Tourists don’t know where they have been, travellers don’t know where they are going; art shows have been a reason to rewrite many an itinerary. While Paul Theroux actually said the first part, the second bit I made up. Then come to think of it, is there any traveller worth his curious salt who can resist art? Mythical or megalographic, metonymic or metaphoric, art as the collective conscience of a culture, the true mirror of social evolution, a phantasmagoria of countless interpretations? A typical tourist is shutter-happy, breezes by with
“’Ind-j-a’ tastes better on your tongue… try it,” Sanjay Malhotra told me. I did and it did. I mean, I wasn’t too sure about how it tasted, but it definitely sounded different. Well, may be better too. In a whacked-out sort of way. Sanjay Malhotra, the much-awarded fashion designer is also the director of ‘Indja’, a gay travel boutique. I had asked Sanjay whether the ‘j’ in his ‘Indja’ was a gimmick. Besides the taste thing, “adding a ‘pink’ to the company name would have been a cliché,” feels Sanjay.
The frizzling aloo tikkis lay like golden islands in a shallow sea of applauding oil. Gol gappas were stacked in a brocade of delectable disarray, pomegranate seeds lazed about in the savoury water that would be filling them up soon. The diced tomatoes lent a fiery red to the simmering paav bhaji gravy made of mashed potatoes and fringed by molten butter cubes and chickpeas. Freshly fried jalebis were a sugary orange, dripping syrup, waiting to be bedecked by powdered pistachio and almond. I have always been partial to potatoes.
Each one has more intricacy, information and culture, beauty and potential making you wonder at the iconic status of Barbie. Each one speaks volumes about a nation – the prevalent social conditions, religious sentiments, traditions, even the economy of the period. The costumes are perfect renditions of the fashion of the times. Some are laid out as elaborate sets – Japanese tea ritual and voodoo, a construction site replete with brick-laden pushcarts, a bullfight gone awry with a bolero in gored agony. And there are over 6,000 of them. An
