WELCOME TO
HIPISTAN
Little
Jaipur has quietly morphed itself into India’s capital of cool
In his brilliant piece
for the John Adams Institute on what makes a city cool, Ross Tilchin draws
one’s attention to Amsterdam. He writes, “Amsterdam has a strategy worthy of
your attention. Since 2000, the city has administered a robust set of policies
aimed at supporting artist studio spaces and creative incubators. A municipal
government agency known as the Bureau Broedplaatsen helps groups of artists
transform abandoned or underutilised spaces into places for creative work. The
agency provides subsidies, credit guarantees, project management expertise, and
legal assistance to get the incubators off the ground, and then the spaces are
run as independent organisations. With a fifteen-year budget of only €48
million, the city has created over 60 incubators housing over 170,000 square
metres of highly affordable creative space. Thousands upon thousands of artists
have benefitted.”
I see Jaipur headed in
the same direction. I have always maintained that over the past few years, it
has swiftly morphed into the cool capital of the country. There is a subtle
sass in its stride. A silent swag. And it is all under the radar. Very few
cities in the world carry the weight of tradition with the gait of cool. Jaipur
does that. It plays effortlessly on the seesaw of the then and the now.
OLD
& NEW
I always stay at The
Sujan Rajmahal Palace. It is crushingly cool. The hotel is old-world in its
architecture yet hip in the chemistry it exudes. There is a vivacity in its
calm. Where else will you find ultra-violet cushions resting on teal-coloured
sofas? Or a bottle of 4711 Eau De Cologne in the washroom? They have a guy who
walks around the central garden waving a flag to keep the pigeons away. And
because Jaipur is rather windy, the ashtrays have little stones. Sand has this
habit of flying in the wind. Detail is the presiding deity at Rajmahal. And the
food has its own flourish. The Rajmahal Café is now the dining table of the
discerning in Jaipur. I had the Lal Maas Sliders – a brilliant fusion. There’s
the Coniglio Kaachar Pizza – rabbit meat cooked the Rajasthani way. There is a
surprise in every serving, a wink in every course. Rajmahal serves as the
perfect preface to the poshness of Jaipur. Tapri is another hipster hangout.
Tea with Parle-G biscuits. Maggi Noodles with tadka. The Kala Chana Chaat is
playful, as is the Kachumbar Khakra. Tapri is no jaded café. It is wit in
wheat, satire in sevaiyan. It is run by two men who are showing their middle
fingers to convention. No visit to Jaipur is complete without a visit to Teatro
Dhora, in my estimation, the finest store in this country. People don’t come to
find things at Teatro Dhora. They come to lose themselves amidst the nuggets
that nudge you at every corner of the store. You can find a copy of ‘Cereal
Magazine’. I spotted an issue of ‘Kinsfolk’. I only know of one other store in
this country that stocks these cutting edge magazines. I bumped into hoodies by
Pero. Clothes by Shorshe. Expectedly, lots of Naushad Ali, the coolest casual
shirt maker in the country. On one shelf, I found wheat and cardamom biscuits.
On another, Code Deco fragrances. It is emphatically eclectic.
CULTURE
OF CHILL
The other cauldron of
cool is Jaipur Modern. The Banaras candle by No.3 Clive Road is something I
have lost my soul to. It also has perfumes by Jaipur Fragrances. Their Zephyr
concentrated perfume is just magnificent.
Jaipur also has stores
like Hot Pink and Idli. But frankly I have moved on from the elephant pocket
squares of Hot Pink and the neon naffness of Idli.
If you love books, you
must visit the CMYK store at Amer Fort. It is a labour of love by Priya Kapoor.
It is aesthetically evolved, graceful, yet with a firm view of the hip. The
Jodha Bai collection is poetically pretty. The paper and ceramic stationery is
beautiful. The CMYK stores marries Taschen with tashan. Once again, so Jaipur.
Not far from Amer Fort is
Nahargarh Fort. Within it is the Madhavendra Bhavan, home to India’s first
Sculpture Park, the result of a public-private partnership between the
Government of Rajasthan and the Saath-Saath Foundation run by Aparajita Jain.
Many months ago, Peter Nagy of Nature Morte mooted the idea of contemporary art
being showcased in a setting replete with traditional architecture. The idea
immediately resonated with the fiesty Mala Singh who advises the Chief Minister
on art and culture. And on December 10, 2017, The Sculpture Park opened. It is
a staggering show of talent and will. It has fifty pieces of art created by the
greatest names in India and beyond: Bharti Kher, Subodh Gupta, Thukral &
Tagra, Ravinder Reddy, Stephen Cox and James Brown, amongst others. The scale
is enormous.
I am privy to the
intentions of the government. It is hell-bent on showcasing the audaciousness
of its ambitions.
Unknown to most, Jaipur
is one of the first planned cities in India. It was planned according to the
Indian Vastu Shastra by a Bengali architect, Vidyadhar Bhattacharya in 1727. It
worked to a plan then. It is working to a plan now. The plan is called
Hipistan.
By Swapan Seth
HTBR 14JAN18
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