Art Ichol Journal

Chasing the Sunset
As one of the eight-member group, invited for the inaugural Art Ichol Residency at
Maihar, in the first week of December 2014, I found the experience exhilarating and
creatively satisfying. Our itinerary had been meticulously planned. A lot of thought
had gone into this. All of us stayed in a spacious, old-world, multi-arched, neocolonial
bungalow, home to our hosts Ambica and Sanjiv Beri. Every day we visited
interesting, picturesque and some historically significant places. The sumptuous
and varied menus for breakfast-lunch-dinner, the pre-dinner addas with everyone
singing around a bonfire and post-dinner presentations, each night, by members of
the group, all added up to create an experience I will remember and reminiscence
over, for a long, very long time. The zillion pictures that I took each day, capturing
emotion and experience, vistas and vantages will be cherished. And, these images will
certainly aide my reminiscences of this residency.
The untamed, natural beauty contrasted with an undulating, cultivated, lush green
expanse, overlooking the tranquil water body at ‘Amariya – The Writers’ Retreat’, is a
sight to behold. A luxury tent with all amenities for a fruitful day-time stay, including
power points for laptops et al, creates the ambience and practicality for a lazy day
of musing and working with convenience and comfort. The lovely day-long picnic
which all of us enjoyed at this picturesque locale, on the banks of the mythological
river Tamas was planned with a lot of care. It is a dream location for all creative people
where the silence of the river’s unsung music is food for the soul.
All of us, including the Beris, some of their guests from Kolkata and Ambica’s
young and ebullient assistant Tanya, reached Amariya around mid-morning. I was
mesmerised by what I saw. After drinking in nature’s beauty, while most of us basked
in the warmth of winter’s generous sunshine and chatted, Arshiya danced, Bhavana
sang and Bandeep drew some large calligraphic drawings. Maggie soaked in the sun
and meditatively watched the water flow, while comfortably ensconced in the lone
hammock, suspended from the branches of a sturdy mango tree that leaned into the
river, as if thirsty for a sip of her waters. Gopika retreated inside the ‘tent’. We thought
she had gone to sleep or something, but she emerged a couple of hours later with a
pen and ink drawing of the inside of the tent, its decorative panels transposed, with
images of the fish she had nibbled at while drawing.