Category: India
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Cramped for room
Cramped for room You wouldn’t think looking here at houses in one of the most posh parts of Mumbai. Still that’s what it is. And that’s how it is. The luxury mansions are just around the corner. At home you may be cramped for room but outside there is still space to fly your kite.…
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Banganga
Banganga The neighbourhood of Walkeshwar on Malabar Hill harbours a rare 1000 year old water tank called Banganga. The tank and its peaceful surroundings let you almost forget that you are in the heart of the city of Mumbai in the 21st century. A man – or his wife – has washed his underpants in…
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Bastion walls
Bastion walls This is not the image that comes into your mind when you think of cosmopolitan Mumbai, brimming over with life. It looks more like a closed bastion that has armed itself against the seething waves of dangerously high tides. I love old walls with their weather-beaten faces. They breathe history, tell stories, let…
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Spitting image
Spitting image That is to say, the spitting image of the pan chewer who embellishes with his creations the pavements, roads, platforms, corridors, staircases, and, if you are lucky enough in passing a chewer at the right moment, your clothes or shoes. Temples and shrines are generally spared. That’s why tiles with images of gods…
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Holy tiles
Holy tiles Compared to the ISKCON temple of last week’s post, this nearby little roadside shrine looks rather cheap and shabby. Still, it probably represents Indian popular aesthetics better than its majestic neighbour. It has taken me awhile but I have come to appreciate this kind of simple religious display. The daring colour combination (like…
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AESCON
AESCON When I walked into the compound of the ISKCON temple at Chowpatty in Mumbai, I must confess I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. I don’t think much of ISKCON’s aescon but this temple is worth looking at. Beautiful materials, good craftsmanship, no trouble or expense spared. It activated my own aesthetic consciousness…
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Multiple trunk tree
Multiple trunk tree The aerial roots of the banyan tree hang down and when they grow long enough will touch the ground. On that spot itself they may take root in the soil and so continue growing as a semi-independent tree. That’s what we see here, around this banyan in Lucknow. This process can go…
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Ficus benghalensis
Ficus benghalensis Why is the Indian fig tree, with its distinctive hanging aerial roots, called a banyan? It’s an interesting story, which has nothing to do with its sacred nature. ‘Banya’ appears to be the Gujarati word for ‘trader’. Via Portuguese and later English, the word ‘banyan’ first came to mean Hindu trader in India,…
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Sacred trees
Sacred trees Banyan trees are often regarded as sacred. I think this is because they are truly awe-inspiring, just like the gods themselves. When we find ourselves face to face with an extraordinary tree – a towering sequoia, an imposing baobab, a gnarled olive tree, a branching banyan tree – we soon fall silent. They…
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Ruminating art
Ruminating art After having been exposed to a multitude of diverse works of modern art, as I was during my visit to the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, you need time to digest. Art makes you think. I have said that the beauty of a work of art may not be all-important for its appreciation and for…
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