Rohan Patankar spoke at The Coalition Pecha Kucha night, ‘The Bright Idea: Entrepreneurs on their Inspirations,’ on Delhi Dallying and curating the Delhi Walk Festival.
Walk with Delhi Dallying at the Delhi Walk Festival
Delhi Dallying is leading two walks at the Delhi Walk Festival this February, exploring the hidden facets of Shahjahanabad and Hauz-i-Khas. Tickets are priced at INR 400. Come join us!
Trades & Treasures of Old Delhi
February 23, 4.00pm – 6.00pm
This tour explores the bustling marketplaces of the old city and traces the complex web of commerce and culture that had made the city thrive for years now. You shall start from the familiar main street of Chandni Chowk, but soon slip into by-lanes and gallis, walking through big and small, permanent and temporary bazaars of all shapes and sizes. Once on this ‘other’ side, you’ll start looking at the old city very differently. Buy Tickets.
Hauz Khas Special
February 26, 4.00pm – 6.00pm
Hauz Khas has attracted kings, saints, scholars, artists and musicians to its banks for over eight hundred years. Arguably the seat of contemporary creative practice and subversive culture in Delhi, it has also become one of the most polarizing neighbourhoods in the city. On the Hauz Khas Special walking tour, explore the social, cultural and economic dynamics of the urban village over the years and define why it is so unique. Buy Tickets.
A Week Long Festival of Exploring Delhi on Foot
85Â Walks and 30 Walk specialists help you discover multiple layers of the city.
For the last few months Delhi Dallying has been working with the folks over at Delhi, I Love You, putting together the country’s first ever celebration of walking and exploring. Supported by the Delhi Government, the Delhi Walk Festival brings together 30 walk specialists and 85 walks, specially curated by the team. Spread across the last week of February, these super-affordable walks cover a range of themes and neighbourhoods. There are also exciting events and performances planned for our festival hubs in Old Delhi, New Delhi and Qutub Complex. Believe us, there’s something for everyone.
Explore Delhi like never before. Browse available walks on the Delhi Walk Festival website and purchase tickets on BookMyShow.
New York, New York
Last August, Bhavika moved to New York to study design at the School of Visual Arts. Varun has now joined her and is pursuing a masters in real estate from Columbia. With two thirds of DD now in the Big Apple, is it time for some New York Dallying?
Postcard and photograph by our super talented friends at The Postcard People.
Art for Nepal
Help Nepal rebuild while you also stock up on some handmade, handstamped and signed art.
Hi guys! We’ve been in extended hibernation but here’s something that’s shaken us out of our slumber. Dallier Rohan Patankar has started a wonderful initiative called Art for Nepal.
Rohan spent a few weeks in Nepal last year, where he made some beautiful sketches. In the aftermath of the earthquakes that devastated the country last month, he has decided to sell limited edition prints of his artwork, profits from which will be used in Nepal to help the Rotaract Club of Kopundol rebuild the homes of 25 families of the Suan village in the outskirts of Kathmandu.
These pieces can be bought online and Rohan promises free shipping across India within 20 days. You can write to rohan.patankar90@gmail.com for orders and shipping to outside India.
Have a look at the range of prints and postcards on offer by browsing through Rohan’s Facebook album. Indian nationals can contribute to the project by buying the prints online via Instamojo.
#Walktober
As the weather becomes favourable for exploring the city, Delhi Dallying shares some of its favourite stories from Old Delhi, every Saturday this October. Join us as we explore the obvious (read food) and beyond – the mohallas, the gallis and the markets – to understand what makes this medieval city tick today.
We’re looking at the extra-ordinary in the everyday Shahjahanabad through two lenses – take your pick!
And the countdown begins!
Tomorrow’s the day!
There’s plenty to smile about on the St.ART Delhi walk this Sunday!
More happy (and air borne) things to be found!
There’s plenty to see on the St.ART Delhi walk by Delhi Dallying!
Believe us, now *that’s* a curious canvas. Join Delhi Dallying on the St.ART Delhi walk to see the big picture!
Just who *are* those tiny monsters? Find out next Sunday!
Can you guess which actress Ranjit Dahiya of the Bollywood Art Project is painting?
St.Art Shahpur Jat Walk
Delhi Dallying is very, very excited to be collaborating with the incredible St.ART Delhi Festival 2014. We will lead a curated walk through Shahpur Jat next Sunday, where we expect to initiate conversation about the many historical and social layers of Shahpur Jat and its ongoing encounter with international street art, weaving a contemporary narrative of this urban village in Delhi today.
Join us!
Find the facebook event page right here.
From sky high to down under – well, sort of!
