You can’t go to a concert—the concert must come to you. And it has. Not just music, but also book readings, plays and entire museum exhibitions. As theatre venues, literature festivals and museums remain shut during the lockdown, they are moving their offerings to the digital realm. The best part? It’s all free or on a pay-what-you-want basis. So the next time you get bored of binge-watching yet another TV series, do not despair: an artistic or literary adventure is just a click way.
Stand-up Comedy
Live From HQ
Exercise your facial muscles with comedy sketches by Anubhav Singh Bassi, Aishwarya Mohanraj, Samay Raina, Rahul Dua and Gaurav Kapoor among others. The shows are 20 minutes long and are being aired on Instagram live at 10 pm till April 13. For the schedule and Instagram handles of the comedians, refer to bookmyshow.com.
Literary Talks
Jaipur Literature Festival
‘The greatest literary show on earth’ is now hosting some great dialogues in its digital literary series called Brave New World. Listen to Shashi Tharoor and policy researcher Samir Saran talk about the crisis the world is going through and journalist Pragya Tiwari and advocate Abhinav Chandrachud discuss the repercussions of the Bombay plague epidemic of 1896. It is being hosted biweekly—Saturday and Wednesday. You can watch the first few sessions on the social media pages of the festival and eventually on its website (jlflitfest.org).
Performance Arts and Music
National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)
Jazz music, contemporary dance, Western classical music, Indian classical dances…no matter what art form speaks to your soul, you can find it on NCPA’s YouTube channel. India’s premier cultural institution is showcasing the best of events from its extensive archive. Regarding the initiative, K.N. Suntook, the organisation’s founder, says, “NCPA is a repository of great artistic treasures. Our genre heads and the NCPA team have worked hard to put this together. As a cultural organisation, we felt this treasure must be shared in these difficult times in the safest way possible.”
Live Concerts
JioSaavn Live Anywhere
Throughout April, indie music fans can tune into high-definition live performances by Ankur Tewari, Taba Chake, Palash Sen, Tejas Menon, Nikhita Gandhi and Dhruv Visvanath among others. Performances have been confirmed till April 11. Additional dates and artistes will be announced in the coming weeks. They will serenade from their virtual stage in sets of 20-30 minutes on JioSaavn’s Facebook page. After the live performances, you can also stream the recordings on the JioSaavn app. While the live streams are free, there is also a pay-what-you-want option. JioSaavn claims the entire revenue will go directly to the musicians and help support independent artistes.
Museums and Galleries
Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Calcutta
The science museum has recorded more than 500 viewers since the unveiling of its virtual gallery (bitm.gov.in) on March 31. Among the exhibits you can preview are a 1926 Rolls Royce Car, the Fiat Tipo used by the eminent scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose, a 16 mm movie projector, a diorama of a coal mine and the machine in which Rabindranath Tagore recorded a song.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai
Its website (csmvs.in) offers four digital exhibitions: ‘Hamsafar—The Companion’, which presents the unfolding of Indian textiles through sculptures, paintings from the Ajanta caves, photos of clothes and manuscripts; ‘Five Variations on the Sari: India’s Iconic Drape’; ‘Animals in Indian Art’; and a natural history collection featuring specimens gathered by ornithologist Salim Ali and naturalist Stanley Henry Prater.
Indian Museum, Calcutta
Although its online gallery was created two years ago, it has registered a spike in digital footprints since the lockdown. While the virtual gallery (indianmuseumkolkata.org) showcases only 10 per cent of the more than 14,000 exhibits in the museum’s collection, it is still a remarkable tour de force. You can see a bow ring studded with an emerald of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, coins of Jahangir and Samudragupta, an 18th-century crown of an idol of goddess Lakshmi studded with jewels, and Buddhist relics.
National Museum, Delhi
Catch its latest exhibition ‘The Great Steppe: Time. Space. Culture’ organised in collaboration with the Embassy of Kazakhstan and National Museum, Kazakhstan, online (nationalmuseumindia.gov.in). It features archaeological discoveries from various parts of the central Asian nation. You can also preview the exhibitions ‘Art of Calligraphy’ featuring Arabic and Persian inscriptions; ‘Nauras: The Many Arts of the Deccan’; and ‘Pottery from Ancient Peru’.
National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi
Take a virtual tour (ngmaindia.gov.in) of its permanent collection to see landmarks of Indian art history—works by Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy , Gaganendranath Tagore and Rabindranath Tagore as well as Mysore, Tanjore and Kalighat paintings.
Victoria Memorial, Calcutta
Its Facebook page (facebook.com/victoriamemorialhall) features photos of exhibits, which have lately been getting a lot of traction. Scroll through images of a hand-drawn plan made by Alexander Cunningham of the first ASI site museum at Sarnath, Tipu Sultan’s sword and the Bharatmata painting of Abanindranath Tagore.
