Chapter 7, The day of closure


As the project comes to its closure and so was my stay at Badanga. Apart from the last minute anxiety of giving the finishing touch to the project, I was satisfied to have made most out of my stay at the place…bonded not just with the kids but also with the school teachers, few villagers and of course most of the artists. I learned a lot from the children of Badanga more than I could absorb at that moment, but I surely needed all those lessons for the next phase of my life i.e. the phase of isolation and lockdown due to the outbreak of COVID- 19.

Our videographer had already left two days ago leaving me worried about the final image of my finished work. Anyways I had no control over those things, so I continued with what needed to be done. Prepared a title page (the night before) around full empirical- size sheet to paste on an old tin board, that I noticed was perfectly placed in the valley from where the mountain needed to be viewed. Early next morning just a few hours before the guided tour to the village exhibition was supposed to start, I left for the mountain- pasted the title sheet, gave some last-minute finishing strokes of blue to some parts of the rocks, and retreated back to the farmhouse. I had done my best in the limited resources available and so I was all set to enjoy the exhibition tour and so excited I was, for I would be seeing many other artist’s works for the first time…as most of us selected secluded sites on mountains, valleys, or even the walls of the houses of villagers. Tour was obviously overwhelming, and performances outstanding with the mountain ranges offering a perfect stage to the artworks. Toured half of the exhibition till lunch, and the rest half to be seen in the second half of the day. My work to be toured last as it was almost the remote point of the village. As the group covered the exhibits one by one and reached the mountain, I was in a shock for a moment to see the title page was torn down by some mischievous kids of the village (I was told so), but soon I composed myself as in such a place, what do the small kids know about the value of the exhibition- forget the title page.

A selfie with the mountain
With Harendr's work
Juliia with her display of mixed media paper works
Annabel's work

I could see the group of artists' friends smiling with admiration (we all were all praise for each other’s work) when they saw the work…as we all posed with the mountain, this being one of the fondest memories of the event for me. Satisfied and peaceful, I said in an emotional tone, “I know I would never come back to the mountain, and tomorrow early in the morning I’ll come one last time to the mountain to say my goodbye”. To my delight, as the artists' friends heard this, they all expressed their desire to join me tomorrow morning for this special visit to the mountain as we were supposed to leave the village the next day just after breakfast. We also decided that we would meditate on the spot the way I was doing with the kids.


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