Dilli Haat: (Bengali) Folk Art & Traditional Music, till Jan. 28th 2008

Looking for an appropriate thread and to avoid cross posting ... it may not be the best place but....

If anyone is in Delhi this weekend and has an interest in Bengali folk art or Folk/Traditional Music in general be sure to visit the Dilli Haat retail opportunity just a 5/- bus journey from the Janpath market.

Towards the rear of the market almost opposite start of the food kiosks is a stall offering Bengali folk paintings. These may or may not be any great shakes, I am not competent to judge but one of the guys is an outstanding folk singer on a par with the guys from the 1920's recorded in rural England or corners of Appalachia that folkies go misty-eyed about and mutter the likes of which etc. ... believe me this guy is that good ... and he has an alias being known as Ranjit Chitrakar and as Shangen. Get him to sing you the songs that go with the pictures and scrolls ... buy some of the objects and record him ... he is IMHO worth recording for posterity. However if you don't fancy the idea of Bin Laden as an outlaw folk hero just ask for the more traditional stories.

And if you do manage to record him could I please have a copy either as .avi or mp3, or if you have a film crew check him out, I suspect there's a good short documentary out there.

They are there until the 28th Jan 2008.

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And after that go to Bijoli grill in the food court and try out mouthwatering Bengali delicacies.

Thanks Martin

My husband is in Delhi this weekend and I've just emailed your info to him. Do you know if Dilli Haat is open on Republic Day (tomorrow)?

Yes it will be open in the evening and expect quite a lot of visitors.

anyone knows more about a dilli hut programme in advance? i'm in delhi on 14 and 15 feb?

This may help, if just a little, it features a very general annual calendar: http://delhitourism.nic.in/publicpage/delhihaat2.aspx. Wait, it gives a more detailed one even, but it stops at March last year...

I've never been there, but I gather the market as such is permanent, if I'm not entirely mistaken.

Interesting detail: According to Wikipedia it's "fully wheelchair-accessible."

Ah look, check also http://www.dillihaat.org/. Not much up there though, appears to be under construction.

On Sunday 27th Jan, the Republic Day Folk Dance Festival is on. 6-8 pm.
It'll be great. If anyone wants to get a semblance of an idea about India under one roof (or rather one floor, it's outdoors ) in a 2-hour time frame, this is it!