating that “my mother says phir koi kaam nahin karna, ghar pe he baithe rehna[iv]” I asked if she was okay with this and she responded saying, “Last month, I saved my salary to pay for my daughter’s school admission. How will I educate her, if there is only one income? He’ll send me to the village to stay with his mother and in all probability my daughter will not be educated in the way that I want her to be”.

I asked if she’d talked to her father. She said, “Mein toh papa ke samne kuch nahin keh sakti hu[v]” There was a tattoo on her arm that said ‘Priti and Ranjeet’ in Hindi, prompting me to think that she had married him of her own choosing but she revealed that he was twelve years older and her parents had arranged the marriage. Ranjeet apparently sported the same tattoo on his arm too. I could see a gentle blush on her face and glint in her eyes as she shyly recounted when the tattoo was inscribed. They had clearly shared some special moments despite it being an arranged marriage.

The status of women in India has had a chequered history from enjoying equality with men in ancient times to female infanticide and dowry deaths in recent times. Many women were part of India’s freedom movement but many wives, sisters and daughters were also burned alive to protect them from the rape and violence that took place during partition. Annie Besant[vi]  and Sarojini Naidu[vii] both served, independently, as Presidents of the Indian National congress and Vijay Lakshmi Pandit was not just the first Indian to become the President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1953; she was also the first woman in the world to hold this office. Indira Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister, of almost fifteen years, is the longest for any woman in the world.

In addition, the current President of the nation and Speaker of the Lok Sabha are both women. However, despite according women such high office and prestige, we also indulge in bride burning, child marriage and domestic violence. The Constitution of India guarantees equality to all women but there is wide gender disparity in literacy between men and women which has a negative impact on family planning and could contribute to women like Priti lacking the confidence to stand up to their husbands. Yet one has also seen women from the same social strata make bold choices to remarry with children from their first marriage. Some even chosing to abandon them to remarry.

There is a great deal of development around us where large tracts of farm land have been sold to build multi-storied urban housing, creating a lot of wealth for farmers and villagers around the metros. Mobile phones have made telephonic connectivity accessible to all parts of the country and all income groups. All of this has brought about a lot of change in the social profile but is the issue of how women are regarded within personal relationships really a social issue or an individual one? And how much does the social environment influence personal choices?

Priti earns, but that’s a threat. She can be financially independent, but does not have the will to leave an abusive husband; paradoxically she has the courage to want to deal with this but not to fend for herself and her child. Yet neither does she seem able to assert herself within the marriage, maintaining her independence and being respected as an equal partner. She has to find the courage to tackle him one way or another. It can’t pay to give into his insecurity, but for someone as reticent as Priti, asserting herself may not come easy. I know from my own experience that this is easier said than done. Personal ‘Mahabharata’s’ are fraught with subtle dilemmas that are hard to unravel. It can get ugly and emotionally stressful. However spiritually enlightening these experiences may end up being, no one comes out of them in shining armour.

 Her husband did not come see me, her mother came instead. The woman seemed intent upon separating them but her daughter was not keen. Priti left the job abruptly, coming to collect her dues a couple of weeks later, when she mentioned to my other domestic help that she would like to come back. When I called, she said Ranjeet had been treating her better and indicated she could resume working, as they do miss the extra income. She then handed the phone to Ranjeet who said he doesn’t mind the money, but the problem was that when Priti was earning “bolti bahut hai![viii]”

The dynamics of this equation were complex. I thought it was best to let them sort it out on their own.The woman was quiet but no walk-over. She had a mind of her own and, although generally reserved, I am told she was capable of a sharp tongue and that working here had given her some confidence to stand up to Ranjeet. And when she did, she gave as good as she got. This did not strike me as a woman who had given up her job to sustain her relationship because she was afraid to stand up to him.

