AAW #157

This week in Ahmedabad, don’t miss Hindustani classical music maestro Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt’s musical stopover in the city. A Sabarmati Riverfront Summer Festival promises dance, music and mangos. And as always, art, Gujarati theatre and an open mic night beckon the curious!

These days, KYC seems to stand for ‘Know Your City’. So this week, we present a challenge to our readers! How many of the  event venues on the Ahmedabad Art Weekly for this week have you yet to visit? Choose a location that’s been left unexplored by you so far and drop by. The bonus is you’ll also be able to partake of an enriching event while there!

Always had the Conflictorium Museum on your to-do list? Drop by one evening and check out their Bird Box installation. Have you yet to take a walk along the river at the much-talked-about Sabarmati Riverfront Park? Drop by in the evenings for a Summer Festival. Has the fact that you’ve not seen the Amdavad Ni Gufa been your guilty secret? Drop by to compliment Hussain’s art with glimpses of visual art from the gallery next-door. Having whet your appetite there for art, make a stop at Hutheesing Visual Art Centre – which was recently reincarnated after a fire – for some more art! Ouroboros Art Hub promises a show full of surprises on its Open Mic night. This is not to say that these creative events are not enough incentive on their own, but so are these places well worth a visit! Additionally, the Grammy-winning Hindustani classical music instrumentalist Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt cannot be missed in his live performance in Ahmedabad.

Our creative inspiration for this week is Vrajlal Shastri, who was a pioneer of philology –  the study of oral and written records – about the Gujarati language. Born in 1825 in Petlad, Gujarat, Shastri studied Sanskrit as well as Prakrit grammar in his early days and later became a Sanskrit tutor in a Jain temple. Due to the study of Jain scriptures and religious literature, he became familiar with various dialects. In his 25 years of career as a researcher and scholar, he wrote fifteen books, including works about the Gujarati language like Gujarati Bhashano Itihas and Utsargmala, which was his pioneering philology book. His book about poems Rasganga, and a biography on the sage Yajnavalkya, are considered to be amongst his most significant contributions to Gujarati literature.