{"id":7408,"date":"2011-03-24T14:52:15","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T19:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/indianamericanstory.wordpress.com\/?p=466"},"modified":"2014-12-30T21:42:12","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T21:42:12","slug":"come-as-you-are-maximum-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/come-as-you-are-maximum-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Come As You Are: Maximum India"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Priya Chhaya<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Suspended from the ceiling
\nA map filled with arts
\nCulture
\nSymbols
\nDancing over a wheel, a chakra <\/em>
\nCalling for virtue from the people.<\/p>\n

And at the crowded, energetic stage
\nSounds of Rajasthan flow into the melody of the violin<\/p>\n

Embrace the dance styling of Punjabi rhythm
\nDin. Dinaka. Din Din. Dinaka. Din Din.<\/em><\/p>\n

The art, the dance, the music, the film
\nAll merge together amidst the written word
\nImagining the city, embracing the politics
\nTagore debates Gandhi
\nMargins and Majority on the silver screen<\/p>\n

India is more than just the sum of its arts
\nMore than a saffron-colored sari, or an exotic smell
\nBut for a short while there is a glimpse,
\nAn attempt to encompass, to gather, to embrace
\nIndia at the Max.
\nMaximum India.<\/p>\n

\"India<\/a>

Part of the Kaleidoscope<\/em> exhibition, this map of India comprised of traditional crafts floats above the chakra, a prominent symbol in the Indian flag. <\/p><\/div>\n

For the last twenty days, I attended a variety of shows at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts<\/a> in Washington, D.C.\u00a0 From March 1-20, the festival known as Maximum India<\/em> strove to reveal India to audiences from a variety of perspectives including art, literature, film, dance, song, and comedy. These performances piece together a vision of complexity and variety.\u00a0 My mission for the festival was to enjoy as many of the free performances<\/a> as I could. What I couldn’t attend in person, I streamed the recording at home as a live webcast or watched an archived performance.<\/p>\n

At every performance, I kept in mind one essential question, \u201cIf this festival is about Maximum India, what India are we seeing?\u201d I believe that an Indian identity cannot be deciphered through words alone. That identity comes from the collective culture across class, geography, and race. Or, as Nayantara Sahgal stated in the last session I attended: “Identity is something you<\/em> want it to be, not what others decide for you.”<\/p>\n

\"Tiffin<\/a>

Tiffin boxes from the Kaleidoscope<\/em> exhibition.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, what did I find? I learned that music is a universal language. The rock beats of Raghu Dixit included watching an older couple, dancing cheek to cheek, while waiting to go to the opera. A few yards away, a father and daughter bounced up and down while a smallish mosh pit crowded together near the stage.\u00a0 During a Rajasthani music performance, where a female dancer moved with tiers of pots upon her head, a little boy crawled over my foot to get a better view.<\/p>\n

During a literature panel discussing the depiction of Delhi, Mumbai, and Calcutta in novels, I listened to how authors struggle to portray India beyond the exotic stereotype (spice smelling air and flashes of color). I also visited the exhibit Kaleidoscope: Mapping India’s Crafts<\/em>.\u00a0 My experience walking through the exhibit was enhanced by video reels, installed at either end, of an individual navigating through an Indian city. Between the two films, various bicycles were on display holding tiffin boxes, pots, ice machines, and other mainstays of crowded urban markets.<\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/a>

Two of the 20-30 saris, each either stretched out to view the fabric in its entirety or draped. <\/p><\/div>\n

As for the other paid performances? I talked to one non-Indian who experienced the Henrik Ibsen play, When We The Dead Awaken,<\/em> where all lines were read in Manipuri<\/em>. Even with subtitles, she found it difficult to understand (and screaming of the lines also became a little jarring). I also checked in with my mother who excitedly described her itch to stand up and dance in the back of the theater during the The Manganiyar Seduction<\/em> where a group of musicians brought in the sounds of the desert while sitting in a series of boxes as high as the theater ceiling. One of my uncles talked about sitting on stage for the maestro Zakir Hussain, and another friend watched in awe as two classical dance forms from different areas of the country came together.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that is one of the great things about having festivals such as Maximum India. <\/em>Even when there is something different for everyone to go to\u2014no two individuals experience the same show in the same way. We all bring our own perspectives to the world around us, and while some may jump up and down at a rock concert, others like to hang back and take in the sounds. The emotional connection that resonates from hearing and seeing is an individual experience.<\/p>\n

\"Stamp<\/a>

From Reena Saini Kallat: Falling Fables<\/em>. Made out of hundreds of rubber stamps, this pillar represented many of the architectural ruins that are slowly falling apart and disintegrating. <\/p><\/div>\n

My last event involved listening with rapt attention as the niece of Nehru and award winning author Salman Rushdie talked about religion, politics and the Indian narrative\u2014marking the changes in India since independence\u2014and showing how the nation changes with every generation. The lecture even stepped outside of India talking about the influence of Tagore in South America, and Gandhi in movements on the other side of the world. Their conversations about how the written word equals resistance and that literature and politics go hand in hand in defining the Indian identity, and that perhaps this festival, and all that we write about it can continue to explore India to the max.<\/p>\n

One final note, as I write this from home, I am listening to Panjabi MC (on the webcast) close out the festival. As the song winds down with familiar tones from his 2002 hit with rapper Jay-Z, he calls out over a crowded room for hands to be raised in the air like a pair of drummers hammer out a beat: Din. Dinaka. Din Din. Dinaka. Din Din<\/em>. I can see that even as this festival becomes a memory\u2014mixing all the conversations I’ve had and images I’ve seen\u2014this festival was also, above all else, a whole lot of fun.<\/p>\n

Priya Chhaya<\/a> is a public historian that works with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She sees history wherever she goes and believes that it is an important part of the American (and Indian American) identity. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Priya Chhaya Suspended from the ceiling A map filled with arts Culture Symbols Dancing over a wheel, a chakra Calling for virtue from the people. And at the crowded, energetic stage Sounds of Rajasthan flow into the melody of the violin Embrace the dance…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beyond-bollywood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7647,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7408\/revisions\/7647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}