Street art walking tour

My favorite mural of the day

The same festival that took me out to the dry port to see the murals painted on shipping containers also picks one neighborhood a year to get painted with murals by artists that are both Indian and from other countries. When one of the teachers at a school organized a walking tour of the street art in Shahpurjaat (site of the 2014 ST+ART festival) and Lodhi Colony (site of the 2016 ST+ART festival) I couldn't resist putting on good walking shoes and joining in.

The fun thing about art is you never
know what will speak to you

Shahpurjaat is a bit of a windy neighborhood, where you can turn a corner and be surprised at what lays before you....or as was often the case for me, turn around from taking one picture and be surprised at what else laid behind me. A couple of my favorites there included the giant slingshot boy, the black and white huddled person, a piece from the Bollywood Art Project (which I was informed anyone who watched Bollywood would recognize...that isn't me!), as well as a woman protecting herself with her voodoo pins.

Hard to not love some more trees!

In Lodhi Colony the wall spaces were more spacious, and it was evident when you were approaching a mural. I was most drawn to a colorful geometric depiction of birds, but also stunned at the detail in a two story mural of one of the street food vendors that feeds hundreds of people each day in the neighborhood (the fact that we actually got to tell the artist how much we appreciated it as he was taking pictures of his work that he had just finished the day before just made it that much more special). A geometric Gandhi was immediately recognizable. An astronaut on top of a meteor a bit confusing. A piece done by a traditional India artist who had never before worked beyond a canvas was all the more charming for his realizing he'd have to incorporate some typical street art methods (using stencils to add birds to the grown out tusks of his elephant).

There was a lot of variety in the murals.
This one is of a dead Dahlia

The timing might have been difficult with a 4 am departure the next morning for Minicourse, but I'm glad I took the opportunity to see some more of the street art that has come out of this festival.

Our guide was Himanshu of 1100 walks in Delhi. 

A week with the kids

View from close to camp

I've spent the last week out of Delhi in the foothills of the Himalayas with 19 students (and thankfully two other teachers) on our annual Minicourse trip. This year I headed to a region called Sattal or 7 lakes (although I think we only saw 3 maybe 4 of the seven lakes). It is a pretty spot, and our camp up on the side of a hill had a spectacular view down on the lakes. One that might have been more appreciated if we hadn't had to climb back up that hill almost every day....

Rock climbing was just one of the activities

So what does a week out with students entail? Thankfully not a lot of thought on my process. Our trips are all run by local companies. This one was a combination of outdoor activity - rock climbing, kayaking, river crossing, flying fox, hiking, camping out, bird watching and jumaring (a process of hauling oneself up a rope with the help of a special device) - and service - we dug some holes for a fence and painted a wall at a local school, interacted with some of the village families and hosted the children for an evening of entertainment.

We are very proud of the hole we dug...you would be too if
you saw the tools we had to use.

I spent a lot of time braiding hair (I think the last day I did approximately 20 braids on 11 of the 13 girls who were on the trip), took at least one nap every day, and all in all relaxed....well as much as you can with 19 high school students around the entire time. I feel lucky this year that I ended up with a group that were pretty chill, caused no problems and had very little for me to deal with beyond a couple cuts and scrapes.

No wonder it took me an hour and a half.

Street Art (ST+ART) in Delhi

I saw a notice sometime last weekend about a street art festival, WIP (works in progress) that was going on this month and sponsored by the ST+ART foundation which strives to "create an art-hub in an unexpected space to offer diverse sectors of society newer experiences, especially to people who are usually excluded from the reach of art" according to their website. Today was the last day of their temporary exhibit at a dry dock in Okhala, where artists had been painting on shipping containers to create their works. When the show closes, these shipping containers will then continue their normal lives in transit, bringing a bit of art across the country, and maybe even the world. 

As we got to the space we saw that often these works were across multiple containers stacked 3-4 high or across. In addition as we walked around I realized that some artists had chosen to decorate the inside of a container, a special surprise for workers I would guess. I particularly liked the one of a face made of faces.  

