Whine Not

Jaiyhree Pawar,area counsellor of Shahpur Jat and former mayor of Delhi,feels that its legal status is a deterrent in its development. Unlike its cousins — Hauz Khas Village and Lado Sarai — serving alcohol is prohibited in Shahpur Jat. “Earlier,areas like Sheikh Sarai,Hauz Khas Village,Khirkee Village and Lado Sarai were Laldora (illegal). We have managed to get Shahpur Jat the status of an urban village and have been trying to get legal sanction for commercial activities in the area,but at the moment Kamal Nath (Ministry of Urban Development) has not made it a priority,” says Pawar. She also observes that the issue leads to lack of infrastructure,including parking space,bad roads and drainage. “It is a pity because it is located in the centre of the city and can become pretty and prosperous,” she adds.

While a number of artists have rented studios in Shahpur Jat,it is difficult to have a commercial gallery or a reasonably priced alternative art space here. “When Prema Kurian had her gallery here,about three to four years ago,it was a thriving space. The craft shop of the Dastkar Society for Crafts and Crafts people and Alter Ego,a Prêt-à-Porter design studio added to the ambience. Now,Alter Ego has moved to a smaller space; the other two have shut down,” says artist Manish Gera Baswani,who recently moved her studio to Gurgaon from Hauz Khas.

Some blame could be shifted to the mall-culture for the negligence of urban villages. “The climate of the urban consumer has changed,malls have become one-stop shopping areas. It is out of fashion to walk through dusty lanes,” says Laila Tyabji,chairperson of Dastkar,who believes that people in the 1980s were more excited about spaces like Shahpur Jat. She also observes that compared to Hauz Khas Village,Shahpur Jat is too spread out and the quality of the surrounding areas is uneven. “This leads to fewer footfalls. Moreover,during the land sealing in 2006,no one knew if their commercial spaces were legal or not. We were later told that our establishment had to be under 700 square feet,” adds Tyabji.

Designer Puneet Kaushik,whose wife Rama Vaidyanathan,runs Alter Ego,says,“The rent in the village areas is now parallel with Greater Kailash. Earlier we had better designers,like Vivek Narang,showing their work,but now it is dominated with blingy wholesalers,” says Kaushik. He adds that obtaining a liqueur license in an area is next to impossible. “Besides Slice of Italy,there are no eateries which serve alcohol here. This makes it difficult to host openings or parties,” he says.

These,perhaps,are some of the reasons that also discouraged the members of Engendered,an arts and human rights organistation in New York,to consider Shahpur Jat when they were looking for a space for their underground art movement in Delhi. “It has a boho-chic feel and is spacious,but it does not have an atmosphere that is encouraging of an arts space,” says Myna Mukherjee,director of Engendered.

Is there a chance that all this will change? After all,Aprita Das’s Yodakin bookstore and Ashish Anand’s Delhi Art Gallery in Hauz Khas Village have packed launch nights and in Khirkee,Pooja Sood of Khoj has managed to overcome most of the hurdles. “When we came to Khirkee in 2008 we were aware that our organisation was the odd one out,but we did community projects and integrated the locals with us,” says Sood,adding that the fact that Khoj is a non-profit organisation helps. “We are not commercial,so working out of an urban village or an unauthorised colony is not an issue,” says Sood. However,artists in other areas still have an uphill task,given that there is water but no wine.