Chapter 5, A unified community

Living in minimal resources with not a single tea shop in the village- completely relying on the arrangements at the residency for three meals of the day (with a no time schedule approach) and chai, and that means we had to manage our work time accordingly. However, we knew the organizers in this remote setting were trying to do their best and this kind of experience in a way made us more adaptable and accepting of the onsite/workplace challenges. In a way this following ‘no schedule’ thing was working well for all of us artists and one happy thing for us (for which I am personally very thankful to the organizers) was- the whole of the village was open for us to execute our projects. One big regret I had at that time was not bringing my HD camera to document my project as it was quite a challenge for our official videographer, Alok to document works of around 20 something artists.

One early morning, as I came out of my cottage, I saw Zaynab and Sanjid sitting near the bonfire. Some of the artists were getting up very early in the morning as the chilling cold would not let them sleep in the bed despite several layers of blankets so they would always come out, light the fire in the leftover wood from the previous night’s bonfire and would sit, smoke, chat or go for an early morning mountain expedition.  That was one such day when I shared my annoyance and concern of not bringing a camera for my own documentation and Sanjid, knowing this, immediately offered his camera to me to use for this day as he was leaving the very next morning (and that is, a few days early than the others). Three of us promptly decided to visit the mountain just then! Walked all the way to the mountain, took some shots and these two souls took no time to climb the mountain and made their own observations, took some more shots on their own, and got indulged in the artwork I would say, in their own way…and it was anyways beautiful to watch these Aravali ranges early in the morning from the mountain. Zaynab was the musician amongst us and Sanjid was a multidisciplinary artist- both brilliant in their own field. Zaynab would sing and everyone would join her every night after dinner when all of us gather around the fire. Sanjid’s project was one amazing thing to see unfold and this is one of the perks of attending such kind of residencies that you get to know much about how an artist develops their project, their perspective, and work methods.

                                                              An amazingly beautiful sky that day- since early morning with Zaynab and Sanjid enjoying the view

I decided to remain in the valley and not climb the mountain in a way to preserve my energy as I knew I was supposed to come back again here and climb at least a couple of times. Once to paint- then again, climb down- make an observation as to which rock needs to be painted and which one needs to be left without color and then go back up again.

Sanjid did not seem to get down from the mountain…he was seemingly enjoying the early morning view, and Zaynab and I decided to observe the mountain from this small hill in front- a little sideways of the mountain. Sitting with Zaynab, it was not at all difficult for both of us most of the times to naturally slip into a heart- to- heart kind of discussion and at the same time she could be too funny in her own ways and so, the talk would always be flavorful. A whimsical thought comes to my impulsive mind and I took no time to share it with her, “ Zaynab, let’s say, one day this mountain would be a stage of your performance and how about if we have your rock band full-fledged performing here on this blue mountain and all of us ordinances sitting on this small hill or maybe spread out in the valley…enjoying your performance…!!”. Nodding in a positive way her face becomes serious for a moment as she might be probably be wondering about the practicality of such a fanciful thought. I don’t really know what she was thinking but “yea, maybe …someday” was all that she uttered. Soon Sanjid came down from the mountain and we retreated to the farmhouse where we were staying. For the time being, this fine gesture of new-found friends in this small community of residency artists gave me much relief and peace.