She earned as much as he did and if she had walked out of the marriage, she and her daughter would live off the kind of money he was presently earning and one less mouth to feed. Her mother had tended to her child while she was at work, so this too would have been taken care of. When her mother had asked me to ascertain the legalities of her moving out, I called the women’s cell in Gurgaon, but Priti did not want to know what needed to be done. She struck me as a woman who may not like confrontation and contention, but did not lack confidence either. The choice she made was not determined by logic but her heart and this eventually requires a lot of faith. She had talked as though the situation bothered her. She had dilemmas but looking at various options presented and discussed with her, she ascertained what she wanted to do, or rather what she did not want to do.

Can she be faulted? In this day and age when women are encouraged to take a stand and walk away, prove their mettle in the world rather than within testing relationships, Priti was going against the tide. What she was doing could be lot harder than walking away. From what I have heard, she is not keeping well. She is sacrificing a lot and it must be uncomfortable to deal with a choice that defies reason. But personal issues involve personal choices and while social conditioning may play a part, for someone as silently strong willed as Priti, perhaps there could have been no other choice.

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[i] My husband is harassing me, says leave the job, someone has tattled, saying that I have become very chatty with other men.

[ii] I dont’ speak to anyone

[iii] A husband [man] is a husband,  have to endure/compromise/make do

[iv] Then don’t plan on working, you will have to stay at home

[v] I cannot say anything in front of/to my father

[vi] 1917

[vii] 1925

[viii] talks to much [is vocal about her feelings]

Of Kaavads and Kanvarias

Each year during the month of Saawan, which usually falls in August, the long drive from Gurgaon to Delhi and back, is peppered with ‘Kanvariyas[i] bringing the ‘Kaavad’ or holy water carried on poles, from the Ganges, on the way back to their village temples in Gurgaon. Bhupinder, who drives my car, takes great pleasure in pointing them out to me; some barefoot, some in trucks with blaring music and others resting in the make-shift tents on the route. He delights in giving me details of their customs and the peculiarities of the ritual, where some I believe, do not put the pot of water on the ground through the entire journey on foot from Haridwar until they get home. Even when they take a nap, someone from their party of travellers is entrusted with the task of holding it on his shoulders. And Bhupinder insists that custom dictates that no one ever does this yatra[ii] only once; it has to be made at least twice in your life-time. The vagaries of sacrifice to challenge oneself, as presented through such religious rituals, never fails to amaze and fascinate me. 
 

In October 2011, I walked through the glass doors of the newly furbished gallery at Lalit Kala Academy in New Delhi, into another experience with the Kaavad. This time it referred to a portable shrine, containing painted narratives which travelling performers, like the Kaavadiya Bhats of Rajasthan used as a prop for their storytelling, where the narrator would open each door of the Kaavad to reveal a new layer, building anticipation with each new painted one to finally enter the inner core. Using this concept, artist Gulammohammed Sheikh[iii] created a monument called ‘Home’. This life-sized, box-like structure with panelled doors opened out to enable one delve deeper into the central core of the shrine, ponder on various images on the way, as each panel or door was opened. It was constructed in part by paintings with acrylic and melamine on wood, and a digital and electrically lit roof of the central hall, depicting the Baroda sky-line with various buildings that crowd the city, inhabited and abandoned, surrounding the sky like a constructed wall. Floating in the middle of this pale greyish-blue expanse, were all manner of mythical characters drawn from various texts and traditions, across the globe.

 

 I felt like a novice, a first time Kanvaria; intimidated by the swirl of images and words of the artist’s painterly universe of cross-referenced imagery that I was not well acquainted with. Rama and the deer Maricha, an angel from the Renaissance art of Italy, figures from a South-east Asian version of the Ramayana, profound words from Kabir with painted images of this weaver saint, a Chinar tree presented as the tree of life where a burning car and refugees carrying their baggage on their head, were a part of this journey through life. In addition, images from the artist’s earlier works were also presented. Visuals of the nuclear cloudburst of Hiroshima, Gandhi, Hitler and much more were also presented in various forms; some in smaller shrines or Kaavad-like boxes, others in digitally printed accordion-style books and as large 3-D sculptural installations. At first, I did not relate to this exhaustive outpouring for I could not find an immediate, succinct message in its vast intellectual exploration, such as I needed, to feel reassured in its midst. But I was enchanted by the marvel of technology in the making of the digital books and the eighteen-minute, three-channel video, where the artist and his collaborator had played enchantingly with all these images, juxtaposing them in historically unprecedented ways,  where the imagined and the real, all came together in a kind of surreal fantasy. 
 

