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Delhi Culture
Culture is the specialty
of New Delhi and whole of India. Delhi boasts its rich tradition
and sound cultural values. The rich heritage and culture can be seen
in the lifestyle, demography, art, crafts and music. Delhi being the
capital of India has many art and craft galleries along with auditoriums
that host regular cultural events.
Art
Art and culture have gone side by side and they have a strong influence
over the citizens
of Delhi. The Mughals ruled Delhi for a long period and the art
during that period was worth seeing. Akbar has been known for his
work on arts and crafts. In ancient India, people used arts and crafts
in their palaces for better lives. This is the reason why Mughals
used to have Persian artists for carpet weaving and metal crafting.
The culture and tradition is still very well preserved with arts and
crafts galleries in the city representing the work of various artists.
The National Gallery of Modern Art, the Lalit Kala Academy and the
Sanskriti Kendra are some of the main arts and crafts centers in Delhi.
We have studios at the Lalit Kala Academy which has been developed
on the designs of the city of art in Paris. These studios are called
Garhis and artists are provided with studios and lodgings.
The Sanskriti Kendra at Anandgram is another home for artists and
craftsperson who work and interact with other craftsmen to enrich
their overall skill as an artist. The campus spreads over an area
of eight acres with lodging facilities for artists and craftsmen.
The craftsmen are given huts while the scholars work in studios, workshops
and auditoriums. It also has an open theatre, an auditorium and an
art gallery for hosting exhibitions of arts.
October to March happens to be the main months where cultural events
take place in the city and you can look forward to various events
related to arts and culture. The performances include classical dance,
music and displays of major arts exhibition from the country.
Some of the prominent art galleries in
Delhi are: Art Heritage, Vadhera Art Gallery, Triveni Art Gallery,
Sridharani Gallery, LGT Gallery, Gallery Romain Rolland, Max Mueller
Photo Gallery, the Village Gallery, AIFACS, Dhoomi Mal Art center
and Khirkee Gallery.
Crafts
Craftsmanship has always been the specialty of Delhi. Mainly the
most practiced crafts work range from silver and gold enameling
to the traditional embroidery work, also called zari.
Artistic work on potteries, wooden toys, kite making and polish
crafts are still existent in the city’s art and crafts culture.
Having a round in the Old
Delhi area would let you realize the importance of this craftsmanship
because you will find various shops dealing in art and crafts items.
Handicrafts can be found at Delhi
Haat, at the state emporiums in Baba Khadak Singh Marg and Crafts
Museum in Pragati Maidan.
Mughals were great clientele of arts and crafts during their reign
of Old Delhi, also called Shahjajanabad. Collection of masterpiece
craftsmanship can be found at the Matia Mahal’s Pahadi Bhoja
with shops selling fashionable jewelry, bangles and necklaces made
out of exquisite crafts work. These shops are run by the decedents
of ancestral artists who specialized in ivory craftsmanship. However,
with the ban on ivory, these craftsmen had to use bones of buffaloes
and camels as alternatives.
Embroidery is one of the popular crafts works with golden thread
embroidery, which is called Zardozi. Craftsmen also work on complex
design with silk and velvet. Thin silver sheets used to wrap sweets
are made by these craftsmen who beat silver to make thin sheets
of silver. You can still find these craftsmen in the Matia Mahal
area of New Delhi.
Another very famous work that was popular during old days of Shahjahanabad
is the Meenakari work done on gold or silver. Meenakari is basically
embossing paint on gold and silver in an artistic manner so that
it resembles a precious stone.
Lacquer craftsmanship on bangles is still very popular among females
who love adoring these pieces that have small pieces of glass embossed
with bright shades of colors and golden borders that add to the
beauty of these bangles.
Incense sticks that are made of attars (perfumes) or brass are also
very popular in the craftsmanship
of Delhi.
However, change in colonial rule and other instabilities in Delhi
forced these craftsmen to choose different options. So, some of
them moved to Rajasthan while craftsmen who made bangles from lac
migrated to Hyderabad.
Dance and Music
If you are a music lover or a connoisseur of music then Delhi is
the place you must look for. Famous artists from the country visit
Delhi to perform which is not limited to just one or two events
but has a range of activities from the field of Indian classical
music, Hindustani or Carnatic and the ghazals. These cultural events
are organized on a regular basis and you can have every detail about
the happenings in newspapers published in Delhi.
Among the main auditoriums hosting musical and dance performances,
we have FICCI Auditorium, Kamani Auditorium, Chamber Theater at
Triveni Kala Sangam, Sri Ram Center, Siri Fort Auditorium, the India
International Center, LTG Auditorium and Auditoriums at Pragati
Maidan.
You can visit Shankarlal, Dhrupad and Tansen Festivals happening
in the month of February and March. Another event to look forward
to is the Vishnu Digamber Festival in August where top musicians
of the country gather to perform.
Month of October is famous for Qutab Festival held at the famous
Qutab
Minar in Delhi. Musicians and dancers offer fascinating
performances in the vicinity of the beautiful Qutab Minar. Film
lovers can look forward to National Film Festival and Bi-Annual
International Film Festival, helf in the month of January. In addition
to the cinema halls in the city, there are other theaters screening
films of National and International fame. These theaters are the
Hungarian Information Center, the Max Mueller Bhawan, the Russian
Centre for Science and Cultural, the Japan Cultural Centre and the
British Council Division.
Theaters and Auditoriums are heavily occupied by frequent performances
by artists from across the country and a constant drive for these
cultural activities comes from the very presence of National School
of Drama. Hindi and local version of translated European plays are
among the popular forms of Drama being organized here. Also, the
Art and Crafts exhibition at the art galleries represents the promising
nature of Delhi’s
art culture.
However, there has been new addition to the culture of dance in
Delhi which is very different from the traditional dance. Well,
we are talking of the dancing clubs where you can spend your weekends
or a . There are many dance
clubs in Delhi, especially in five star hotels like Taj Palace
(My Kind of Place), Maurya Sheraton (Ghunghroos), Park Hotel (Someplace
Else), Hyatt Regency (Oasis) and Le Meridien (C.J.'s). If you are
having a stay at these hotels, then visiting the dance club is free
but for an outsider there is an entry fee and provided you are in
couple.
If you are a fun loving person and wish to go beyond Delhi, you
can visit 32nd Milestone on the Delhi-Jaipur
highway. The interior and ambience of the place resembles
a spaceship and has big dance floors where you move your legs freely.
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