Colourful Collage of Arts and Culture

                        

 

Surajkund, 10 Feb: Move aside plush malls! There are enough glitterati to be found here!  This seemed to be the message at the annual Crafts fair at Surajkund; Faridabad. The fair is a grand event as far as promotion of Indian arts and crafts is concerned. The Fair is witness to the intricate craftsmanship of indigenous crafts from all across the different states of India. It is seen that the icing on the cake is the special theme accorded in this carnival of sorts by highlighting a state and its cultural ethos. This time around Rajasthan won the status-quo. Rajasthan as is well known is a haven for arts and culture for it has such a rich treasury of handicrafts, folk music and dance.

 

Besides, the grandeur of the fair, the important part of the event to be taken note of is that, it provides a platform for solo artists and handicraftsmen to flourish in this cut-throat age of globalisation and its market forces.

 

Here tourists as well as fellow Indians throng in large numbers to either pick up the decorative items rubbed magic on to by the skillful hands of some craftsman or either be a part of the event.

 

The Artists here showed their skills on pastel or oil works with one stall from Maharashtra whose artist was from Bijapur, Karnataka even trying his hand at drawing the famed Gol-Gumbaz ( Round Dome) belonging to the Sultans of Bijapur many centuries ago.

 

The Rajasthan pavilion had local artists performing to their folk compositions. One wouldn't be surprised to hear the original renderation of “Nimbooda” (lemon) included in the soundtrack of the Bollywood movie “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” by Musician Ismail Darbar.

 

The local dances brought the spirit of Rajasthan alive with veiled lady dancers gyrating and swiveling to the timeless music of this land of Rajas and Maharajas.

 

There was the human interest element found in canvas artist Anjali’s tale of struggle. “I am from Haryana and the place doesn’t have much scope for fine arts even though I have a degree in this discipline, I was not getting a platform until this fair helped me” she said.

 

Besides the rich exhibition of the nation’s Crafts and Fabrics, the fair attained an enviable status with participants from the SAARC nations also pooling in with their local craft items. These included Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Nepal and Bhutan.

 

The Tajikistan stall of the composite region of Central Asia were displayed with fares made out of the stunning mineral stone “lepislezzuli” which is also found in Afghanistan. The stall of this nation was in a triumvirate pattern, the dealer Valiev Sarif was all smiles as his pendants were selling like hotcakes. Other than these accessory items the stall had in store intricately embroidered Kaftans for women as well as the eye catching handicrafts for instance the map of Tajikistan done in detail by the mineral and semi-precious stones.

 

The Egyptian stall was the product of the Government of India’s efforts to strengthen strategic ties between the two nations. The proprietor of this stall, Ahmed Shalabi had flown in the fare all the way from Egypt. The store had exhibits for sale in the form of exotic carpets in different details like random lea eves strewn across a solid background of earthy shades or decorative wall hangings, sets of dining table-cloths and table-mats.

 

The variety to this fair was added by artists dressed as mythological characters from Ramayana and other Hindu Mythology as the demon-king Ravana with his dramatically rendered dialogues. There was the Monkey-god Hanuman complete with his inseparable weapon-his mace.

 

Amidst the prevailing tension provided by the rat-race of urban life, where success is measured in terms of money and high rise buildings patrons of this fair were all smiles and this very fact added the overall colour to this event organized by the Haryana Tourism Board.

Long Live arts, Culture and Heritage

so long folks...