This, that, and all between.
Remember the story, “The Crocodile Who Carried the Moon”, a folktale where a crocodile carries the moon over its tail, highlighting a time when the moon wasn’t in the sky. Here is the real picture complimenting the story – the moon at noon, unreal blue of the sky and the shapely cloud perfect illustration.
Gurgaon, 2 July 2025
If you don’t know Lado Bai, you won’t know how maternal love can transform art. Lado churns the very earth and its souls with her visuals. Simplistic to a tee, yet stunningly profound, her art and the Bhil form are nothing short of poetry in visuals. Designing these kinds of indigenous art projects satiate me to the core. Salutes to the master artist Lado Bai.
How quickly they heal and how elegantly reshape their scars and wounds. Around the same time last year a severe storm and bludgeoned a large branch node off this tree leaving a gash which felt dreadfully painful. In less than an year it has strongly shaped itself to a lion?, a bear? or maybe a large faced monkey or even a dog. Whatever the shape be, it has fascinated me every morning. The walk is never complete without cupping it in my hand each day, like a live pet. It has been christened Shafa. How is the name? – 08 June 2025
More like a crowd following Mahatma Gandhi on a march, or dancing figurines, or the characters of a busy play, or the agitating masses on the street. But no, it is none of those. A beam of spotlight created this stippled-shadow image of award trophies on a dark LED screen just before the start of the Closing Ceremony of an amazingly fulfilling theatre festival. Awaiting the award winners, these cold, dark souls had yet to find warm hands and sparkling mantel shelves. The lawns were still being readied, Bacchus had still to land on the bar, promo slides had still to be projected, ‘Hello Mic Testing’ was still echoing, while the guitar lay abandoned like a ditched, heartbroken lover. Amid all this the bright red carpet knew it was going to be a long night of celebrations. Cheers to all those who participated in the Windermere Theatre Festival & Awards and special shout-out to the winners. This one is specially for Dr Brijeshwar Singh and Prabhat Kumar.
23 February – 1 March, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India
Dali should have stayed back for Valentine’s
Salvador Dali’s ‘Argillet Collection’ show, at the Habitat Centre Delhi, would have been an ideal venue for a Valentine’s Date but sigh, now you have missed it. Dali was a Spanish surrealist artist known for his bizarre images.
It was an eye-popping collection of over 200 of his original sketches, etchings and watercolour paintings which included some very fine pieces bordering erotic art with human bodies squirting or sprouting flowers from their heads and thighs; eyeballs dancing in squiggles and strokes and body parts interacting animatedly with the world around them. ‘Stare for longer than a minute and these disconnected shapes begin to form new connections and meanings in the mind’s eye.’
This was the first time that a large body of Dali’s original works were exhibited in India, though two of his works are in the collection of Victoria Memorial, Calcutta. Here are two works (one is a section or detail) from the Delhi show. Sadly, lighting at the Visual Art Gallery was very poor. The show was still being mounted/dismounted.
Ankahi. Unsaid. 
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