TND West

Any time that one gets to travel in India, it’s a cause for celebration.  It’s an amazing place, and many people hope to visit it during their lifetime and never get the opportunity.  There are many fantastic places to see here, and everyone here will have a thousand recommendations, and the diaspora is very large and so everywhere you go in the world, there will be more recommendations.  If you can listen to all of them, it’s a great idea, because word of mouth can reveal many things that might have gone unnoticed otherwise.  Mumbai, of course, is one of the most exciting cities in the country, and in the entire world.

There is always something exciting and interesting happening in Mumbai, and there’s truly no other place on earth like it.  It has an unusual, and very intense, energy, and it’s been like that for centuries.  Some of the greatest minds and talents in the world are drawn here, looking to meet similar sensibilities.  It’s a very accessible place for tourists, as there are many fantastic hotels.  Mumbai, India offers something spectacular for everyone, and this is particularly evident in the art.  While there are some amazing museums where one can find classical works, there is also very edgy new work, like that of ChitraKarKhana.

This is an ongoing project by local Mumbai artist Shaina Anand, who is an enormously prolific filmmaker and media critic.  Her form is usually documentary, and she’s made and been involved in a stunning number of projects, and seems to be showing no signs at all of slowing down.  Part of her aesthetic is the DIY, Do-It-Yourself, school of filmmaking, often doing projects with low or no budget.  It’s extraordinary work, and shows a great deal of compassion for the human race, which is something we are always finding in short supply.  She is also the winner of a Charles Waller Indian Trust award, and has shown work all over the world, including the amazing Ars Electronica in Linz.  This is a cutting edge facility, with extremely far-sighted technicians and artists working on science and the future in art, and her work falls splendidly into their rhizomatic notions of what is possible right now.

“Are you ready for a museum?” I asked Deb after we ordered our chapati, bhelpuri and a couple of gin and tonics. We had been to cathedrals, temples and markets and I thought the slower pace of a museum visit was in the offing. “Um, sure,” she said, “What’s it called?” “Hmm, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum. That’s a mouthful.” We were sitting on the terrace of one of the hotels in Mumbai, needing a restful dinner from our whirlwind day. “So we will go tomorrow, then,” I said. The bhelpuri arrived, fried and savory with peanuts and potatoes fried with a puffed rice thing, served with a mango chutney. We did not realize how hungry we were, and almost wolfed them down. They were delicious, and so were the drinks. We had some nice vegetarian curries and of coursebasmati rice, we were so hungry. The next day we had some excellent coffee and something that looked like a croissant with an apple jam that was spicy, so I guess it was a chutney, and off we went to the museum. It is a big sprawling affair, I like the displays of armaments, the swords and shields. The people back then must have been small, the weapons looked like they were for shorter people. This rather bored Deb and we went of to look at the animals, stuffed in their displays, in a kind of old school museum setting. They looked slightly tattered but a big assortment and it was fun. The sculpture was cool too and all the old art work. It was different from museum in the West, but it was an enjoyable visit. Later, we got hungry again and this time braved the crowds and the traffic and had samosa from a street vendor. Delicious.