bhopal’s museums
national anthropological museum
artefacts and structures brought over from different regions in india (deserts, hills, forests, plains, etc).
its exhibitions are crying out to be curated better (or, at-least, captioned less lazily), but—like the pergamon museum in berlin—its contents are much-too magnificent to take slight against. this one deserves to be visited over a week (at-least), with architects and anthropologists and friends (and foes!) by one’s side.
see: Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya.
tribal museum
exhibitions of tribal cultures of madhya pradesh: with homes, objects, rituals, ceremonial structures, games, paintings, musical instruments (and more) on display.
the exhibitions were illuminating, and the work on display was colourful and vibrant ; unfortunately, the lighting in several galleries was atrocious, forcing me to document them in monochrome. also: several exhibits may not have been photogenic (and, hence, not photographed), but were nonetheless powerful to experience.
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i’m glad the british left some things behind for us indians to see in our own museums. one can only dream they’d return some of their loot (and be less patronising when rejecting “please return the stuff you stole from us” requests from former colonies), so that we can learn more about our own heritage and history without bleeding £800 (per person) to come see them.
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gratitude: to aman, setu and pramod, for inviting me to bhopal ; and to rohit, for pointing me toward bhopal’s museums.