Contented, I sat back to breathe in the pleasure of the moment, and as I idly stretched on the warming air, the great moment happened: on this day the sunlight pierced thru mist and bathed the picture with the golden colour. Finally, the rough silhouettes of the old scooter and its jazzy paint colours slowly came into focus in the manner in which the town of Mussoorie has woken up from its dream, or dreamt of waking up.
Located amidst the Garhwal Himalayas, Mussoorie is not in a hurry to enchant the viewer with its wonders and its beauty stems from its idle nature. A rusty scooter stands in the corner; it is a throwback to an older generation of car users and fits in perfectly in the atmosphere of this old-world hill station. The splattered paint all over the scooter looks deliberately random and artistic, thus Mussoorie’s laid-back pace and remoteness lets life and its occasional chaos and mess happen naturally without much interference and provide a grand, raw beauty.
Scooter juxtaposed in time : Art by Aahan Tiwari
Indeed, as I looked at the scooter with the smears of paint, the stains – as one might call it – did tell a lot. Every smear and spot was the demonstration about the thousands of trips it has traveled the serpentine routes of the town. The green, the blue, the yellow and all the other colours, though they appear to be random, are blended and they are all aesthetic, just like the random events that occur in Mussoorie.
Perhaps Bill Aitken could write this scene in the manner of marvel rather an absurdity of the world where the normal turns into the fantastic. A scooter may just be an item of transportation here in Mussoorie but what makes the town unique is how such a simple object can become a piece of art that reflects the town’s rather laid-back attitude to life. The half-dried paint that painters on a scaffold spread in the fluid inlets and outlets in an artistic way symbolises how the town repurposes and turns the blah into something interesting and unique.
I sighed blissfully and was now content to remain lying down and just embrace the current simple moments. The great moment had happened: the scooter with hues of paint on recalling the memories and stories related to Mussoorie flared one more time. There, in this quiet town settled on hills, time slows down, and allows the inhabitants and guests of the area to relax, take it easy.
ART REDEFINED The scooter with all inelegant touches on them represents the inalienable trait of Mussoorie which is laziness. It encourages each of us to slow down and, in the midst of the chaos, find the rites, the symmetry the world presents us every day. Of course, in such a setting of Mussoorie, idleness or being idle does not have a negative or sinful connotation at all but rather is a way of life that seems as natural and as organised as the spilled paint which finds its own pattern or design to flow and settle down.
Author: Aahan Tiwari hails from the bustling city of Mumbai, but his artistic journey has led him to the serene hills of Mussoorie, where he currently serves as an artist in residence at Bunkotel. Tiwari is a multifaceted painter and art director, whose work reflects a deep connection to both urban dynamism and natural tranquility.
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