I'm writing this after the first rain of the season here in Khar(w). In these (w)indward parts I received the rain fresh off the coast just a few moments after I came home from the last day's work for CAMP.
Shaina and Ashok have left to Germany to show the things we've made over the past month or so - film, some photo objects and a book. The project we worked on, Wharfage 2, started in 2009. Though the outputs have changed over the years, the subject remains the same = dhow trade between India-UAE-Somalia. Our days here have been steeped in the sounds of the sea. We've been peering into a screen - looking through the eyes of sailors who have filmed their travels between countries, customs and duties (the many uses of those two words!). They show us first hand the true spirit of free trade. Diesel is bartered off instead of custom duty, pirates are fed as they are waiting to hijack bigger ships, Dubai's meat is brought back from Africa - alive - and with it the coal which cooks it... The seaman's stories are interwoven into many political and historical narratives - and are far from confirming to the popular ideas of what happens.
And then there were the music videos. To compliment the solemn vastness of sea travel are music videos of scenes from sea. It is a common practice to shoot interesting sights from the boat - dolphins, a drowning ship, a burning ship, an oil tanker, yourself against the sun, the deck of your boat marching on in all weathers or just another dhow at sea - and then to add appropriate music over it on one's music xpress phone. At port there is time to share these music videos with friends (so you sometimes hear Baluchi in Gujarat). Some of these music videos (which will surface on Pad.ma at some point in future) are absolutely kneewobbling. They are so intimate and almost always have humour in the choice of song. The compelling hum-beats of the naats sung by Farhan Ali Qadri and Owais Raza Qadri will echo in my head much after the songs themselves have stopped.
So yes, the past month, I've been off in another world. And the fact that camp has blue walls and a huge blue sun-screen on the terrace that rocks from side to side as if it were the sail of a boat - just locks this entire internship experience into one complete unit in my memory.
When the rain came, it washed my tired shoes clean.
Shaina and Ashok have left to Germany to show the things we've made over the past month or so - film, some photo objects and a book. The project we worked on, Wharfage 2, started in 2009. Though the outputs have changed over the years, the subject remains the same = dhow trade between India-UAE-Somalia. Our days here have been steeped in the sounds of the sea. We've been peering into a screen - looking through the eyes of sailors who have filmed their travels between countries, customs and duties (the many uses of those two words!). They show us first hand the true spirit of free trade. Diesel is bartered off instead of custom duty, pirates are fed as they are waiting to hijack bigger ships, Dubai's meat is brought back from Africa - alive - and with it the coal which cooks it... The seaman's stories are interwoven into many political and historical narratives - and are far from confirming to the popular ideas of what happens.
And then there were the music videos. To compliment the solemn vastness of sea travel are music videos of scenes from sea. It is a common practice to shoot interesting sights from the boat - dolphins, a drowning ship, a burning ship, an oil tanker, yourself against the sun, the deck of your boat marching on in all weathers or just another dhow at sea - and then to add appropriate music over it on one's music xpress phone. At port there is time to share these music videos with friends (so you sometimes hear Baluchi in Gujarat). Some of these music videos (which will surface on Pad.ma at some point in future) are absolutely kneewobbling. They are so intimate and almost always have humour in the choice of song. The compelling hum-beats of the naats sung by Farhan Ali Qadri and Owais Raza Qadri will echo in my head much after the songs themselves have stopped.
So yes, the past month, I've been off in another world. And the fact that camp has blue walls and a huge blue sun-screen on the terrace that rocks from side to side as if it were the sail of a boat - just locks this entire internship experience into one complete unit in my memory.
When the rain came, it washed my tired shoes clean.
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