DIRTY 2 DREAMY: the WALL PROJECT

By Sadho Ram

[With Photographers Swapnil Shahane, Shruti Chheda and Deven Saxena]

Of everything that is expressive, I’ve always found written poetry to be the most expressive form of art. It could be for the sole and selfish reason that I like to play with words myself, but then looking away from blank pages and the pen kept beside me, and looking at the above Black & White picture I try to wonder over this enigma as to what makes this picture a poem? There are no words in it, no play of any kind or role of words in it. It is just as it is; a portrait where a poem is alive. Open almost like a faded sky. Inviting as if to share the world and experience what you wish in her simple Joy! Call it what you wish, address her as you desire, but if anything describes who she is, is that even in DIRT she smiles unperturbedly with hope in her eyes, for a better tomorrow, for a DREAMY tomorrow.

Welcome to the DIRTY TO DREAMY: the WALL PROJECT, an attempt by the inspired people to add some colors of varied moods to an otherwise grey and grim area of SAKI VIHAR PIPELINE.

It is not much, you know, this place SAKI VIHAR PIPELINE, spread over about 2 and half kilometers in straight line, a toy-like rail track (now closed) in the name of road in middle, which divides the place in two parts, both filled with crumpled houses made up of concrete, some plastic, and some other materials. In between there’s a school, newly opened, two well maintained gardens, transformed from dump yards and garbage disposal places by the inspiring efforts of a MAN from foreign KANE RYAN and a MAN from the ruin ASHLEY PARRIERA of JANVI CHARITABLE TRUST, who had organized the DIRTY TO DREAMY: the WALL PROJECT to give a new shape to one more dump yard where about a month ago kids gambled, fought & hurt each other, the male adults of the Slum area lay in corners, under the influence of drugs & alcohol.

This is what IT WAS about a month ago, and on 6^th February 2010 the very dump yard had became a JOINT of Artists and Art Lovers, Photographers and Dancers. All present there, just to fill in the space, with their presence and in their own sense. With efforts from KANE RYAN and ASHLEY PARRIERA, the dump yard has been converted to a community place for the people living in that Slum to make good use of it and garden cum playground for the kids to have some quality time.

So I was talking about poetry. Well, though I’m a poet but I feel that poetry, in general, should not be limited to written words, as poetry is nothing but a vibrant impression of a mere expression of variedness of the feelings and or desire that we, humans, have, possess or build in our day-to-day life and in fight for our life. And though it is being expressed in several forms, but somehow we have not taken notice of it. Of all those forms which besides everything else, carry a poem inside, living, breathing, staring blankly or simply blinking at us, at our arrogant ignorance and at our self-imposed hurriedness.

But everything else takes a back seat when poetry just doesn't stick to where it was supposed to remain/be but gets down and dirty to force people to take proper and appreciative note of it, in a place least expected but most celebrated in manners not imagined but moments well captured.

Pictures have the power to tell stories in most vocal manner, yet there are times when people have taken refuge of written words to tell the tale instead, people like me. You can well label me as a hypocritical narcissist, someone who sometimes will make use of double standards just for the sake of it or even for the pure selfish reason to satisfy the inner greed of self to tell the story my way.

When I reached there at around 12 PM, after little direction searching, along with my friends, a dark man greeted us, standing just steps away from the dingy stairs that fell and lead to the SAKI VIHAR PIPELINE.

SHITHOLE was the first word that came to my mind after getting down and taking a first view of the place. It was an unlikely village NOT inside but UNDER the city, which I along with several few still call  Bombay and others, now Mumbai. At first sight, it’s the perfect example of what the glossy media describes as – “A breathing shithole; an amalgamation of people, piss and potty!”

But hold it; it is here that I found poetry alive and kicking with joy and spirit to infatuate anyone who came even remotely close to it.

You can curse me for being honest here, but at least I’m not hiding behind any lie. I could have written that, ‘oh, it was just awesome, people living and shitting almost at one place and yet not complaining, kids roaming around naked with smile and amusement on their faces. It was just fucking awesome.’ Well, it was exactly like that, though I doubt if it could be called awesome. Anyways, the dark man, who I latter came to know was the very ASHLEY PARRIERA, who had greeted us just above the dingy stairs, took us to the place, the dump-yard converted into a community cum garden, which as soon as fell into the full view of my sight, hit me with the colorful freshness that at least I had never imagined I would experience at such a dingy place.

