Monika’s Musings: Indians shining in NYC

October 14, 2016

In its role as a melting pot of cultures, New York benefits with performances, speakers, scholars, visiting artists and other cultural ambassadors from around the world. With our rich cultural base, India sends many representatives to highlight her glorious heritage.

Bollywood stars touring India as well as classical Indian artiste performances have been around for a few decades now but increasingly there has been an explorative foray into other art forms, which is exciting to say the least for diasporic Indians living outside India.

‘Reading Room’, an exhibition of South Asian artists from India, Sri Lanka and even South Asians from the US, who have been featured at various art biennales, is now being shown at Saffron Art, a well-known auction house and art gallery. Saffron Art is an India-based art auction house with physical locations in Mumbai, New Delhi, London and New York. The book art exhibition is currently on display at The Fuller Building location in New York. It shows artists’ interpretation of books; whether to embellish the pages, burn books on violence and mould the ash into rocks, show digital book art, use books to create installations or even bend the pages of a book to create art. This opuscule of creativity exemplifies the evolution of art forms in the sub-continent.

The Indo American Arts Council (IAAC) held its annual literary festival. I managed to find time to attend two sessions of India-based authors: Devdutt Patnaik and Shashi Tharoor. Devdutt is no stranger to people from India. Trained as a doctor, he discovered a passion for Indian mythology and went on to study the scriptures in depth. He now conducts sessions and writes books demystifying mythology and relating the stories to modern day India. His ‘Business Sutra’ is a popular subject on the lecture circuit, correlating stories in Indian mythology to scenarios in boardrooms today. His talk at NYU’s Kimmel Center focused on how to understand mythology. Patnaik laid out the groundwork about the difference between fact and fiction before delving into an hour long scholarly analysis. He de-structured theories, gave relatable examples and held the attention of his diverse audience who indulged in a lengthy question answer session that even made him go overtime.

Shashi Tharoor is another well-known Indian author and politician. Their IAAC session was a brief glance into the lives of the Tharoors, since he was accompanied by his twin sons, author Kanishk and journalist Ishaan. They talked about the importance of words in their lives while growing up and how they consider themselves a humanities type of family. Tharoor and his sons indulged in amusing banter while talking about their journalistic and literary engagement with the world at large. These sort of intimate sessions seem more potent and poignant away from India. Both Patnaik and Tharoor are masters of stem-winding with their oratory skill and ability to engage their audience. The junior Tharoors displayed some of their father’s skill too.

In a more familiar format, Skirball at NYU is going to be the venue for one of India’s most celebrated musicians, Zakir Hussain along with sitarist, Niladri Kumar. The concert tickets sold out within days, not surprising considering the duo is just as popular outside of the diaspora.

In a tribute to increasing globalisation, India has also been getting a variety of performers from the US and the rest of the world. I remember while growing up in India, we rarely had access to global performers and Hollywood movies were released well after they had been released in the West and that too with many cuts. Pune’s Blue Frog is an example of a venue that has been hosting performers from across the globe. With CM Devendra Fadnavis selecting land for the Pune international airport, accessibility to Pune may increase the chances of attracting even more international cultural ambassadors to perform in the city.

I look forward to a day when it is just as much of a melting pot as my current chosen city.