'Come, follow!' says our guide, striding ahead with a flick of her sari, and we bustle along behind, following the swaying pigtail. There is much to see – no time for stragglers!
Set in lush and profuse gardens dotted with dovecotes and fishponds, the Calico Textile Museum is a welcome sight for a visitor recently arrived from the dusty, arid wastes of Arabia. The Museum, unsurprisingly, has a vast collection of Indian textiles, fabrics and costumes, most of which are swathed in plastic wrap to protect them from the heat and humidity. As something of a Gujarati V&A, however, it also houses a far more diverse and eclectic collection than its name might suggest.
We stop before an old painting celebrating the arrival of the monsoon rains. 'Look at the maidens, how their skirts are blowing with joy! Even the cows are leaving the shepherd and wagging their tails!' It's not just a celebratory painting, however. In between the mango trees, in the centre of the picture, is what at first glance looks like a shower of petals. Study it closely, and you begin to see the outline of a figure. 'Can you see the Lord Krishna? It is because we are not pure that we cannot see.' Ah. We pause before another devotional painting in the Jain gallery. 'Their mantra is rim. Hear the vibration…,' she says, stirring the air with a finger to illustrate. 'It is the vibration which awakens the energy. And then the energy will say, "Why have you awakened me?" And we can tell our complicated problems and get a simple solution. This is a miracle.'
I have come with laptop, blackberry and a pile of work in tow and, alas, not even a Jain mantra was going to solve that for me!
No comments:
Post a Comment