Any country, any culture has its best cultural symbols or spaces. These are not only tourist drills but best-known also for content and concept. So we hear of The Louvre in Paris or Pompidou Centre (after or other than the Eiffel Tower or Champs Elysees). In New York, the Lincoln Center or BAM (other than the Statue of Liberty or Manhattan Central Park). London has its Victoria and Albert Museum or O2 Music Experience when not The Tower or the Bridge or the Buckingham Palace. Rome, Stockholm, Johannesburg, Australia, Germany, Russia , China, Turkey, Malaysia and more have known spots that are popular postcard fodder and iconic, easily identifiable cultural imagery and properties.
India has many too. Each State has some ancient wonder or modern museum to offer. Of course the Taj Mahal remains number one cultural monument followed by the Gateway of India at Mumbai; Victoria Gardens or Howrah Bridge of Kolkata or Kapaliswarar temple or Marina Beach of Chennai. Add Bangalore’s Vidhana Soudha or Hyderabad’s Charminar.
KOLKATA : 11/04/2015: People taking bath on the banks of river Ganga in the backdrop of the British era iconic Howrah bridge, after a hot day in Kolkata on Saturday in Kolkata, April 11, 2015. --- Photo: K.R. Deepak KOLKATA : 11/04/2015: People taking bath on the banks of river Ganga in the backdrop of the British era iconic Howrah bridge, after a hot day in Kolkata on Saturday in Kolkata, April 11, 2015. --- Photo: K.R. Deepak -
What’s best India has to offer to the culture lovers? And best is a relative term. No list can be final when choice is much and expectations, unreal. So here we attempt a must see or must experience minimum one-day in a city. One mass appeal, one class appeal.
Starting with the capital, Red Fort and Qutb Minar or Rail Museum and Rashtrapati Bhavan...Delhi boasts of several cultural institutions. Here in Mandi House most cultural spaces are housed. Triveni Kala Sangam remains best-run private institution, a truly people’s place. Next road, SBKK or Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra's Ramlila remains an evergreen production, having run continuously for 70 years! The three national Akademis nestle next door (Sangeet Natak, Lalit Kala, Sahitya) and today, the IGNCA is a hub for all forms of cultural and artistic expressions — from films to vedic discourse; seminars to pop shows, music, dance events, theme exhibitions and policy mapping under theatre-litterateur head, Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi. In three short years, he has woken up this 27-acre Kumbhakaran and how! Foreign embassies are clamouring for its collaboration and universities interacting actively. For the first time, culture is not de-linked from education, which Lord Macaulay ably did to divide and rule India. The IIC or India International Centre remains the dowager-empress of Delhi's intellectual, social and cultural hub. Dignified and distinguished in profile and performance, it has the best frequented library too. Classy complex. Dilli Haat nearby is for the people by the people and of the people. A mandi of crafts complex of India, food courts and stage for fashion shows and more. Time well spent.
NEW DELHI, 11/09/2015: Shoppers at a narrow lane at the Hauz Khas Village market in New Delhi on September 11, 2015. Photo: R.V. Moorthy
Mumbai has NCPA, one of the best run cultural complexes, with deep Parsi pockets put to good public use. Best programmes, especially Western classical music and of late, Indian dance and music too. Excellent facilities make it a happening cultural complex. Members are committed. They attend most events. Mumbai revolves round the film industry so all else takes a backseat. People actually go stand outside star homes to catch a glimpse. The Prince of Wales Museum, renamed Chhatrapati retains treasures of yore, especially maritime. The Jehangir art gallery is next to it and still a popular point. Add the Kapoor’s Prithvi Theatre.
Gujarat’s best kept secret is the Aina Mahal in Bhuj-Jamnagar. Whole interior made of mica-lead mirrors,where the Jam Sahib (Maharaja) listened to music. Rarest of instruments survive here.
Rajasthan is one rich land of culture, where Tijara of Neemrana group is the latest magic art space — each room dedicated, nay, painted by an artist such as Anjali Ela Menon or designed and named after a designer like Laila Tyabji, Ritu Kumar, Abraham & Thakore...
