A Photo Exhibition for the Sake of Cultural Heritage of Gujarat

The religious, traditional and tribal Fairs, the rural games from north to South in India and carnivals in foreign cultures particularly Sourh American countries always present colourful and exotic sights and settings which can be a wiling photographer’s delight.

The Indian variety offers itself across the country and around all kinds of festivals like Holi, Baisakhi, Onam, Pongal, Navratri, Kumbh, Durga Pooja, Deepawali and so on. Gujarat is no exception. Its calendar itself is very brisk that keeps ticking through the year and fair presence is scattered all over its geographic and diverse cultural landscape.

According to a travel website the state witnesses 12365 big and small fairs of all kinds including the commercial, industrial and other purpose fairs besides the traditional ones, some of which are very well known, followed and promoted by the tourism and travel trade, namely the one at Tarnetar, Bhavnath, Modhera Dance Festival, Chitra-Vichitra, Rann Utsav, Dangs Darbar, Bhadrapad Ambaji Fair, Shymla ji Festival, Kavant Fair and so on. Add to this the new generation adventure and fun fairs and the picture may be complete.

One among traditional tribal area fairs is the Gol Gadheda no Melo that happens on the sixth day after Holi in Jesadal village in the tribal belt of Dahod district which is also near the MP border areas. Though the periodicity is annual, this Fair can go amiss in certain years unfortunately due to certain associated reasons of competitive rivalry among people of the area reaching some avoidable flash points.

The core of the Fair comprises of a legendary competition among young males to climb up the long bared trunk of a tree fixed in the Centre of the village ground, and be the winner to be able to ‘claim a bride’ of their choice a la an old time Swaymwar! This latter part is history though, as the tradition is no more followed by the villagers in the changing times. Associated with that competition are the allied activities involving fun and frolic of all possible kinds for the visitors, from joyrides to stalls of savouries and food of all kinds to vendors selling merchandise of all varieties and making some substantial earnings.

Amdavad based photographer Medhavin Pathak covered this Fair last year and has put up a show of 31 of his photos from that visit at GLKA’s SS Art Gallery in Law Garden area.

This show was started on Saturday under the GLKA’s scheme of grants to artists for three days till Monday March 14.

Pathak informs that he has shot an album of more than 40 final presentable photos of the fair, but was able to showcase only thirty one due to space crunch, besides the 32nd panel sharing a background note and his statement.

Nonetheless these thirty one photos cover and portray the entire gamut of the competition in its various stages, colourful pageantry at the fair in the form of merrymaking by people of all generations and both sexes. In one interesting photograph, visitors belonging visibly to three generations are seen dancing with abandon!

The photos also capture the local topography by way of the conventional water bodies – the Talao, the Vishnu Temple, the makeshift market place, the village grounds and so on.

This compact show not only provides a peep into the local tribal culture and colours of the fair and festivities, but it also points to the work style and cultural preferences of the photo artist Medhavin Pathak who has the resolve to visit more and more such fairs of Gujarat and bring back the enchanting cultural heritage through visuals in future also.

The show is on till March 14.