 

Viewing this exhibition of works by artist Gulammohammed Sheikh was akin to a pilgrimage; necessitating humility, reverence and silence to view, question, listen and understand. I was humbled by my ignorance of myths, lore, history and even some contemporary events, which Sheikh presented that I felt I should have been able to recall, but could not. I read Kavita Singh’s simple yet elegant essay, watched the videos of work-in-progress and sat through the three-channel video, alone. Watching clouds and Sheikh’s version of ‘Mappae mundi[iv] merge, as people from the past converged with the present, I saw through aerial maps from Google, what this, our corner of the earth looked like from the sky; where perhaps some unseen eye of God observed and judged, and then maybe not.

Sheikh explored notions of a world gone by through figures of the past. He also called into question, by juxtaposing them with the contemporary world, the way we live today. He brought into play the demolition of Babri Masjid, Godhra riots and the issue of ‘whose Kashmir’: to whom does this coveted land belong? Were the sweepers of Baroda, who sweep away the city’s dirt, also the very people instrumental in creating the violence that Gujarat has seen?  All this and more was referenced in a quest to find meaning or solace or some perspective. Searching for clarity, Sheikh sieved through years of human history, asking us to question the premise of our existence today and where we draw our ideas from.

He questioned not just parameters of contemporary life and historical ways of living, such as a possible parallel, in the traditional churning of the seas or samundra manthan and the bombing of Hiroshima; Sheikh also enquired into the all-encompassing notion of life itself. Is there a right way or a wrong way to live? Was Ravana’s deception, his disguise as the deer Maricha legitimate? Sheikh drew me into an internal dialogue with myself, compelling me to question my own exploration of these ideas, making me aware of deeper reaches of my cultural and philosophical past. Like the Kanvarias I had observed on NH8, I too did not put the quest to rest, but kept up this solitary conversation with the artworks, even after I had left the gallery space. And when I returned home, late in the evening, I went through my library of books, looking up all those characters and notions I lacked in knowing.  

In this vast, exhaustive and intellectually rich presentation, I felt over-awed by the legendary characters and events which Sheikh had chosen to speak through, but where the self-effacing artist had seemingly retreated into the background, leaving me to decide for myself.  I cannot claim mastery over this vast repertoire of intellectual icons. I have not really explored these specific facets of life, or read the books he has, nor pondered the profundity of these words. When humbled by my inept and limited knowing, how could I possibly decide what the truth was, what was right or wrong, if at all? But Sheikh did not tell us. He presented a gamut of ideas, lending direction, but implying that each one had to decipher the truth for themselves.  

        

This pilgrimage, my very own experience as a novice Kanvaria, of carrying the burden of my ignorance through Sheikh’s universe, reminded me with each step, of all the world’s literature, myths and lore I had yet to explore; of countless intellectual journeys I had yet to take, or as Bhupinder had told me that a Kanvaria must do, at least twice in my life-time. As I sipped a cup of tea the next morning, I wondered: if and when I have performed this gargantuan intellectual exercise, will I find some answers to the all-encompassing, paradoxical nature of life? Does anyone?

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[i] The Kānvar Yatrā or Kavad Yatra  is the annual pilgrimage of devotees of Shiva, known as Kānvarias, to Hindu pilgrimage places of Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand to fetch holy waters of Ganges River, Ganga jal, which is later offered at their local Shiva temples. It is named after the kānvar (काँवर), a single pole (usually made of bamboo) with two roughly equal loads fastened or dangling from opposite ends. The kānvar is carried by balancing the middle of the pole on one or both shoulders. This practice of carrying Kavad as a part of religious pilgrimage, especially by devotees of Lord Shiva, is widely followed throughout India

[ii] Pilgrimage to holy places such as confluences of sacred rivers and/or places associated with Hindu epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana, and other sacred pilgrimage sites

[iii] (b. 1937) is an artist, educationist and writer whose work has spanned more than five decades. He is a founder-member of Group 1890, which was founded in 1963 by a group of artists.

