After successfully 3 edition done, this time back with The India Story 4.0 Edition at Swabhumi The Heritage Kolkata 2018. Theme this year Above & Beyond. Opening this Thursday 13th December 2018 at 4 pm, continue still 16th December 2018.
The India Story, launched in 2015, is a creative arts and design exposition with three editions to its name. The last three years have been immensely successful with an amalgam of design minds from across the country, supported by an extensive media coverage and the presence of a very wide audience making the expectations for 2018 more ambitious.
This year, our theme is ‘Above & Beyond’, which seeks to explore newer boundaries of design and creativity. The India Story is spearheaded by Madhu Neotia (Initiator), Abhilasha Sethia (Co – initiator), Swapan Seth (Idea Director), Kalli Purie (Vice-Chairperson, The India Today Group), Shantanu Moitra (Creative Consultant), and Swarup Dutta (Scenographer) in association with this year’s advisory board, which includes Sumant Jayakrishnan, Anuradha Mahindra, Aparajita Jain, Siddharth Kasliwal, Indrani Dasgupta Paul and Neha Kasliwal Arya.
Join us for The India Story 2018, a Neotia Arts Trust initiative, to be hosted at Swabhumi, Kolkata from 13 – 16 December!
I don’t know how my story will end, but NOWHERE in my text will I ever read…
“I gave up.”
On my way to work on a crisp December morning, scrolling through the numerous good morning and daily inspirational messages on social media, I paused at this one. The sentence did something to me. The madness had already begun by then. It’s that time of the year. Swabhumi was all abuzz with last-minute fittings and installations for The India Story. I had been fully consumed by the energy of it.
And then I paused. Looked back. At my journey with TIS. What started from a spark of idea during a morning walk at the Tolly Club greens is on the verge of its fourth edition. Am I doing it right? Where do I see TIS after 10 years? What is India thinking of The India Story?
So many thoughts popped up. And then I entered the venue. I looked at the men at work on the installations, the intricate art works being moved into the art storage, the participants coming for a recce and the bubbling voices inside the makeshift office.
There they were. My amazing team and its members. One look at them and their infectious energy caught up with me. It made me relaxed. It gave me a clarity. It showed me the way into the future.
It’s definitely a team work. When I stop thinking in “me” and “my” terms and look through the team’s eyes, the picture starts getting perfect. Isn’t that the idea with which I, err…, we started The India Story?
To stop looking at art from only the insider’s eyes and start appreciating each of its layers through different prisms of sensibilities. To reach out to everyone. To engage and evolve with the people of Calcutta and beyond.
Yes. I am sorted now. Of course I don’t know yet where TIS is heading to. And I love this unpredictability, which has also become the hallmark of The India Story. But what I am sure is that as long as my team is there with me, as long as Calcutta and its lovely people are there to support me, as long as we believe in the magic of art and what it does to us – we can happily keep moving forward in this journey.
See you all at The India Story 2018
13-16 December, 2018
Swabhumi, Kolkata
#tis18 #theindiastory #aboveandbeyondby Madhu Neotia
Sukanta Pal 