Street Art in Shahpur Jat, Delhi

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My unplanned visit to Delhi this month is turning this slow meandering stream of nostalgia to a torrent. I was dragged recently to Shahpur Jat, an urban village in south Delhi. For those in the know, (or those who’ve been reading William Dalrymple- an avid Delhi historian and researcher) Delhi has grown in all directions over the last decade and engulfed many small villages along the way. Protected by village laws ('Lal dora') that make development laws and land use zoning redundant, these areas have long been a mess of tangled wires, muddied streets and haphazard buildings jutting out at scary angles.

Many years ago I spent a summer in Shahpur Jat interning with a small firm that was, among other things, making a computerised inventory of all national highways across India. Only now do I appreciate what a mammoth task that was. I’m glad I played a small albeit mundane part in it. During that summer, as the monsoon rains fell, my co-internee and I would duck under tangled wires outside our office to go and buy lunch, laughing that we were lucky not escape being electrocuted. It would be another six years before I would hear the phrase 'Health and Safety’ in a workplace. I am a moderate H and S fan but the thing is that most international firms know nothing about ‘Indian Gods in the workplace’ which I wrote about a few years ago (!)
Today Shahpur Jat is, as we like to say of India, “same but different”.  A group of international artists (from India, Germany, Brazil, Italy and Japanamong other places) have been undertaking a live street art project. With permission from home and building owners they have begun painting their artwork on walls across the village.  On some days students from the School of Planning and Architecture organise guided walks with maps. On others, people like me just wander around with a little help from the locals and the seasoned art/ photography junkies.

Without wanting to write reams, I thought I'd let the photos do the talking with a few tid-bits of relevant local gossip! 




This is Yantra. The back-story: The owner gave permission but the temple next door wasn’t convinced. So a half-done mural of Krisha-Arjun (Geeta) is being stencilled below to assuage them. The local priests interpret the artwork as Shiva’s conch shell.










 
Anpu’s Cat is now a local landmark. When we got lost in the maze of little alleys we asked a corner shop for the wall with the big cat and he pointed us in this direction!
 
 








One of my favourites (Harsh Raman). I interpret this as demons inside us wanting to burst out.

 



















An artist in action. The confident strokes and bright colours were dazzling.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A strange other-wordly feeling surrounded us as we walked past this mural painted on a derelict building.












This is Sergio Cordeiro's  ‘Bad-ass woman’ who’ll kick butt if anyone messes with her (one for the Delhi feminist movement).













We ended the walk at the Pot Belly which serves north Indian food from Bihar state. As I keep reminding my vilayati mates in old Blighty there's more to Indian food than the B'ham-invented chicken tikka masala. All you need is a sense of adventure to enjoy it all. I need another post to do justice to the scrumptious meal we had here but here's an FB link to Pot Belly  (I know.....FB- yikes!). I also found this blog by Yummraj which I havent scrutinised in great detail but he sounds cool so I'll believe what he says :D

For my desi mates in towns across India and in far-flung places such as.... umm.. Gurgaon(!) check out Delhi Dallying (Dilli Dallying) for fun stuff around Delhi. Finally, I am glad to see that my very first post  no longer holds true. Delhi is more the just a city of malls and multiplexes. It can only get better.

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