Published in Verve Magazine: Volume 17, Issue 2, February, 2009
Mita Kapur, CEO, Siyahi, relates the inspiration, hurly-burly and organisation that went into Mantles of Myth, a festival of textiles and literature, held in Jaipur recently, in cooperation with Verve. Pages from her diary…
March 7, 2008…
Namita, Neeta, Pramod and I, squatting on the carpet, thumbing our way through sushi and green tea…hmm, alternate ways of story telling, how do we get the varied textures, colours, flavours in? Scripted traditions popped up, hey, what about woven stories…we all stared at Pramod – and yeah, we have just the right man…. Mantles of Myth was born…names, sessions flew about…the first brainstorming meeting was an adrenaline surge!
“His dance made my spirit come alive and gave me such joy,” said Namita. I set my heart on having Mallika and Revanta (Sarabhai) performing at the Sarvato Bhadra at the City Palace…now to track Princess Diya Kumari down…the wheels were set in motion….
April 2, 2008…
Formal invites were drafted…Pramod and I discussed each session threadbare.B. N. Goswamy, Kalyan Krishnaji, Anna Dallapiccolla, Rosemary Crill, Devdutt Pattanaik…. Namita had an opportune dinner with Lord Meghnad Desai…she called: “We know who will speak along with Dipankar Gupta for our concluding session!” Whoa, it’s filling up and pulsing with a life of its own.… Each mail going out as an invite finally turned into a yes, another yes, and yet another… Jasleeji (Jasleen Dhamija), Susan Bean, Paola Manfredi, Alka Pande, Jaya Jaitly, Mallika Sarabhai, Chandramani Singh…we were on our way!
April 12, 2008
Wendell Rodricks’ essay came to us on the pano bhaju – that was the first time I learnt of its existence…. It was most logical; we begin the programme with Devdutt talking on the Mythology of the Cloth. Pramod was moderating.… One Sunday morning he calls, “We’ll go mad doing so many sessions in two fully-packed days.” I said, “No sacrificing on the content, we do three days then.” Where would we get the funding from? I said, “Dekhi jaayegi but no full-stops on the substance and the content….” And so we plunged on…it was crazy…we had only Rs 9 lakhs in by April….
Arindam Das, Director, Pearl Academy of Fashion, smiled his gentle smile and said, “We are with you all the way.…” Feverish, fretful, frantic – raising funds is a pain, made me weep…a Jaipur builder pledged cash and publicity, a phone service provider also committed almost the same amount of money…they walked out on us, giving whimpers of vague excuses…oh damn!
June 1, 2008
A friend got in touch with Parmesh (Shahani) at Verve, sent him my programme and proposal and a warm, friendly voice at the other end saying, “This sounds really wonderful and exactly the kind of thing that Verve would love to connect with.…” Whoa! We were making headway…. The ‘In association with Verve’ deal came through…going good, good, good.… But the pains and fever continued….
August 2, 2008
A call from Melange, Mumbai – “We received your email about Mantles of Myth and we’d like to be associated with it.” Just when I was facing disillusionment, wallowing in self-pity, a cheerful voice lifted me up saying “I really admire what you are trying to do here.” Sangita Kathiwada and I launched into a detailed discussion, created the Morarka session on Confluence and Continuity of Tradition – it was all zip, zap, zoom, ideas came pouring out of Sangita. Jubilation! Susan Bean has agreed to extend her trip from Spain to India before she returns to America and to present her path-breaking paper on khadi and Gandhi. Susan is one of the first scholars to have looked at khadi as a textile narrative and studied its role in India’s freedom struggle.
October 16, 2008
Mumbai – the Verve office…. I was meeting the entire team for the first time, save for Arti (Sarin)…Parmesh in full form, high energy levels, it was an hormonal shot in the arm — a Siyahi-Verve blog, banner on website, Facebook plans, online promotions, full page ads, the works was out…like a high-carb diet.
Work on the brochure began. The search for adverts was on – we needed the money real bad.
November 22, 2008
The tension mounted. Travel plans can be nerve wracking. We needed to book flights in time, get the right connections. Each of our speakers was angelic; they cooperated. Pramod and I sent out mails discussing each speaker’s session with her/him…they all called each other up, met up for lunches and held it together for us…so much so that Rosemary Crill began her presentation on the Vrindavani Vastra with “I’ve been strictly instructed by Pramod and Mita to concentrate on the story telling….”
Manish Arora after umpteen phone calls finally realised he couldn’t make it for the Morarka session.
Sangita saved the day…she stepped in as our presenting sponsor. Mukeshji (Mukesh Gupta) at Morarka Organic kindly offered an organic lunch at the Haveli for December 14. I poured my mind into the programme and juggled sessions…my team screamed – we’ll be dancing between four venues on one day — how will we do it? I shrugged, “No choice, do it we will.” The sessions were at Diggi, the lunch at Haveli, back to Diggi for afternoon sessions, off to Anokhi Hand Block Print Museum in Amer and then across the city to Jai Mahal Palace for cocktails and dinner. I was warned about living on the edge but at this moment, it seemed we were swinging from a creaking tree branch hanging over a ravine….
