Genda Phool

"Himanshu kya chahta hai?" is scrawled across the wall of Himanshu Verma's living room at his home in Press Enclave. It's a question that has immense relevance with this 29 year old "art curator." Dressed in various shades of orange, he greets us and offers us chai. His room is in various stages of chaos and is a window to a life constantly in a state of flux.
Verma is the founder of Red Earth, an organisation that specialises in curating visual art exhibitions, art festivals and connecting with people through innovative mediums like talks, performances and workshops.
Himanshu recently organised a Basant Panchami walk from Lodi road to Nizamuddin on 19th January without much advertising drew a crowd of 60 eager revelers. They sang songs, danced, did Saraswati Puja and had a special "yellow" lunch.
At his house in we see a man is weaving genda phool(marigold) into a garland. "They are my favourite", Himanshu tells us. He fell in love with the song "genda phool" from the movie Delhi 6 and has ever since been planning to start a Genda Phool Plantation Project. An incident, he says that convinced him about the vitality of the flower, was the fact that it spontaneously grew in a compost heap he had created. "The flower is a symbol of everything good and positive in life. It's a recurring icon in our culture", says Himanshu. Playfully twirling a single bud in his hand, he tells us about his plans of forming a project team that would get in touch with RWA's in Delhi and plant his favourite flower and beautify the city. He criticizes the current form of beautification drive by the Delhi government just before the Commonwealth Games and calls it "monstrous and nasty." He shows us an article and a photograph of the flower market in Old Delhi that is tobe demolished to "prettify" the area.
Seemingly attracted to environmental causes, he feels that one way to make the layman care more for the environment is by talking about art and culture rather than preaching about slogans as done by most NGOs. Himanshu however, hates being called a "conservationist". He is the man behind the very successful "Monsoon Festival" that has been taking place in the city for the last four years. This festival features many events like exhibitions, readings, films, music and theatre on the theme of monsoon.
Himanshu has made an initiative of involving school children in his projects by organising guided tours during HaryaliTeej, Basant Panchami and Janmashtami to make them come face to face with their cultural heritage.
As an art curator, he says, business is not as good as it was before recession took over worldwide in 2008. "But at least this ensured that only the truly good talent survived." he says, " I am not particularly worried as I basically believe my life is all about naach-gaana, khaana-peena, rang, puja, phool, sringar pehnava etc.( dance, music, eating drinking, colour, worship, flowers, style and dressing up)", he sums up, with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.
(This article was written along with Somya Lakhani)