Mrs. Sharma's Arts & Crafts Museum

I've been wanting to meet Sterra Sharma since Meror told me about the part she is playing in the Mangar Village that is so close to our job-site.  This weekend I got to do that...

Sterra, born in Netherlands, has lived in India for 40 years.  She is an artist herself and patron of Indian arts & culture.  In consulting on the Arts & Crafts hotel for Mrs. Suri of Lalit Hotels, Meror and I find ourselves enrolled in Sterra's plan.

Part I:  The Blue Building

Walking down the hill into the Village of Mangar, amongst the yellow and pink and white painted buildings there is a prominent blue building in clear view. It is owned by Mrs. Sterra Sharma who has become a benifactress of this area and has a vision of reviving the Arts and Crafts of the locals here. 

She has started by renovating her building and creating a museum and guest house there.

  

The Museum has solar panels and water tanks on the roof.

Delhi is notorious for it's intermittent power supply so many public buildings and the more expensive private homes have generators, battery storage and now solar energy to supplement this resource.







The  finishing details on the museum utilize the local builder's crafts.  The doors, windows and cement forms for railings are historic decorations added as part of this renovation.

 

The ceiling too is a revived craft that will also be a part of the Lalit Hotel building at the top of the valley.  In the museum they look like this...



The barrel vaults at the hotel are larger than these.  When I was here in March (2011) I saw the workers hand troweling the ceiling panels that will complement our SIREWALLs.

Part II:  The Arts & Crafts

The beds are made locally - woven with their creation date.  This bed was made on the 13th of January, 2011.  The bundle at the foot of the bed is a folded futon mattress ready to lay out.

While we were touring the museum this beautiful woman joined us and I was impressed with her playful energy and her ability to communicate without language. 

She explained that she is the craftsperson that plastered the walls with the pattern you see behind her in this portrait.  

Her name is Santos.  

She also made the large dish for the grinding stone and clay pots for fire. 

Other crafts that will be displayed in the museum are the collection of turbans tied in different styles.  Turbans can be very large or quite modest depending upon region, culture and religion.




Jagdeesh, who was our host for the day brought us into the storeroom to show us the beginnings of the collection.  There were wooden carts with clay oxen to harness and horses and camels made with leather.  a curious and appealing material for shaping the figures.

Part III:  The Murals
Mrs. Sharma noticed a mural in this man's house and commissioned him to paint murals on the walls of the village.  He is not to paint on any of the "old" historical walls but on anything built recently - he has the freedom to paint whatever he likes.

Ugrasen ki Bauli

An historical step well (bauli) in the heart of New Delhi is located on Hailey Road near Connaught Place.  

Step wells were developed mainly to cope with seasonal fluctuations in water.  They also served a leisure purpose as pools for the aristocracy to cool themselves in the heat of summer.  This "bauli" is multi-storied with a storage cistern and water wheel to raise the water in the well to the first or second floor.

The water could be reached by descending a set of steps, each level with a series of arched niches available for poolside relaxation.

• 103 steps
• 60 meters long
• 15 meters wide

(for perspective - an olympic pool measures 50m x 25m)

I was lucky to make the acquaintance of Tanu who discovered this abandoned ruin and was instrumental in having the site designated a protected monument by the Archeological Survey of India.  

Here she is assuring the "official guide" that she will give Jerry and I a tour and his services were not needed at this time.

Tughlaqabad Fort

Gathering seeds for ayurvedic remedies

There are ruins to visit all over Delhi.

Tughlaqabad Fort was originally built in the 13th century with the help of  elephants to move the huge stones.

I was working on getting some perspective on the expanse of the walls when this fellow walked down very close beside me to show off his wonderful red bottom!

(startled me 'cause I was looking through the lens)

Mangar Site - Mixing and Delivery

Jerry is on top of the wall directing the delivery into the forms and overseeing the ramming... 

Meror is on the ground being quality control for the soil blending and operating the Volumetric Mixer.

This is Jerry communicating with Meror on his walkie talkie...

 And, this is what is going on in between the two of them...

If you start here and scroll back up to the top of the pictures you will get the sequence in the order that it happens.

And then, when the delivery gets ahead of the rammers up top - they get a break.

January 1, 2012

The Taj Mahal is a love story...

Agra is just over 200 km - 2 hours and 59 minutes according to Google Maps - add India traffic and we'll call it 4 hours...

On New Years day we set off early (7AM) with our car and driver, and a picnic lunch tucked in the boot, to visit the Taj Mahal.  I'm not usually compelled to hit the big "tourist" sites but, ... I did want to experience this seventh wonder of the world.

I thought the Taj was a cool building but, there is a lot of cool architecture in the world so what was so wondrous about this building?

I fell in love with the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal is in Agar built on the banks of the Yamuna River.  A labour of love that took 22 years to build (1632 - 1654), a marble tomb for an emperor's wife.

Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built this monument for his beloved third wife, Mumtaz Mahal.  Their marriage was a true love match.  Mumtaz was her husbands inseparable companion on all of his journeys and military expeditions.  She was his trusted political adviser and counsel for 19 years before she died at the age of 39 after giving birth to her 14th child.  The Emperor resolved to immortalize their love by creating a symbol of their love for posterity.  This building is constructed of Indian Marble inlaid with precious stones - it is not only stunningly beautiful in perfect symmetry and material unmarred by time - it exudes the energy of love.

Really, I was not the only one in our party of four that was moved - all tingly and bleary - in the gardens at the foot of this seventh wonder of the world.  And, this emotion was present in the midst of thousands of people here with us to start the New Year!  A true marvel.

Was it worth 10 hours of driving?  YES!
Did I mention that the drive home was 6 hours ... I might consider taking the train next time.

Thanks to Jane and Mike for buying the Taj Mahal book, from the hawkers that swarmed us at our car, so that I could check the details of the story our guide shared with us.

Faces of India

Christmas Eve day... 2011

The water fountain provided a foreground that might be construed as snow falling but, it is a clear, sunny 21 degrees C in Delhi today.

What seems like a balmy Christmas eve to me has the local shoppers bundled up against the cold with toques, fleece jackets peeking out from under colourful stoles and one gentleman even confessed to wearing long underwear when confronted with our short sleeves and sandals.  

This young Santa painted his face white/pink.  I never really thought about it before but, Santa is caucasian!

Merry Christmas Everybody - wherever you are in the world may this day bring the joy of family and friends to your heart.

Namaskar.
     ~ Mike