Random: Chinese New Year celebrations in China Town

Last week we went to the China Town of Calcutta, commonly known as Tangra to participate in the Chinese New Year celebrations. Tangra is a part of town that we only visit when we want to dine and feast on authentic Chinese food. Being born and lived almost my entire life in Calcutta, this is the first time I ventured there to see the Chinese New Year celebrations. I wasn't quite expecting a huge thing, just a small community affair, but I was wrong!


When we arrived around 9 O' clock, the place was quite empty. We promptly headed into one of the many restaurants there for a quick Chinese dinner consisting of soup and fried spicy chicken. When we came out about half an hour later, the place had completely transformed! The narrow dingy streets were now thronged with people, fairy lights strung across the entrances, hawkers selling balloons and toys. It was nothing short of a fair ground.

Upon asking a bystander, we learned that everyone was waiting for the Dragon! Whatever that meant! We waited with everyone for the arrival of this mythical creature. Soon enough, we heard loud drum beats booming across the street and a procession of school kids, all dressed in similar t-shirts coming our way. And sure enough, there was a very colourful and ornamental dragon floating above their heads. The lucky one got to be the dragon's head and some other kid would hold the tail and they would dance around and interact with the audience. It was quite a sight!


As soon as the excitement of the first Dragon was wearing off, along came another dragon with it's very own procession and paraphernalia! Then came another and then another. By now, the small and narrow streets were bursting at the seams with people! In one word, "Breath taking"! The amazing thing about Tangra is that it wasn't only the Chinese who were involved in the festivities, there were other locals as well!

After a point the numerous dragons got into mock fights and danced around all over the place, their respective drummers beating their instruments louder than the other which was complimented by the bursting of fire crackers! I was scared that the crackers might hit someone, but apparently no one seemed bothered.

At around 11:30 PM, the Chinese New Year arrived and everyone wished each other. Everyone seemed to know each other in Tangra. The Dragons slowly made their exit only to return next year with their respective  processions. We spent an amazing evening at China Town, unlike any other that we've ever witnessed and came back home feeling happily tiered.




Note: Due to poor light conditions and an amateur digital camera, I couldn't get good photos!

The story so far...

Charcoal drawing

I always had trouble choosing a singular path in life. Be it my career or my innumerable hobbies, I always got interested in too many things at once. Call me eclectic (although that’s exotic sounding), or plain fickle minded, I have always struggled with myself to keep on track.

After finishing school, I went off to Art College, not that I had any clear idea of what I wanted to do there or even had a strong urge to become a world renowned painter, I just thought it would be a fun place to be in and I was always the artistic type (needless to say, I sucked at math and science!). During my five years in Art College, I dabbled with numerous mediums and also took to performance art and theatre. Now when I think back I probably did more dance and music than I did art!

"Journey", an installation with
painted bamboos 

So, after finishing my Bachelors degree, I thought dance was my true calling and joined a classical dance troupe and enjoyed myself tremendously out there. During this time, I also started taking up small scale design projects commercially (brochures, books, title cards etc.) to earn some pocket money.

Oddissi, a classical
Indian dance form

I got married in a couple of years time and changed cities. I went to live in Delhi with my long time friend and husband, Anirban, Baan for short. Once in a new city and very few friends around me, I soon got bored stuck inside the house 24X7. I took up a job with a craft shop. I learned quite a few things about managing a business there. But a 9 to 5 was not meant for me. After about a month and a half, I quite!

Acrylic on canvass

I started painting again but solitude and a complete lack of social life in Delhi soon got the better of me and I found my trips to Calcutta becoming more and more frequent. I would come and live in Calcutta for long periods of time. Some people started suspecting that we had split! I took up another job in Calcutta at yet another craft shop for three months.




I was missing Baan at the same time, so I decided to settle down in Delhi after all. I took up web designing seriously (BTW, I’m still at it!). But as always, my life took a sudden turn. Baan was getting tiered of his desk job and both of us were getting weary of life in Delhi. After five years, we said goodbye to Delhi and finally came back to Calcutta for good.

"The Earth Story", an installation-
performance in collaboration with
a Bangla music band

We now have a lovely apartment in Calcutta not far from where my parents live and we are finally starting to enjoy life as it presents itself each day. Baan is now a freelance travel writer and photographer. As for me, I’m still my eclectic self.

I earn a living through designing and managing sites. I have also started my very own craft NGO. I have big plans for it but alas, still looking for funds. I call it “Kulungi Society for Community Arts”. I want to work with traditional communities who are involved with various indigenous art forms, both plastic and performing. My interest in crafts had started early when my parents started collecting folk art and we had a small crafts gallery in our living room. I inherited their passion for folk and tribal arts. This society aims at documenting, promoting and propagating traditional folk art forms by means of workshops, fairs and exhibitions.