It was a riot there. Only that this time there wasn’t any blood being spilled or people being butchered. It was a riot of people and paint and music and dance. Cultural riot is what I thought it was. There were people from all strata of society and each community. The number was astonishing for me, I had thought only few would show up, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the huge number of people present there to paint that 100 meter long and about 20 feet high WALL to paint, to give it a new face, a new identity of its own, unique yet familiar with its surroundings in a very keen way.

The WALL had ironically become the reason for the people to be present there and do what they wished to do with it, but their action, their emotion and above all their compassion had what people living in that Slum needed the most; UNIFORMITY. A sense of coming together of people with a desire to help by doing their bit, of culture to bring harmony, of dreams of the lesser ones and of efforts of the capable ones, of love of the uninhibited kind and of care for fellow human beings. It was a celebration of its own kind, not witnessed daily, never experienced twice.

There were as many poetries in each soul present there but I can only share a few of them here. These might not be the best poetries that were present there but are certainly the ones that deserve the most to be shared here. While the event was completely successful and was true to the purpose of it, but I know that this post of mine has not done any justice to it. I've been trying to come up with this post since that day itself but one thing or the other has been stopping me from doing it. Please bear with the abrupt end and incomplete story presented in this post of mine.

The pictures used in the post are all copyrighted to their original owners and have been used by their permission.


#Special thanks to Richa Jain for her inputs on grammatical aspect of this post.

For those who wish to know more about the Project and the Men behind can visit:

http://dirtywallproject.com/blog/

Paint Conspiracy: the Wall Project

By Sadho Ram (with Swapnil Shahane [Photographer])

Hmm.., so how do you begin writing about something which starts with unpolished, unkempt and equally ugly looking walls and ends after 3 ½ of unseasoned but planned out festival of Holi in which people, who actually happen to be fervent artists from all around the globe, transform those same walls, the unpolished, unkempt and equally ugly looking, into an artistic magnificence? And then exactly how do you describe the spirit of awesomeness which seems to have entered into each one of the breathing soul present there, in this case – from one end to another of Chapel Road, Bandra West?

I have no damn clue. You see, my ability to describe events literally fail here, and I’m not at all amazed.

So, I’ll begin (if it can be called a beginning at all) with a very, very small story.

Once upon a time there was a wall, devoid of colours and thus void of any feelings. And in that same time, there was a group of young individuals with spirit as vibrant as rainbow itself, the only difference was that they did not needed rain to show their vibrancy.

The wall, to be very precise was in an Old East Indian Village – Bazaar Road in Bandra. And there’s a legend around that it is overflowing with artists of numerous talents but all hidden inside their tiny, little abodes and the legend is as true as the existence of Bazaar Road in Bandra.

So that vibrant group of young individual used to daily pass by that plain, boring wall, and each time they passed, their heart burned with a volcanic intensity which erupted at its decibel highest, proclaiming among them that – “Something has to be done to it.”

So one fine day, they sought out the owner of that wall, Mr. Glenford D’Mello, who turned out be an extremely kind hearted men and allowed them to ‘paint’ it. But what Mr. D’Mello didn’t know that it was not that normal, same old – paint the wall thing.

The Gonsalves wall, as it was known, became the foundation of what that vibrant group of young individuals today call – the Wall Project. In their own words – “It was an initiative to add visual elements of colour, form and texture to a space, to make the area more alive and generate a feeling among people who pass by it daily.”

So, that was the story of how the Wall Project got formed. And since then, since doing “something to the Gonsalves wall” they have been consistently conspiring “paint the wall” all around the city (Bombay). This week (Sunday 24^th) it was the walls of Chapel Road, Bandra. The day was Sunday and the time “a really cool, colourful evening.”

The atmosphere was calm (even though cars honked horns as if it’s tyres can feel the road, and as if the road was made up of thorns), and people calmer (though few were confused as to why on earth are these firangi accent Indians and pani-puri eating Firangis painting the walls?)

But one thing that surprised me was the number of photographers present there. If my guess is right (which I know it is) then there were 2 photographers on every painter. This means more than the brushes there were clicks (and chicks [Beautiful, Warm, and Friendly Chicks]) which rolled on to the unpolished and unkempt looking walls of Chapel Road, Bandra.

Ok, enough of my rant. I’ll leave you with few of the true-colour pictures of the event clicked by my Photographer friend, Swapnil Shahane.

A few words on Swapnil: He is an awesome landscape photographer, probably one of the finest I’ve personally known/seen till date.

Due to some technical glitch, I'm not being able to upload more pictures of the event, So please refer to his Facebook page for more pictures of the Wall Project - Here


Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you enjoy the visual treat.

Thank you.