The Village art

The Village Arts

P K Routray

In cities, to an art museum

holiday visitors usually come

driven by the urge in their hearts

to appreciate and applaud the arts

and to have a diversion and recreation

to steam off the routine life tension

except a few countable in-depth art lovers,

for general count them we here ignore.

With time, declines the frequency of visits

as on repetition  stale become the exhibits .

Contrary to it the arts in the village

on the walls and floors of the cottage,

on the bangles, sarees and bodies of the ladies rustic,

on the river bed with sands and on old man’s stick,

on cakes, utensil and earthen pots in use,

on the mat and  cows’ horn. All these always amuse.

Though many are traditional flowing down through generations

but they are unique and varying befitting to the occasions.

Never they look dull and add flavor to the daily life

torn, worn by wants and by earthly tribulation and strife.

As the beauty of a rose never withers

even though day in day out we see those flowers.

The arts in the villages have similar divine blessings

never pale, never stale to the onlookers joy it brings.

A million dollar art or an art acknowledged as a rare creation

in course of time meets its doom and destruction.

But the jhoti, the art on mud wall and the art of leaf powder

though artists are many and rarely known they stale never.

Occupies the love in the uppermost part of the artist’s mind

while creating the art the pride of creation is left behind.

The artists also learn the art of humility from earlier generation

whatever they do they first offer it to the Lord of creation.