still being worked on ...
Linda wanted to get hand made curtains for our house and for years she has obsessed over a little store we came across in Kolkata. So when travelling to Asia last year we made a special stop in the city just to go to this shop. Kolkata is a shocking city to arrive to. Hot, disheveled, congested, we drove under the flyover that recently crashed to the ground killing dozens of people. Linda had booked us at an Air B and B housed in the top floor of an artist who had turned his studio into a small apartment. The flat had an amazing terrace that had a view over a slum below. I could stand for seemingly ever staring over the balcony at a universe unfolding below me.
The streets of the city can be overwhelming. Leaving Linda in the store I went exploring, and while walking I tripped over the sidewalk and knocked myself quite hard on my head. Quickly I was helped up, sat down, and given a scalding hot cup of chai. The kindness aside the intensity of the streets, the trees growing out of masonry, the old facades of the crumbling city, the press of people has a unique intensity about it. Our only respite was to retreat into an icy modern refrigerated mall and watch a bollywood film. Although not in English, the movie was entirely understandable, with its universal themes of love, marriage, friendship, getting ahead, and family.
On our last day in the city the owner of the store and print studio Pria an amazing artist and business person picked us up in a cab and took us to the "factory"where the curtains where going to be produced. Th photographs here are a testament to the creative and functioning space it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment