Art in the City.

Hello everyone!

A bit about Zentangle:

The Zentangle® Method is an easy to learn, fun and relaxing way to create beautiful patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Recently, I visited Ahmedabad, my native city. This was nothing new, as I have been there many times, and a lot of my family stays there. Every trip to Ahmedabad is filled with social obligations, because we forever find ourselves rushing from one relative’s house to another’s, breakfasting with one, dining with another, and sipping tea with someone else.

So caught up are we in exchanging tales, discussing the latest social events and pondering over things both important and not, that we never truly toured Ahmedabad. We never discovered its rich, glorious history, we never went to the numerous cultural extravaganzas that dot the city, we never realised that Ahmedabad is more than food and warmth and crazy roads – It is also about the bustling business of the countless pols that churn out products beyond compare, it is also about modernity hiding within tradition, and most importantly, it is also about the historical delight this city presents.

This time, we put our foot down. We would visit new places, and enjoy ourselves. We would go to some touristy places and discover the city that has our roots. We would do this, no matter how many relatives ambush us with their overwhelming love and affection.

This visit to Ahmedabad was long overdue and we had a hoard of angry relatives waiting to be socialised with. Yet, we managed to squeeze in a few hours of time to visit the one place that was on top of our bucket list. This place was Adalaj Stepwell, called Adalaj ni Vav in Gujarati.

As we learnt from a rickety old signboard outside the site, the Vav (meaning ‘well’ in Gujarati) was constructed in 1499 by the ruling king. It had four different gates, out of which only one was still functional. It is five storeys deep and has various vents for rainwater and air.

It has motifs of the everyday activities of the people under the monarchical rule at that time, and the architecture varies from pretty patterns, people churning milk, people dancing and adorning themselves with jewellery, Hindu and Jain deities, and various forms of erotica.

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I wanted to find out more about the Vav and turned to the omniscient Wikipedia. Turns out, there is a legend behind the vav’s construction. Quite an interesting one, too.

Rana Veer Singh, the king who had ordered the construction of the stepwell as part of his duties towards his kingdom, unfortunately, died in battle with Muhammad Begda, the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom who saw Rana’s kingdom as an easy conquest, before the construction of the well was completed.

Disgruntled, the citizens of his kingdom were now left without water, and without their kind, large-hearted king. They turned to the widowed Rani for help, but she was dealing with her own problems.

Rani Roopba (whose name means ‘beautiful’ according to my rudimentary translation skills) was broken-hearted. Not only was her hubby killed ruthlessly by that foreigner, but he died without impregnating her!

*gasp*

Without a husband and without a progeny, the helpless Rani was a typical damsel in distress. Seeing no purpose in her life anymore, she rushed to leap into the burning pyre of her husband and commit sati.

However, Muhammad Begda was besotted with the Rani’s beauty and asked her to marry him, instead. “Marry me, O Fair Rani! Clasp my hand in yours and let me give meaning to your life once again!”

(*cough* Padmavati *cough*)

The Rani crinkled her nose in disgust. “The nerve of the man!” she thought. “Doesn’t he realise that Hindu women marry just once in their lives! Chastity, love, the sacredness of marriage! All gone out of the window!”

However, his words did give purpose to her life. Vengeance.

The queen then said sweetly to Muhammad Begda, “O mighty king, I am prepared to be yours, and only yours for the rest of eternity! But grant me my one desire! Let me complete building the Vav that my deceased husband began! Then, I will comply with all that you wish of me!"

Smitten, Begda agreed to wait. The clever Rani oversaw the construction of the grand stepwell, adorning it with motifs portraying her late husband as the kindest, fairest, most handsome, and greatest king to have set foot on the earth.

And when the stepwell was complete, the Rani leapt into the well, joining her husband in heaven, hell, or purgatory, wherever he was. Muhammad Begda was horror-struck, but he had some sense of respect for creativity and architecture, and fortunately did not mutilate the imagery on the walls and pillars.

And that, my friends, is the legend behind the Vav.

The Vav is certainly a piece of beauty. Sand-coloured intricateness buried in the ground, the gurgling water of the well and the fresh coolness of the underground, and sprawling green lawns surrounding it, it is a picture of architectural excellence.

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I had seen the Vav before when I was little, but I remembered absolutely nothing of it. However, this visit was a very memorable one, and I actually had a lot of fun admiring the well.

Besides, only admire did I not. I absorbed the patterns on the walls, the designs and motifs on the pillars. I concentrated on the floral patterns, the grid work, the segments and sections and the beauty of repetition.

Later, on that very day, I tried to replicate some of the patterns on paper. I learnt that it was a little difficult because most of the beauty of the carvings came from the fact that they were three dimensional and protruding, something I couldn’t really do that on paper.

Secondly, most of the pretty designs were sculpted figures. The universe knows that I cannot draw figures, and I didn’t even try to ruin them for me.

Image Source 
This one is very close to the image I took.

However, my experiment wasn’t a complete failure, because I did manage some designs. I tried refining them and perfecting them a few times, and was finally happy with a few.

Fun facts:

1. These were done in a relative’s house (where else, while in Ahmedabad?) while the adults chatted and I sat in a corner doing this.

2. The paper used is this supremely awesome Khadi paper that we bought from a tiny workshop somewhere inside the city opposite the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram. It is smooth, but toothy, and is an absolute delight to write on. Besides, this is the only paper I had with me.

3. I tried giving each pattern a name but failed miserably. The one on the bottom right was supposed to be called "Biology" because it looks like fragmented spirogyra to me.

4. I am aware that many of these patterns are already existent elsewhere, but I got them from the walls of the well.

And when I finally reached home in Mumbai, I got out my new pens that my friend gifted me and got to work. I’d been meaning to try out the pens for a long time, and finally got an opportunity to use them.

Quite frankly, I don’t really like the green portion in the middle.

But I absolutely love the navy curves and brown squares. The black circles are minimalistic, but I like them. They’re quite okay, especially for the first time.

The rest of it is quite uninteresting, just random filler patterns. I messed up with the red bit, but the pattern by itself is very relaxing to do.

The black flowers at the bottom took up a lot of time, and I don’t think that the time was really worth it. I could do better, I feel.

Dislikes first – the green and navy. I don’t really know what I was doing there.

The red and orange bit on the outer frame is pretty, really pretty. But it isn’t my favourite because it is a bit too neat, I think. Neatness has been my forte and is a must in all that I do (well, almost. Don’t look at the unruly desk of mine.) but that bit is really clean.

The black and brown is the part I like the most. Neat, but imperfect.

On a side note, if it were really colourful, then it would look psychedelic, don’t you think?

All in all, I tried something new this time. I tried incorporating my usual favourites with the patterns on the wall of an ancient well. And the fact that it wasn't a complete failure satisfies me.

Till later, Happy Tangling!