[iv] Mappae mundi were schematic and meant to illustrate different principles These diagrams were primarily meant to preserve and illustrate classical learning. The zonal maps were a kind of teaching aid—easily reproduced and designed to reinforce the idea of the Earth's sphericity and climate zones.

Cross-Stitching

In December, Delhi usually gets quite chilly. But last year, the weather was exceedingly strange. Most of December was so warm that I didn’t need to wear socks or even loosely wrap a shawl. One night, however, it rained.  The next day, Friday, was bleak; no sun and the chill seemed to seep in. I wrapped up well but couldn’t adapt quickly enough to this unpredictable weather. I had the sniffles that night. Did the usual ministrations to prevent a full blown cold but the symptoms didn’t totally disappear. I pushed myself to do yoga the next morning. I had overslept and felt very lethargic, but slowly got myself together and actually managed the full regimen which always makes me feel really good; in control. 

Kantha from Bangladesh approx 1970-80's

But later, I felt sluggish again, so decided to drink some masala chai with adrak, Tulsi and Echinacea, combining them with the other spices that make up the regular masala. Adrak heats up the body temperature, Tulsi, with its anti-oxidant properties boosts the immune system and Echinacea is also good for colds. I could have done some mudras to raise the body temperature, exercises to activate the thymus, as I did the  evening before, but sometimes all this doing really becomes tedious. How much healing can I do? Why do I have to get a cold, when there is so much to be done? Spend the whole day pandering to whatever emotional need was creating this dis-ease in my system? Trying to balance oneself through each day, between ideals, aspirations and the practical aspects of living,   means looking at everything with a fine toothcomb and sometimes it gets to me.

 I needed some creative intervention, so added finishing touches to the embroidery I had been working on; a portrait of Jehangir, the child who works at a tea stall in Palam Vihar. This had taken quite a while to complete and the process had been thought provoking too.  It was challenging to bring, the gamut of my experience of engaging with this boy, into a visual context. I had taken digital photographs, worked with Photoshop on them, then had these images digitally printed onto fabric.  

 The ideas that emerged from my experience did not convey lushness or a comfortable feeling. So I opted to use fabric that had an everyday quality; not glossy or expensive.  I used muslin and markeen for the digital printing, layered the images in multiples of three; one on markeen [as the base] and two on mul. I then stitched these layers together with a loose running stitch, like those used in ‘kantha’ embroidery of Bengal.  I feel a bit odd appropriating its name and associations when my usage has no direct relationship to the tradition, but I do like the idea of what I am doing being rooted in such a rich tradition of crafting. I recollect reading about Kantha, or Sujni as it is called in Bihar, for the first time in the early 1980s. The India Magazine carried a story about how women used old and worn-out dhotis, worn by men, and sometimes sarees, to make quilts; stitching together three or more layers of this well-worn and softened fabric with a running stitch and sometimes a back stitch too. I have been fascinated ever since, but incorporated this technique in my own work, just five or six years ago.

I love the rugged quilted look that comes from binding layers of soft, well-worn material together. Depending upon the distance between the rows of stitches and the thickness of the layers, the texture is quirky and unpredictable, augmenting the narrative such that form or colour alone could not. The women of Bihar and Bengal create lush, naive imagery with this technique; embroidering stories around religious myths and their own lives, depicting daily and festive rituals, often finishing the work with woven borders cut out of old sarees. I work in my own way, not really drawing upon these traditional practices. I tally the colour of my thread with the colours on the printed fabric, changing as needed, to match the colour modulation of the printed image, but I use the thread-work to bring out the features of people, utensils, kettles, tea cups and the stains in them. I watch what emerges intuitively and then orchestrate the technique, threads, colour and textures to bring out qualities that are evocative of my thoughts and feelings about the person or situation.

