Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav: Mangaluru airport showcases ancient art live

Mangaluru: Mangaluru International Airport is all spruced up for the grand celebrations of the 75th year of Indian Independence apart from the tricolour lighting on the airport terminal and other special facilities offered to the flyers, a unique crafts demo and activity centre that showcases authentic Gujarati folk arts called Ajrakh hand block printing on fabric. The airport and Craftroots, an organisation that helps artists have put together a 10-day activity for passengers that transcends Rakhi through the Independence Day bash till August 16.

Traditional Gujarati folk art, like Ajrakh hand block print and Rogan art, is the focus of the activity. Both Mahmadsoyab Abdul Karim Khatri from Ajrakhpur and Mahammadjabbar Arab Khatri from Nirona, both in the Bhuj district of Gujarat, are showing how block printing and Rogan art are done in real-time. They are the seventh and eighth generations of people who have kept this art form alive.

The two types of art have something in common: they both use natural dyes and organic pigments to give the work its own look. Haso Bazaar and HasoMakaro are two of the four traditional blocks that make up the border of an Ajrakh block print. Using white, black, red, and blue as the base colours.

Rogan art, on the other hand, is made with a base of paste made from boiled castor and six basic colours. Mixing two or more basic pigment colours makes a non-basic pigment colour. Rogan's art comes to life on wool, cotton, tasar, and khadi silk fabrics. The "Tree of Life" design is a trademark of Rogan Art. Synthetic fabric isn't used by craftspeople because it isn't thick enough.

Mahammad Jabbar Arab Khatri says that the finished works of art sell for a fair price on the market because they are hard to make. Ajrakhpur hand block printing, which has been around for more than 700 years, is now doing well thanks to people like MahmadShoeb Abdul Karim Khatri and his family.

People can watch these artists perform live at the "Hastakala" platform in the domestic security hold area on the ground floor of the MIA for all ten days.