Adventures of a Desi KnitterAn academic juggles knitting, sewing, and other crafts in Kolkata

More sensory overload

§ June 10th, 2006 § Filed under Travel § 5 Comments

Hello folks, I don’t have much to show by way of knitting progress, so alas, this is a photo-less post. But Lobstah, I am thrilled that you loved Sholay, and have to hear more about it! Please tell me you liked the brooding Jay more than Veeru. I was in love with the man for the longest time in my teens. Manisha, no special drinking water in the rooms, is what I meant. They did have decent plumbing, thank god. Uccellina, repeat after me (or get him to repeat after you): rangeen moja, rangeen zindagi (colourful sock, colourful life!).

Am in New Mexico having a blast, and when I’m not stunned by the natural beauty around me, the colours and shapes of pottery, rugs and paintings are assaulting my senses. Everytime I think I have seen all the combinations of various black, white and red Navajo pots, I see another one and swoon over it. I am usually drawn to regular Indian (as in desi) earth-tone combinations of deep reds, ochres and black and those are here aplenty, but some of these weavers make fascinating use of green, blue and even pink with grey in ways that would never occur to me. There are lots of cheap rugs that are machine woven and which use chemical dyes,  but there was one handwoven green rug in Taos yesterday that was just absolutely stunning and nearly my take home pay. I gently walked away from it,
but really, it’s nice just looking at the designs and patterns.

I also went to a few yarn stores in Taos, but most of it is geared towards weaving, so the yarn is quite coarse. Will check out some in Santa Fe today. Accha, how do all the galleries survive here? Throw a stone and you hit a gallery with "authentic tribal art" or "contemporary fine art" or something. I’m being a total tourist, taking it all in, but the enthusiastic commercialization of the arts scene leaves me ambivalent. On the one hand I like the democratization of it: there’s a gallery, "fine art" and critic for every taste and budget and it’s not at all snooty and hoity-toity. On the other it’s also so unabashedly geared towards commerce that it makes me cringe.

More later… am off to hike a bit in the Pecos wilderness around Santa Fe today. Hope everyone’s having a good summer: I haven’t had time to check everyone’s blogs and it’s making me feel quite cut off, but also looking forward to catching up with everyone in a few weeks.