It was my
sixth day in Hampi, and I was determined to get some real information.
I had a new area of interest- when I’d gone to
Vitthala temple the previous day, I’d seen the deteriorated condition of the
structures and carvings at the entrance, and the red paint on a tiny portion of
it and then inside, among some of the broken musical pillars I’d seen a brand
new pillar being made- one with fresh cement.
The whole idea of restoration and renovation was really interesting to
me. I’d also gone to a
picture gallery near the Monolithic Bull where pictures of Hampi taken 50 years
apart told a story of how the place changed with time. I wanted to find out if
the buildings had been restored completely. But also, I had to know who conducted
this restoration and how the people receive this process.
So,
I decided to go to the ASI Museum of Hampi.
The
museum was 2km away from Hampi via auto, so we haggled and managed to get one.
I also had another agenda on this day. I had decided I'd waited enough. I now
needed information that went beyond my own observations or anything that could
be read. I had to actually talk to people and ask questions- unabashedly.
The
driver of the auto, Narsimha, was my first interviewee. I found out he'd lived
in Hampi all his life. Slowly, question after question, he told me a story of
displacement, of a system that gained control of a region and caused several
changes. The most disturbing thing he told me was how the residents and
shopkeepers had only been given a day’s notice before demolishing their houses.
I
reached the museum and collected a lot of information about the history of
Hampi, and its pillars and its carvings. But after looking through all the
exhibits I still wasn't satisfied- i wanted more. So we asked to talk to the
Superintending Archaeologist who was a part of the restoration process of the Archaeological
Survey of India.
He
talked at length about how the ASI had, since 200 years worked on restoring
sights all over India- how the British had simple attempted to keep the
buildings upright by adding pillars and columns- but later the ASI had made
conducted several restorations.
It
was, at that point to me when some of the grandeur of the structures was lost-
to know that they were broken pieces, simply put back together by a foreign
body, artificial and alien to that time and dynasty.
He
then told me how the UNESCO had come in and stopped some of their restorations
in their tracks, because it made the structures look less like ruins and too
perfect- which was NOT what the people and the tourists came to see.
Somehow,
that angered me. It was as if they were imposing, forcing our supposed
ignorance upon us. The buildings now to me seemed to be not much more than
trinkets and props to woo the people and spark their fancies and their
imaginations.
In an attempt
to feel better about the whole situation, I thought I’d go around the Hampi
Bazaar and do some touristy shopping. I looked at the shops, yet I couldn’t help
but overhear some of the conversations of the shopkeeper and the tourists from
abroad. To me it all sounded like the shopkeepers, in their overly convincing
whispers were laying tricks and traps for the unsuspecting shoppers and their vulnerability
of being new to this land. Some stories I heard about incidents that had happened
simple disheartened me further.
I got into
conversation with two women from a spices stall- they spoke in Gujarati, the
familiar language of my home town, and emboldened by this fact, we got to
talking. They told us about how, after the earthquake in Gujarat, they lost
all their belongings and, not having received a share in the ancestral land and
property, they decided to come to Hampi, where they set up a shop in the Hampi
Bazaar. But, even as they came here, they were displaced and not properly rehabilitated
or given commercial land. They even mentioned their regular uncertainty- there
was talk of the current ‘Hampi Bazaar’ as it was, being demolished in the near
future. There were tears in the woman’s eyes as she told her story.
By this
point, I was utterly disheartened. I felt like I simply could not look at the
buildings anymore. What added salt to the wound was a 10 year old boy running
up and down the hot stone slabs and hills with a huge tea thermos, begging us
to buy some. I was no fan of tea, but after every single one of us declined,
and he looked beseechingly at us for the last time, I gave in and decided to
take a shot at tea. I surprisingly enjoyed it and became a fan of tea
thereafter; yet the tea only made my day infinitesimally better.
In the
evening, we stayed back in Hampi and attended a grand concert in one of the
ancient monuments, of the band ‘Prem and Joshua’. The concert was quite
extravagant, and as a prequel to the main band, there was a group which
performed a very catchy song called ‘Happy Hampi’ but the only thing I could
think of was how all this was superficial and pandering to the demand and
self-righteous fascination of people for ‘heritage’ and ‘culture’, and how heartless
this disregard for the lives of the inhabitants and shopkeepers was.
I went back to the hotel, quite upset. But
after some discussion with our class and facilitators, I realized that as a
student of art and design, the only thing I can do after this in-depth understanding
of a situation is to, with objectivity; place a mirror in front of this this
rather than to be driven by my own emotions. That this stage of understanding
was necessary, as was accepting of the reality- only after that would I be able
to present it with justice.
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