Ralph Reichenbach & Doug Madill have rightly said, “Art strives to express; craft strives for excellence. Good art has good craft, good craft is artistic. Within every craft there exists artists. Within every artist there is craft”. And my good fortune sneaked me an opportunity to visit the International Arts Festival in Delhi. The capital city is undoubtedly the centre of attraction in terms of lifestyle, food, culture, festivals, media, technology, art, and almost everything. I, being an art lover, planned a four-day trip to the National Capital Territory of Delhi and flew to celebrate India's signature festival. Located on the banks of the River Yamuna, the city has been continuously inhabited since the 6th century BC, according to archaeological evidence. According to the Archaeological Survey of India, Delhi houses about 1200 heritage buildings and 175 monuments as national heritage sites.
My cousin, Sameer, puts up at South Extension, one of the most happening areas of Delhi. He had promised to accompany me on the entire Delhi tour. Sam, that is how I call him, told me that the International Arts Festival is very helpful in establishing India as a global soft power and making it a destination of cultural tourism. This 24-day festival covers 35 segments, 72 venues and 2500 artistes. We first drove to the Crafts Museum (Pragati Maidan), which exhibited a rarest collection of 20,000 items of folk and tribal arts, crafts and textiles. I was quite surprised to see the expertise of the artisans in bronze images, lamps and incense burners, ritual accessories, utensils, wood and stone carvings, papier mache, ivories, dolls, toys, puppets and masks, jewellery, paintings, terracotta, cane and bamboo work and textiles from different regions of India.
Our next halt was FICCI auditorium, where we saw galleries of folk and tribal arts and craftsd, aristocratic objects, and traditional Indian textiles. I bought a few items for my mom and my brothers. We stopped for a quick bite at Connaught Place, the heart of Delhi. Sam asked me if I wanted to visit the popular art galleries like Triveni, Sridharani, Vadehra, Eicher, Lalit Kala Akademi, Max Mueller Photo Gallery etc. But I preferred going Dilli Haat, popular venue for crafts bazaars throughout the year. It is famous for offering almost all types of handicrafts, mementos, gifts and crafts of each and every state of India. While returning to home, our last halt was Kamani Auditorium, where we enjoyed various performing arts representing the range of classical dance forms and schools of music from all over India.
Delhi Tourism has served as the seat of empires for centuries, and therefore it is a major cultural center, attracting the best of painters, musicians and dancers. Sam told me that October to March is the 'cultural season' of Delhi and countless elements of this colourful and vibrant city were remained untouched. No worries, as I had enough time to explore all the historical, cultural and adventurous aspects of Delhi.