The Museum Series / Day 1
We are ashamed. It has been close to a year since we posted on our beloved blog, and no excuse is justified. The clutches of laziness and procrastination are unrelenting, and they’re precisely what caught us post-thesis.
However, two weeks ago we decided to rein in on our indolence and kick start our museum series, something we have been very excited about for a while now.
The idea behind the series is quite simple really: Why do we go gaga over museums all over the world and not even bother visiting our very own ones before writing them off? Maybe they aren’t designed by a Hadid or a Foster, maybe they aren’t the most interactive, but how do we form an opinion without even giving them a chance? Well, we’ve learnt our lesson, and don’t quite fancy having to eat our words again (they’re not very appetising, surely you understand.)
Before we begin our adventure, a disclaimer: this series is not about us leading guided walks through the museums of Delhi. In this case we find ourselves as clueless as you (perhaps even more so). We will continue to create events and everyone is invited (we don’t bite), but this is more about exploring together, and (hopefully) busting some myths and having a great time even if the subject of our exploration smells of rat poop.
So, we began.
The day was a Saturday (now that we are slaves to work), the time 12pm (and sleep), and the places: in Palam, far far away, the Sulabh International Toilet Museum and the Indian Air Force Museum. We chose two museums which are close by- as the crow flies, that is. Sadly we are not crows, and would have to endure the perils of not having wings later in the day.
We started off excited, and though they tried the best, the rain gods couldn’t dampen our spirits so early on in our adventure. Finding our way to the Sulabh Museum was not that hard, with edge enabled phones to our rescue. Now imagine the irony when you get to a toilet museum that prides itself in its plumbing prowess and find that its clogged and overflowing! We braved the rain (thanks to our trusty raincoat and umbrella) and waded through muddy water, pants rolled up and shoes in hand, to emerge on the other side: a large hall with a lot of middle aged men and some very cheery signage.
However, we soon realized that in this case, a rainy day might not necessarily equal a museum day. Part of the museum was outdoors, in the spirit of true blue Indian habits. We couldn’t really explore the many types of pit toilets, examples of which were dug up in an open forecourt. We darted inside to the main museum, a medium sized hall with wall-mounted exhibits on the history of toilets and the habits of sanitation.
We were given a ‘short’ guided tour by one of the employees and were unabashedly told how we must not be embarrassed to talk about defecation and genitalia. When we broke into sheepish grins, he assumed an even more serious tone and told us how this was Mahatma Gandhi’s idea (of course). Gandhi spoke about  the idea of cleaning one’s own mess, which was basically taboo for higher castes in Indian society and the reason for the harijan (untouchable) community being treated the way they were. Sulabh takes that belief forward by providing easy sanitation solutions which makes waste disposal hassle-free and hygienic.
We saw some quirky exhibits like dried poop balls, biodegradable poop bags, victorian poop seats and poopy poems too!
So was the museum (honestly) worth the hassle? We’re not sure. It’s clear that the proprietors have the best of intentions and our guide at least was very passionate about public sanitation. Maybe we have high standards because of our design education, but, honestly, the exhibits themselves weren’t very impressive and we spent a lot of time furtively critiquing the presentation. They have a strong base and a truckload potful of interesting information, but really need to amp up the wow. Still, as the only toilet museum on the world, it has major novelty value.
On a scale of ‘thumbs down’ to ‘awesome’ we give it a ‘passable’.
After the first half, we had a Dwarka lunch experience (read ‘no eateries’). With a hard-to-find Mcdonalds’s meal in our stomachs, we were quite happy to be heading to our second destination, the Air-Force Museum. Now this is the part where we wished ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ was for real. 3 hours, not a minute less, is what we took to cover a distance which would typically take half an hour. Adding to the traffic woes was our inability to actually locate the museum on ground – and not just on google maps. It was quite an experience: drowned cars, drowned cattle, drowned paan shops and their poor vendors – and then our car started smoking! There was smoke coming out of the bonnet, literally; apparently the engine was so hot that the rainwater vaporized. That bit had us worried and we had to waive the white flag and admit the second half of the day was a shitty effort (still not as much as the first half, though!).
So, we might have lost this particular skirmish but there’s a lot more ground to cover still! As they’re bound to say in the high seas of Delhi: Onwards ahoy!
Name:Â Sulabh International Toilet Museum
Address:Â Sulabh Bhawan, Mahavir Enclave,Palam Dabri Marg
Entry:Â Free
Thumb-o-meter:Â Passable (mostly for novelty)
 
PS: Thanks Nivedita for making the effort of reaching the Sulabh museum in that horrid rain and we are sorry for being late! All you guys who missed DD’s first edition of the museum series, we hope to see you next time! 🙂
This post was co-written by Bhavika and Varun.
Delhi Dallying 