This was my first photo shoot for United Arts Society’s Gypsy Dreams. The team behind this is a bunch of art enthusiasts who seek similar minded Indians and offer a platform for art enlightening, joy and absolute fun for 2 whole days. Their goal is remain cut off from the busy life for two days and to get lost completely in the beautiful atmosphere of Temple Tree (North Bangalore) amidst green surroundings, art lovers and plenty of art based sessions.
Location Temple Tree: Just 5 kms from Hebbal Flyover is this beautiful 5 acres of property called as the Temple Tree. It has two shelters, one is for any indoor activity, a large room with plenty of sleeping space and power sockets. In the corner is a fairly large, exceptionally clean and nicely designed washroom. The washbasin has the finest Jaquar tap and then the surprise, the washbasin is actually a large piece of stone that has been smoothly chiseled to make a washbasin. See the combination? Jaquar tap and Stone Washbasin! This pretty much summarizes the two day outing, i.e., you are lost in art without losing the comforts of modern day life.
Participants arrived from 9:30 am till 11:00 am. As they set foot into this tranquil 5 acre land. As you enter from the main gate, you see a little bit of unused and untouched barren land but your sight will be on to the Kerala styled tiles hovering over fairly large area. You part your vehicle under the trees and you step into the a nicely maintained lawn enclosed on all sides by a wall or a by rope. This is the enclosure where all participants will stay for the next two days. As you walk onto the lawn, you find the open space very inviting and the building is also very open with multi sided entrance that enables any kind of performance based show.
We took our seats on the lawn and while waiting for the participants, we were offered snacks. Fruits, coconut water, brown bread, and rusk. Most of the participants appreciated this 24 hour supply of snacks which was kept on an open counter for anyone to grab a quick bite if hunger struck. This was in addition to the lunch, evening snack, dinner, next day breakfast, lunch and evening snack.
The session began at 11:00 am with Vineet taking to the stage introducing himself and requesting every individuals introduction. 90% of the participants never knew who the others were and this set a nice mix of people from various backgrounds. I found all participants very mature and had arrived at a certain stage in life where they know how their life will progress and wanted a nice art break from their busy schedules. So, everyone mingled ever so easily.
The session began with a few fun games. Some of them so simple, yet so much fun. This allowed everyone to get into the mood of relaxing and flexing their brain muscles other than for work.
As the day unfolded, two sets of teams were formed with a captain assigned to each team. The goal was to ensure that captains steered their respective teams to winning maximum of the games/events. And sure enough, some games were quite a challenge. Some of the games were something I never ever heard, but they were so much fun.
After about 4 events, lunch was served. Lunch was delicious and very filling. Soon after lunch, everyone got indoors and had a quick session on drawing and they were offered all that was necessary to do some drawing. Kenneth Sebastian was the mentor along with Vineet who helped the participants with their creativity. It was exceptionally nice to see Kenny making a creative piece in less than 15 minutes. The goal was to connect their inner self with a piece of art. Char coal, pencil, paper, everything was there and only thing that was to be brought onto the floor was creativity. Some of the participants thought for sometime while the others were quick to make something.
Right after this session was a ‘engineering’ session in which the two teams were given two themes, strings of rope, plenty of bamboo sticks and some metal wires. Based on the theme given, the teams were required to make a creation that represented their theme well. This sounded a little difficult but it was interesting to see how someone who has an artistic mind was able to share the concepts on paper which eventually the ‘doers’ used to make the final output.
In the evening, everyone got together on the lawn to have a quick game of Kho-Kho. I almost dropped my camera to join them but alas, my job was to shoot and not to play. Game was simple but the organizers did require to do a couple of rounds of mock running to explain all. We had a foreign guest who was probably not aware of the rules but that added to the fun because everyone thought she wouldn’t be good enough and she was a surprise package. The game was one hell of a refresher because it made your heart beat fast and this time your heart was not beating because of a report that was due.
Soon, all participants rested on the relaxing lawn as the sun set and there was a neat snack that was served. Shortly, firewood which was already collected was made into a neat cone for bon-fire. Fire attracts one and all and without any invitation, everyone seated themselves around the fire. The most surprising package was about to be unfolded. Kenneth (Kenny) takes the center stage and how. He brings his guitar and then what transpired was simply exceptional. While we originally thought that Kenny was a painter, we now see him playing good music. But wait, he’s actually more than that. He is a stand-up comedian who can sing well, create great music and is a true artist to the core.
His stand-up act, which he did seated on his chair was hilarious and people almost fell of the chair. Of course, a few participants teamed-up well to add to the effect. His explanation of why he learnt playing guitar was very honest and the songs he played added to the fun. His Kannada song which is created out of sentences he heard in Karnataka without he knowing what it meant was the show stealer.
This was then followed by a nice sumptuous dinner. But it wasn’t time to sleep. Plenty of fun activities followed the dinner which:
Next day early morning, everyone went to bed to sleep. It was around 4:00 am. Quite obviously the good morning call of 8:00 am seemed to be a little early for many. But the yoga camp helped everyone rejuvenate and the morning breakfast pepped all. Later in the day, once everyone took their shower, there was a session on dance and body relaxation, this was fun and at the same time very relaxing as the instructor demonstrated a few simple techniques to loosen one’s body. The music that the team played was simply out of the world and a complete surprise package. Most of it sounded like lounge music and anyone would love to add them to their collection.
Lunch once again was apparently the most awaited ‘session’ by one and all. Almost everyone, with a heavy stomach wanted to rest and sure enough, they all rested but not for long. The oil painting session seemed difficult for many as not many had done this for a long time. However, the a little bit of support or ideas that came in, the team sat down to unleash their creativity. After washing hands, everyone sat down to have a filling evening snack with coffee. The day program was closing and everyone were invited to sit on the lawn, relax and speak a little about their experience. They were required to write a small feedback which of course would help the UAS team to improvise which is what they have been doing since their first Gypsy Dreams session.
Gypsy Dreams has been unique from many points of view:
- Never ever have we seen such an art outing with so many things being done
- It was more like a picnic with some great participants (I say great participants because these were folks who have seen life, have accomplished something for themselves and were here to connect with their inner self and have fun doing so)
- The location and the fact that one did not have to go outside the city to have a mini-vacation is so nice
I hope they keep improvising their sessions and may this be a more regular feature in Bangalore.
