Kala Ghoda Festival ’09

The Kala Ghoda Art Festival of Mumbai beckoned. Kala Ghoda ( Black Horse ) is the name of that area. (Named after a statue of Prince Edward astride on a black horse, which incidentally is long gone) .

Read the details of the festival here.

A festival, to my mind, is a swarm of people, a riot of colour, a ring of happiness, sounds of cheer, loads of music, tonnes to see, and of course leaves you with a ring of joy. That’s what happens at the Chitrai festival in Madurai.

That’s what happens at all festivals. That’s something that was abundant at the Kala Ghoda Festival too. Make no mistake though, each has a different character and ring to it !

Here are some pictures from the Kala Ghoda festival !

The Entry Arch !
Art out of bottles, buckets and such other ‘water carriers’ ! The amount of plastic and waste that we use seem to be going sky high !

We seek to look upto the sky for some answers !

This stall both educated and appealed to the people with toilets at home. And sought to remind that there are many without that facility. And what a way to do that ! This one stayed with me.
The stage backdrop

A clothes stall with puppets in front.


Of course. The symbolism was hard to miss. As i stood outside, looking at other sights, the missus was inside !

A flute vendor


I wonder why they don’t give some flute lessons along ! The chap plays flute so well, that you are tempted to buy it with the hope that the magic is in the flute. And that you too would be able to pull off such mellifluous music from thin air.

Alas. When the flute comes to my lip, all it could produce was a vague gust of air and some strange sound that was almost like a fire alarm.

A wire made man walking a narrow strips !

Art from metal was captivating ! And captivating was just not the word. I stood there for a long while. Just to revel in the ingenuity of the human mind. And wondered why we seem to go in tangents so very often.


There are faces on the wall. They seem to be saying something. And that’s there on all walls of the world ! Aren’t there !?!

Empty well arranged bottles that had a people squinting, jostling and keen to look at what was inside ! And all the jostle had more people jostling to take a look ! Curiosity value gets some takers ! But this Osmosis was quite a sight !!
A kathak performance that we watched. Enthralled. Standing. Jostling. Yet, eyes rivet ted on the synchronous movement of legs, arms and body, to create a delight for the eyes and the ears.

And when we walked away at the end of it all, there was no mistaking the thrill that was there in our hearts !

12 thoughts on “Kala Ghoda Festival ’09

  1. Braja says:

    Oh bucket man! I love that….that is pure Indian street art :))

  2. I wandered to your blog and am really impressed by your photos! You have a knack of capturing images at the right moment! Looks great. Do visit my blog when you can!

  3. Priya says:

    Interesting pictures Kavi. Lined up bottles is truly amazing art including the buckets full of colors.

  4. ashok says:

    wow..tanks for sharing

  5. Postcard pics, nice!

    You’re tagged, kavi:)

  6. Christine says:

    Oh brilliant fun!
    Makes me itchy to come.
    The spring, the noise, the sun
    Passing smiles to everyone.

  7. Swatantra says:

    Amazing presentation! Thanks for sharing!! I learnt a way from this!!

  8. manju says:

    Great pictures, Kavi.

    Actually I passed Kala Ghoda area yesterday, but could not stop because I was in a hurry to go somewhere else.

    The buckets installation, though, could be seen from far off! It looked a bit weird but effective!

  9. Kavi says:

    Braja : Yes ! Buckets for all !

    roshini : Thank you ! thank you ! I get by with comments like these 🙂

    Priya : Thank you !!

    Ashok : thank you !

    Naperville Mom : thank you !!

    Christine : You are most welcome here. Just let me know.. 🙂

    Swatantra : Thank you !!

    Manju : Aww. Wish we could have connected up..! Never mind, am sure there will be another occassion..

    And yes, the bucket installation was a hillock high 🙂

  10. me envy you Kavi.

    the photo with the woman looking into the glass was super!

    🙂

  11. Sajan says:

    My art directors would love it. I’m forwarding this link to them. Missed so many of your previous articles. Planning to read it properly sometime soon.

  12. nsiyer says:

    Again you are at it.Beautifully captured photos.
    I liked the one about the flute. You always said ‘ the magician is real’.

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