Utsav Rock Garden - part 2

..continued from Utsav Rock Garden - part 1.

The rural life gallery starts with this space which is like a village square. At the center is a cast iron light pole. That's Amma and Pushpa. In the background is a typical village house door with a colorful frame. Flanking the gate are idols of children playing cricket.. wondering why these idols here?

On this streets are models of houses which are almost real. There are so many scenes, the only way to show them was to make collages. An elderly man relaxing after his morning chores. The village astrologer. Women pounding grains. The living room of a village home.. the old woman is making wicks from cotton for oil lamps while children are practicing lessons. I guess the old man reading the newspaper is the children's Guru. Notice the little details like the lantern, woven lacework, traditional sarees, cane baskets, etc.

A village store. A coconut wrapped in cloth hung fro the door frame to ward evil spirits. Food items are realistic especially the jaggery blocks. Notice the paper decoration and lamp put up during Deepawali.

A glance of cattle room. In traditional north Karnataka homes, the living space for men and cattle were same. Cattle were considered family members and required equal treatment. Even to this day, oxen are given proper burials. In the recent past, life has changed, especially in the age of mobile devices. Earlier there are hardly any homes without cattle but now cattle are gone, priority is TV, bike and mobile phones.

On the side is another modern art alley. Lets take a look at it and then resume rural life scenes. The most eye-catching is this artwork depicting religious harmony.

Here we are looking at a model village.. is it imaginary or the artist created a copy of his or her village.

Tiled houses, fences, electric poles, and windmills.

I have no clue what this painting is about. Wish I could hear its description from its creator.

Cricket alley. That's Sachin Tendulkar, isn't it.

There were other idols, like the characters seen in comic. Modern art tires me out, I prefer to be with real life. So we are back at village scenes touching various professions. A washer woman driving her donkey loaded with a bundle of clothes while her husband presses washed clothes. A man attired in traditional costume for seeking alms at a village shrine. A cobbler couple making footwear. The lad is waiting for his slippers to be mended. A village school. Then there were home scenes with whole family together, women grooming, etc.Also there were carpenters, a barber, two men playing a board game, a village temple and so on.

From the rural life gallery we move on to the jungle.. idols of wild animals.

Here are few examples- hippopotamus, zebra, giraffe and stags. Then there were elephants, tigers, wild pigs, and many more. Well done sculptures.

Having done with wildlife we come back to village life, this time the grain, vegetable and cattle, markets. First is the grain merchant. Vegetable market.. one can easily identify onions, tomato, potato, cucumber, brinjal, carrots, etc.Next is the ox-shoe fixer doing business at the cattle market.

Halli-santhe are weekly markets where one can find all kinds of goods and services. Utsav Rock Garden team has done a great job recreating it. I've covered a few here. Knife sharpener. Gaana - the village oil mill.. oil sellers are called Gaangyaar. Puffed rice seller. A family manning their lime kiln.. this community is called Sunnagaar. The market scenes also showed scenes of deals being struck, peep shows, etc.

Done with the market we move on to sports side. Here's a scene of a crowd watching a Kustee Pandya.. a wrestling duel. Then there's a beautiful model of gymnastics. Village gym is called Garadi Mane and the wooden pole on which gymnastics are performed is called Malla Kambha. The challenge is to climb the well polished, oiled pole.. that's the show of strength in the form of grip.

Village girls playing merry-go-round and hopscotch. The sculptors have a great sense of anatomy.. they know how to create sexy looking girls :) Earlier I mentioned Garadi Mane.. here are a two Pehalwans practicing weight lifting. Traditionally wrestlers used wooden or metal clubs to train arms and wrists. For show of overall strength, they lifted stone balls weighing 150 to 180 kg if not more.

We come to the end of our tour. Close to the exit is a scene of a present day restaurant.. tables, chairs, life size models and vacant seats for visitors to take pictures with the idols. Pushps chose for a picture with the Sheikh and his Begum. This reminds me of our visit to Chowmahalla Palace where we met a real Arab attired in traditional gear. Pushpa has a picture taken with the Arab.

The tour was nice though I would've preferred to have started earlier in the morning while it was still cooler. Anyway, it was good.

Besides Utsav Rock Garden there are similar gardens-

1. Graama Samskriti Park, Someshwar Waadi, Paashana, Pune
2. Siddhagiri Museum, Kaneeri Matha, Kolhapur
3. Bareed Shaahi Park, Bidar
4. Revolutionary Freedom Fighter Life History, Interior - Exterior Art World, Sangolli
5. Shaalmala Park, Chipagi, Forest Department, Sirsi
6. Nature Camp, Dandeli
7. August-15 Garden, Hadagali
8. Bellary Cultural Complex, Bellary
9. Kunte Gadde Garden, Bellary
10. Bheeshma Kere, Gadag
11. Singataaluru Park, Mundargi
12. Heritage Village Park, M.G.R.E.D Jakkuru, Bengaluru
13. J.P Park, Bengaluru
14. Jaanapada Looka, Raamanagar

Long Live Artists!
.........