Acrylic on rice paper

Apart from struggling to get Kulungi going, I am also managing “Smriti’s Collection”, the craft shop originally founded by my mother. The only difference is that I have a far more powerful tool which is the Internet to market it with.

But as I said earlier, there is no end to things that I want to do and that characteristic is probably the only persistent factor in my personality. After coming back to Calcutta and settling down, I started thinking, what now? I was meant to be an artist, a creator. Can I be content with designing and managing websites and mentoring craftsmen? Where and how do I channel my creative impulse?

"Agnijaato", a performance using
fire and water

I always felt and increasingly started believing that mainstream art was not my thing. Somewhere there was no connection. Sitting and painting or sculpting in my studio and then exhibiting them in a space seemed insignificant to my life and times. Not that I didn’t consider installation and performance art, I did try them out also but was never happy with the end result.

From the time I started dancing after college, I fell in love with it and wanted to become a dancer but at the same time I realised that I was a little too late. I started learning at the age of 22 and it would take almost 10 years to finish learning. I didn’t have that much time on my hands. Besides, I had to think of a way to earn a living. From then on, I always had this nibbling feeling inside me of not being able to wholeheartedly enjoy anything that I did. I started trying to imbibe certain aspects of dance in my work. That is how I came to performance art, an outlet for me to perform. But that couldn’t be the guiding factor, it was all wrong.

At work

The other major factor that attracted me to dance was the aesthetics of it. The costumes, the jewellery were as important. And that brings me to my latest plan: jewellery. It was always staring right in my face but I never realised. I was always very passionate about jewellery. From a very early age I felt a kinship to ornaments and collected various pieces from different places that traveled. I have boxes full of them; I can almost open a museum!

A tribal mask from Bengal
stocked by "Smriti's Collection"

So, alas, I think all my interests are connecting somewhere. Crafts, dance, art, is converging into jewellery. Yes! I think at last I have found my true calling! At last, I think I’ll be able to focus my energies into jewellery making and be completely happy with it for a change.

I have been collecting all kinds of junk from all around the house and trying to convert them into something beautiful, literally “Junk Jewellery”. You could also call it eco friendly or recycled jewellery. Nothing goes to waste, just like in my own life, all my varied experiences are coming together, my creations too would also convey the same message, “Don’t throw away anything, everything is precious”.

As for the list of my various endeavors, my interests and hobbies, that can be the subject of another post. Maybe I’ll talk about that later. I hope to write more often now about the pieces I create, along with pictures, but for now, I had an urge to explain myself, so I did. This has been the story so far…

Random: Musings of a diary obsessed crafter

My diary is my lifeline. My entire day is planned on it and my life depends on it! Starting from chores to run for the day, to when to pick up the laundry, visit the doctor, deadlines, parties and even when to shampoo my hair! I also make a list of things I have borrowed and things which I have lent out, mainly books and CDs. I am an organisation junky! I wouldn't be able to complete half the things if it wasn't for my little diary. That's why I never carry my diary with me when I'm travelling, holidays are completely unaccounted time, entirely diary-free.




Every year, just before new year, I have a ritual of going to the store and selecting a diary for the year ahead. This year I selected a beautiful pastel pink leather bound one. It has three pretty little flowers embossed on top. It's simple and elegant. Those are also the keywords which I'm trying to adhere to this year in every other aspect of my life. SIMPLIFY is my new mantra. 

Anyway, the only problem with this particular diary is that the spine and the covers are too soft and since I'll be carrying it around in my bag all the time, chances are it will start to disintegrate by April. While trying to find a way out of this problem, I realised, that the diary would have retained it's original shape if only it had a covering or protective casing of some sort. So, I went on to make my own customised diary pouch which turned out to be as pretty as the diary itself. I made a snug fitting, slip on cover from old left over rags lying around the house and invested an afternoon to sew this to save me many more afternoons later in the year trying to mend the diary.

I chose a strong denim fabric for the casing and stitched it snugly to fit the size of the diary. Then I sew the piping as the border to secure the frayed end. The mouth of the pouch will be subject to most wear and tear. Then I chose three complimenting colours and cut out a simple flower pattern in varying sizes and attached it in one corner with a tiny sequin on top.

Voila! My very own hand crafted diary pouch!

My diary, in many ways is symbolic to the year itself. So, I'm hoping, just like I so lovingly crafted a protective charm over my diary, may I also take as much care to cast many such spells and craft many more beautiful things!