Shantinikitan, India
Shantinikitan, India
Shantinikitan, West Bengal, India, the home village of the known Indian philosopher - Rabindranath Tagore, is a small primitive village located 136 k"m from Calcutta.
Update No.1
This is our house, we live on the 2nd floor, in the glass room. Chobi the housewife, and Suzi the gardener are living on the first floor. This is a mud house designed by Bidut, he is the guy we contacted before coming here. There are animals all around us, cows, sheep, lambs, monkies, snakes, crabs, ducks, guss, flys, musqitos, all walking freely on the street and in our room. On one side you have an indian on his bike, behind you a huge tarck is coming with 250 people hanging from it, while infront of you walks a hindu cow...crazy! Rice fields and lots of water everywehre. Sounds great but there are difficulties too. Still no news about our bags, which means non of our personal stuff, no clean cloths, no medication (bidut had 25 attacks of maleria), its very hot and constantly raining. We fight with all the incects on a daily bassis...the house is completely open.
That’s it for now from heaven
Yours,
Itai & David
Update No.2
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Our landing in India was a little bit rough, we departured from Schiphol on Friday the 6th of Aug., five hours later we landed in Amman, Jordan. Where we had to wait for six hours for our five hours flight to Bombay, then three hours to Culcatta, West Bengal. There we were told that our luggage was lost. We had to stay the night in Culcatta, 13 million people, 30 degrees, Monsoon rain, Hactic. Now we are in Santiniketan, the locatin of the Visva Bharati University. The whole village is a place of cultural imoprtence, arts, crafts, music & philosophy, all in the spirit of the world known Nobel prize winner Raindranth Tagore. Our first 10 days were dedicted to sattling down and praying for our lost bags. A week ago we started a course of print making. Littography, carving, eching etc. With a local artist and teacher, Salil Sahani, in his studio. We are now busy with learning the long and complicated process of lithography. Later on we will move to Zink plates and wood carving. Local crafts such as pottery, including collecting and preparing the clay, Sculpture, Metal castting, as well as eastern philosophy, art history and yoga are all on our Agenda for the coming months. Our days start very early in the morning, at 8am we are already in the studio till about 13:00. Lunch here is served on leaf plates, rice, dal and veg., very spicy always. forks and knifes are out of the qestion so without any other choice we find ourselvs eating using our right hand just like locals. The afternoon and evening are dedicated to intresting meetings and sight seeing trying to establish a network here in Santiniketan.
Itai & David
Update No. 3
Tuesday, October 21, 2004
Here we are, almost 3 month since our arrival in Santiniketan, West Bengal. We are now settled down in a nice little house with a garden full of trees, birds, dogs, two goats and a family of 6 or 7 TIPSY monkeys. The people we rent the house from are two wildlife activists, descendants of the famous Tagore family, through them we experience the true nature of our surroundings.
By now we learned and practiced 3 different printing techniques, and completed a workshop with a local traditional musician who taught us how to make/build an “EKTARA”, a one stringed instrument, constructed out of a bamboo stick and a kind of pumpkin covered with leather.
Later on we will also learn how to make a “TABLA” drum, and follow a workshop with a traditional potter, using a “hand wheel” and the clay we have collected during the collecting season, a month ago.
At the moment we are busy with “DOKRA”, the primitive method of metal casting. As part of the art history lessons in the university we were asked to present the Design Academy Eindhoven to the class. It was very interesting to hear and answer the local students questions, in general we find it fascinating to see the different approach and point of view about the east and west relations.
Unfortunately this update cannot include everything we are busy with, still we hope that you get an idea of our life experience here in India.
Itai and David
Update No.4
Dear all,
We are now in Israel, a stop over on our way back to Holland. We spend our time editing and organizing the digital presentation and exhibition that we will have once we back in Holland.
Leaving India was sad, it was only recently that we started to get into the local spirit. This semester went so quick, it is hard to believe how time could fly.
During this the time here we learned and practiced various traditional techniques and hand crafts such as:
Metal casting
Painting (with pigments that we made)
Ceramics
Assembling Music instruments
Print making (lithography, etching and wood cut)
Kantha stitch (traditional embroidery)
Working with leather
etc.
We also followed Art history lessons and lectures at the university. In our exhibition we plan to show some of our works, (3 packages of about 15kg each have already arrived in Holland) and a digital presentation of short films and photos which we prepare now.
We wish you happy new year,
See you soon!
Nitai & Gour
(our local given names)