Jehangir was a difficult task. How could I convey my frustrations, limitations, guilt and concern without overriding this young boy’s courage, or the spirit with which he and others like him accepted their life and its travails with grace? To me, he seemed so grown up, so unlike the children of more wealthy and privileged parents. At his young age of ten or so, he was taking responsibility for his family, working to provide food and shelter, assisting his parents in doing so. How many of us have had to do this at ten?

I was about the same age when I learned cross-stitch embroidery.  A birthday gift-set of some fabric and designs to embroider had me spend many hours, during school holidays that winter, doing this. Cross stitch is not part of the popular repertoire of traditional Indian embroidery but, just like its more natural for me to speak the English language than write or converse in Hindi, cross stitch is also ‘native’ to my fingers. I once tried to transfer a well-known Indian miniature painting of a ‘nayika’ in a red dress, seated on a bed of white flowers waiting for her lover, onto fabric, using cross stitch. I gave up after a year because I had chosen too fine a count of fabric, and had barely managed to complete one-third of the whole picture in this time.

There’s something very fascinating about the process of embroidering a picture using squares. This breaks down the figure not unlike the pixels of a digital image. The cross-stitch method uses fabric that has little squares, demarcated with dots for easy insertion of the needle. The square is then defined by means of a thread that crosses itself, diagonally, going in and out of the four holes. There are many variables of this fabric called Aida or cross-stitch matte, manufactured specifically for this type of embroidery. The varieties you get in Delhi are very coarse as cross-stitch is not popular, so I have to go to great lengths to get the fabric I need. The latest purchase was on-line from a store in Australia, where I paid an exorbitant amount for it, primarily because of the cost of sending it all the way to India. However, I love the patterns you can make using this fabric; and the ordered manner in which these are executed, appeals to my inherent need for order.

Woman's dress, Paksh
from Baluchistan,
Pakistan, late C19th,
cross-stitch used
among other
embroidery stitches

This language of thread, using a traditional stitch like ‘Kantha’ along with     the adopted ‘tradition’ of cross stitch, makes me marvel at how customs from diverse cultures have become part of my own. I have no idea about the origin of cross-stitch and how it permeated the Indian psyche. Everyone I asked assumed it must be related to the influence of Christian missionaries or a more direct, colonial fall-out. I had gone to an Irish Catholic, convent school so am familiar with how much of the culture they brought with them has unquestioningly percolated into our lives. When did they come to India? Did the practice of cross-stitch really come through them or was there some other link? I did some quick research, and discovered few examples of cross-stitch in garments from Hissar, Bihar, Sindh and Baluchistan. Most were folk and tribal dresses from around the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Kasuti, which is done in Karnataka, also uses the spaces between warp and weft threads, counting them, to create geometric patterns but, as yet, I have not found out how this technique came to the sub-continent or why it remains on the periphery of the embroidery practices for which India is renowned.

skirt fabric, mid C20th, Kutch, Gujarat
 or Sindh Pakistan

Kasuti

Embroidered woollen shawl, Hissar,
Haryana,  [cross stitch] c.1880

Sipping my tea, warming my hands as I held the round white cup, I started thinking on another tangent - of the larger socio-political influences.  Was it possible that ideas governing our attitude to life, ourselves and to people like Jehangir, today, were derived like cross-stitch, from cultures that had seeped into ours through centuries of invasion and rule by foreigners, but were technically not Indian?  How relevant is this question of identity, the origin of things? I mean what’s relevant, is what is, right? The much touted spiritual mantra of the day, of living in the present moment, seems to contradict my quest to study the past but this mystery, whodunit trail is just too fascinating to pass up on.  

The investigation may lead to nothing, or to some nebulous, unintelligible idea or infinitely, unrealistic possibilities, but the process of examining how things came into being; what came from where, when and how and the possibility of their influence on my thinking, intrigues me. Unravelling these threads doesn’t just fuel my curiosity, it lends purpose to being. It’s as if I am becoming acquainted with the dots or squares or pixels, as it were, that paint the larger picture of me. Inspired by this criss-cross of threads from the past, I return to look at the thoughts I’d earlier neglected to examine, which had brought on the sniffles.

 

Contemporary Sujni, Bhusara, Bihar, 2005