Raghavendra Rathore continued to elude us about his travel plans though he discussed the session with Sangita on the side so we were kind of reassured, Namrata Joshipura was very cool. Pragya Deb Burman got chikan guniya and called from Lucknow in a voice hoarse with tears.… Panic calls to Namita, Pramod…the North-East narratives are the most fascinating and somehow very close to my heart…just 10 days away, whom could we fly in from so far?
Press con dates couldn’t be decided till we got a hang of the election scene in Rajasthan…Desmond was in Delhi, Namita called, “He is simply the man we need for the North East with Mamang Dai.” I began to believe that something, someone up there does conspire to give you what you want when you want it so badly…the jigsaw wasn’t a puzzle anymore…we were making it!
Ritu Kumar fell ill — bad bout of food poisoning. The girls in the office couldn’t believe their ears as I reeled off medical advice to her. Col d pizza slices, French-fries, Diet Coke tins, cartons full of kits, Siyahi T-shirts, diaries — the place is stacked and smelling.
December 12, 2008
Skye Morrison and her brood of Crafts Council volunteers are frantically putting up their textile exhibition in the fading light. The conference opens tomorrow and everyone is tense. Rahul held one hand to his cheek and ruled over all the vendors getting the tents going up – his wisdom (finally!) tooth was acting up.… Our Pearl Academy volunteers buzzed around Diggi – the arrivals were happening, speakers’ welcome kits were being rushed in and out…everyone was greeted warmly.
December 13, 2008
Susan Bean has lost her baggage! Sangita walked in unnoticed. I call Pramod frantically, “How do we start, Sangita has to be here.” He replies, “But she is, sitting right in the front!” I walk up and introduce myself almost accusing her of looking like a young schoolgirl and she retorts with, “I expected a huge school principal-ish ma’am!” Well!
The conference kicks off at 10 a.m. Devdutt mesmerises…Mamang’s car breaks down…Wendell happily pitches in for the cookout, Alka Pande and Paola Manfredi dish out some yummy pasta….
7.40 p.m. City Palace
Mallika and Revanta make the walls and ramparts of history reverberate – all of Jaipur is there and stunned!
11.30 p.m. City Palace
A frantic Susan Bean is pacing up and down the spectacularly lit Diwan-i-Khas in the City Palace compound still trying to track her missing baggage, lost somewhere between Boston and Valencia, Spain. A sigh of relief when she clarifies that her presentation is safe in her handbag! Jasleen Dhamija, Kavita Singh, Monisha Ahmed and journalist Renuka Narayanan are seen happily bantering with designer Brigitte Singh. Mallika Sarabhai’s agility and fitness are the envy of all women at the party. The Siyahi volunteers are meanwhile smitten by a disarmingly charming Revanta Sarabhai.
December 14, 2008
Alkazi sahib (Ibrahim Alkazi) and Umaji are stationed in the first row, I observe, they attended each and every session. Logistically, it’s a heavy day… Mohan Bhopa and Patashi Devi sing the Phad while Kavita Singh makes everyone hang on to each word…Wendell’s session with Mallika rocks!
People file in with solemn respect for Goswamy sahib’s talk…The Anokhi Musuem is a total hit…everyone falls in love with the place.
December 14, 11.30 p.m.
Jai Mahal Palace
In a repeat performance, a drunken Anita Jain of Marrying Anita fame harangues William Dalrymple to part with his attam sukh (quilted bathrobe!) and berates him for not inviting her to the Jaipur Literature Festival. Elsewhere, folklorist Skye Morrison chaperones her young ward Archana away from the bar to the food counter.
The Siyahi team is happily in conversation with Anna Dallapiccolla, over the past few months her emails and terse comments had made everyone anxious. She lands in Jaipur and charms everyone with her Italian candour, untouched by 17 years of living in Edinburgh. An anxious Lekha Poddar hotfoots in from Delhi after the opening of the second show at Devi Art Foundation and reaches to hear B.N. Goswamy speak on the Chamba Rumal.
Dec 15, 2008
The Narrative of the Nation – Lord Desai and Dipankar Gupta hold the audience captive. Aye Kuzu Le — the haunting music and dance from Nagaland enacting the story of the region’s weaving traditions transfixed the audience. Rosemary Crill from the Victoria and Albert Museum, remarks that the chorus singing is close to the singing of a choir and wonders if the tune was influenced by the work of Christian missionaries in Nagaland in the 19th century.
We conclude the conference with a string of emotional thank yous… Wendell runs to Johri Bazaar to buy semi-precious stones to use as buttons and organic white khadi fabric for his new line…Frantic calls coming in from Delhi asking if Devdutt Pattanaik will repeat his talk to select audiences in Delhi. Jasleen Dhamija emails to say that she is having withdrawal symptoms from her trip to Jaipur!