Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Digesting India – what a PLANET!

After a seemingly insatiable 30hrs sleep I am back on home turf with
my eyes peeled. Someone asked me how India was? Honestly...

It deserves a new addition to my vocabulary. Sitting there in my mind shimmering full of sense & nonsense, lavish & unassuming that it makes Jaipur - The Pink City look as pale as milk. My impressions flow like lucid dreams glazing over with the sunshine of Mumbai, candy coloured wedding garb, street children far from marble flooring, designers ‘bare’ rebellion or glitzy Bollywood-stream, history explosion turned Verve, Gaba trousers & plaits, hallucinating block prints & Masala Dosa, Bombay Electric contrasting educational establishment and the stream goes on.

The traffic never stopped - it only changed colours. Dusky Jaipur looked exquisite from my window frame and the block prints covering the walls of Gempalace inspired my own private ‘Darjeeling Limited’ that would do Wes Anderson proud – for sure.

The buglike cabs turned black in Mumbai and besides little me in a ***** Taj – they gave me the biggest joy since funfair rides. Riding along in these little bugs I screamed with joy inhaling heaps of cosmopolitan air wearing Little Shilpa & Nachiket Barve creations, enjoying a Fairtrade Melange, Masala tea with Bollywood ‘Maholtra’ supreme & a stroll through a sweatshop factory some place else that smelt very close to home.

Mumbai - Ahmedabad...all blending into one...Full of spicy mirrors woven into textiles, ‘candy-floss’ yarn strung & coloured by roadsides for spools to go with kites for local kids’ fun, food from stitched banana leaves & hundreds of nut crackers so beautifully bronzed they made you cry. A Calico Museum stuffed with textiles from all around Planet India living inside a private paradise garden decorated with Mosaic terraces only to be graced by the bare feet of elves. And finally! I get wrapped in the wealth of Sari by Shaymal & Bhumika…oh my!

NOW I understand the need for Princesses & Gempalace jewellery! Bollywood please take my humble hand. In fact NOW my home - 'Whitechapel High Street' - galvanised with its mini sari palaces & miniature Gem Palaces makes sense. Underpinned with rationale IMG ‘databank’ Vikram Raizada and graceful Verve intelligence – I am left with the odd glimpse of what will be my INDIA, what will crystalise in time to bind itself around my heart – exciting enough to be future.

Thanks for an unforgettable & infinite inspiration to my creative juices – Planet India.

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