Chennai is the citadel of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam. Best of gurus and institutions are based here. Kalakshetra continues but spaces like DakshinaChitra (over 20 years old) and Bharatamuni Karana Museum (25 years in the making; recently opened), both on ECR are cultural symbols. The best dance and music conferences still take place in Chennai... at Krishna Gana Sabha and The Music Academy. Other sabhas contribute their own mite. The Egmore Museum building alone is a reference point of Indo-Gothic structure.
Kolkata is a conundrum of theatre-literature-dance-music. The Nandan Complex remains a cultural hub, with films, of course, taking precedence. Samudra’s contemporary Festival and Uday Shankar focus remain important. The mother of all cultural activities is the Durga Puja. Nothing comes close to people’s participation.
Smaller cities like Jaipur boasts of a literary fest at Dighi Palace, where same names decorate and dominate. Bhopal’s mammoth Bharat Bhawan is being revived. Indore has a restored mansion now housing Raja Deen Dayal Photographic Museum. Baroda has Palace Museum and buildings now housing the M.S. University. Each faculty was formerly a palace. Pune’s Kelkar Musuem may be quaint but the place to visit is the National Film Archives. For a film buff this is where tradition meets technology.
Chandigarh has excellent open-air cultural spaces with Nek Chand Garden made from waste materials and Rose Garden. Hyderabad’s Salarjung museum is among the best museums of history in South India. It has well-displayed and maintained objects. Ditto the National Museum in Delhi though it looks cluttered.
Thiruvananthapuram boasts of Raja Ravi Varma Museum, a quaint complex, with old-fashioned grilled windows. A little dance museum has come up on guru Gopinath’s land, hence named after him. Unusual.
Bhubaneswar has obvious Lingaraj Temple Complex (Ekamarakshetra) but the most unusual place to see is Cactii Garden with over 1000 species of this plant. Puri Konark nearby needs no introduction to most visiting this temple state.
"We are not really musuem people; our culture is living,” says Roji Tsamling when describing Sikkim or adjacent seven sister states. Nathu-la Pass and Tshngo Lake are cultural spots, not just tactical. Red Panda National Park and Festival are huge. “A.R. Rahman is coming in December,” says she. Assam’s Ahom kingdom complex and Shivsagar are popular cultural spots. Kalakshetra in Majhuli and Shilpigram attract thousands. Nagaland has the Kohima War Musuem pertaining to Second World War, the only one of its kind in India. Meghalaya’s old churches, with Cathedral in Shillong, is an important convergence point. Manipur has the Andro and the Palace itself as cultural highlights. The Itaport in Arunachal Pradesh boasts of old trade routes, where many cultures converged. Tripura’s Ujjyanta Palace boasts of tribal culture, while Neer Mahal is a water wonder. The 14-Goddess temple, some six-km from capital Agartala is a landmark.
Puducherry slips by colonial houses made into boutique hotels unless you go to Auroville to see what is possible to create in India: A peaceful commune, quietly productive and Matri Mandir — an oasis of silence.
A worker looks at a mural as he rides on an escalator inside the newly built Terminal 2 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, operated by GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd., in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014. Mumbai airport will open a new international terminal, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, in its first major upgrade in three decades as the nation aims to ease infrastructure constraints that hurt growth. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg ** EMBARGOED UNTIL 1700 INDIA STANDARD TIME / 1130 LONDON TIME **
Two new cultural properties that are fast gaining popular appeal are The Partition Museum in Amritsar and Bombay Intentional. The Partition Museum, brainchild of Madhu Kishwar has been given Amritsar’s Town Hall.
Today, the museum that receives over a million footfalls is an airport terminal actually. Mumbai’s international terminal is a feast of Indian artefacts, sculptures, design, textiles, temple art, crafts. Created and curated by ace mega talent Rajeev Sethi, this is a must see. Going from one gate to another, one sees best of Thanjavur with best of Rajasthan. Wow! Is the only word for this grand idea.
The writer, a critic and historian, is the author of several books and edits attenDance, a yearbook
Published - November 08, 2018 03:23 pm IST
