An underground tribe of graffiti artists is leaving its mark on the city walls

It is 2.30 am. On the deserted South Extension flyover, Zine scrawls hurried messages on the wall. Love Bug, he writes again and again, sometimes in bubblegum font, sometimes in skeletal, twiggy letters. On another day, around the same time, it is .nox on the prowl on the AIIMS flyover, armed with a spray can, his eyes looking for the perfect wall and looking out for a policeman on the night beat. On yet another day, it is LET aka Les Enfants Terribles striding away from the shocker of a nude female figure he’s left on a wall in prim Chanakyapuri — one he’s sure the MCD will whitewash before the evening, just like they’ve done to his other “artwork” before! And somewhere in Malviya Nagar, a youngster in a balaclava is leaving his signature or tag in graffiti parlance — True— written in a series of entwined characters and ending with the figure of a boy in a cap. The world of graffiti artists comes alive in the darkest hours because, as True says, “I am an artist, but the cops think I am a vandal. That’s why we don’t sign our real names and we never reveal our identity.”

The Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC) is planning to showcase graffiti art during the Commonwealth Games, but Delhi’s underground tribe of graffiti artists thinks the move goes against the subversive, anti-establishment nature of the art form. Would DUAC feel as benevolent if they see the graffiti of these 20-somethings, most of them Delhiites? Like “Stop Corruption, Govt Sucks” accompanied by a Fido Dido cartoon near Savitri cinema? Or the unprintable one under the Nehru Place flyover? Or one of LET’s wicked masterpieces?

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