Wandering around each corner revealed something new, given me new appreciation of how the artists were able to wrap their work around corners or buildings, using space in somewhat unusual ways. It was a definitely a different way to enjoy an afternoon out and about in Delhi. 

Surajkund Craft Mela

Shopping at the mela

Just one of the many decorations

Last weekend I went about an hour away to Haryana to experience the Surajkund Craft Mela. The mela, which claims to be the largest in the world, is only open for two weeks. During that time it draws in nearly a million visitors. You might think that would mean that there are so many people you can't really shop or appreciate the work on offer, but if you arrive early, and head further off the main thoroughfare you can actually take the time to wander and admire the crafts for sale. What surprised me was that it is actually more than just a craft sale. Around every new section there were stages set up with a variety of performances going on - a drum circle one place, a sample of dancing at another...it is a celebration of the variety of culture in India. I was equally surprised by the large displays set up ranging from replica gates to carvings, to flower covered structures to self proclaimed "selfie spots" the couple of hours we spent there was about much more than shopping.

Music box player

Sacred geometry

Completed madala

This past week the elementary school has been celebrating India week. Each year the school brings in a variety of craftspeople, performers, and other individuals that are just samples of what make India such a varied and fascinating country. This year we were particularly lucky to have 3 Tibetan monks stay for a few days and create a sand peace mandala. A symbolic form of prayer, where each individual element has meaning, it is also a work of art made all the more impressive by its impermanence. The monks spent a day and half carefully allowing sand to fall out of specially made metal cones, creating a design that not only had great detail but also had a three dimensional aspect to it. How they can create such a thing with sand is still beyond my comprehension despite watching them work for about half an hour with only each other and their mental plan to reference. Then to watch them sweep it up at the end of the second day releasing the work as prayer for peace and the happiness of all things sent home the message of impermanence.

Laying down sand carefully

Each piece of the mandala has its own meaning. The middle with the lotus flower is a symbol of purifying passion into awareness. In each direction from there are seated the retinue of Avalokiteshvara (who represents freedom from attachment), purified aspects of hatred (blue), misery (yellow), ignorance (white) and jealousy (green).  The outermost circle with its burning flames are for protection and to burn away the delusion and darkness of ignorance. The process of visualizing and meditating on the different meanings embedded in the mandala brings about change in the psyche of each individual as it helps to lead them to a more purified state. In fact it is believed that just a glimpse of the mandala can create a positive impression on an individual, touching them for a moment with the potential for perfect enlightenment.

Detail of the mandala

And so I wish you a week filled with peace and happiness as symbolized in this mandala for so short a time period.

It's official!

It's official. I'm leaving Delhi at the end of the school year. Over the winter break I was lucky enough to find a new job and I will be moving to Manila in the Philippines to work at the International School of Manila. I'm excited to have a new adventure on the horizon, and pleased that I will be moving on to work at another highly regarded school in the international circuit.

Since it is a transition year, I decided to revive my photo a day project to document the difference between where I am now and where I'll be at the end of the year. If you'd like to follow it you can check out my new blog, or even subscribe to get it by e-mail. I also decided that if I was going to set it up this way I'd consolidate photos from the years I moved between Turkey and Paraguay as well as Paraguay to India. So in a way you'll get 3 transition years in 2016.

Jaisalmer Fort

I have to admit that when I agreed to go to Jaisalmer for Diwali I had no idea what I was going to see there. I had heard from several people that it was well worth the time to visit. I knew there was a fort but that was about it. In my mind I was picturing another empty fort that had been restored and I could explore, wandering into each corner as I desired. I was not at all prepared for the vibrant, busy, packed living fort that Jaisalmer was. A fort that is not a cleaned up preserved historical site, but a glimpse at what it might have been like originally - intricate details on buildings, shops on the ground floor, apartments above. A main square where people still gather and talk. Animals that roam the streets, causing people to scurry out of the way. Canons overlooking the walls, aimed at whatever comes out of the desert. Jaisalmer has a living, breathing fort.