Liladhar is otherwise a reticent person keeping guard of one of Jhunjhunu’s most-visited havelis, but the diminutive old man suddenly turns voluble when the talk is about his master. “Malik and I have the same name,” he boasts with a chuckle.
In fact, such is the legacy attached to the traditional townhouse in the middle of the Rajasthani city that its locality, too, is known after the family’s surname: Khetano ka mohalla.
Liladhar Khetan’s is one among the several havelis that has given Jhunjhunu and its surrounding Shekhawati region the reputation as the world’s “open-air art gallery”. A dusty town that would otherwise have been a mere junction of a few roads in the eastern belt of India’s desert state, the place would have been known only for its (in)famous Sati temple had there been no profusion of frescos along its sandal-yellow mansions of another era.
The pocket in a half-kilometre radius of Khetan mohalla is so full of havelis that have paintings of various hues and shades that much of Old Jhunjhunu would remind the 2017 visitor of a contemporary art event currently on in another part of the country. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is primarily defined by luxuriant greenery and waterscapes that are near-absent in the semi-arid urbanity of Jhunjhunu. Yet one sometimes feels that the Rajasthan city is hosting a permanent art show.
Yet, the sight of frescos across the city does give the Shekhawati town a spirit that is key to the contemporary-art extravaganza in central Kerala—currently its third edition is on till March 29. When India first got it in December 2012, the biennale’s organisers had aimed at changing the “entire looks” of the city with a grand profusion of visual art—not just across its dozen-odd venues but even alongside the roads, streets, buildings and other public places.
Back in Jhunjhunu, the town boasts of a handful of more frescos-rich havelis. The Modi haveli is one such mansion bang in the middle of a bustling shopping place of the city. Built in 1895, it is a prized property of Mohanlal Ishwardas Modi, who runs business in a diagonally-opposite corner of the country: Kolkata. The boss, like most of his counterparts, visits his hometown—Ishwardas is actually among the more frequent fliers to their native land. “Saheb comes here every month,” says young Lakhan Singh, a caretaker at the rambling house that has wall-paintings all across its foyer and courtyard.
With the Khetan Haveli, the owners’ visits are far less what with most of them in the family staying abroad. Prabhat Khetan, who lives in Kolkata, though spends his spring-to-summer passage time in the mansion, which has all facilities, including air-conditioners and a fridge.
Turns out, absentee lords are a common feature across Jhunjhunu’s havelis in an era marked by increasing urbanisation and resultant migration. Quite a few of such 19th-century mansions of the city are vacant or part-occupied, thus sometimes ramshackle or wearing forlorn looks.
Contrasting the scenario, a haveli bang opposite downtown Gandhi Chowk is regaining life—with a new layer of painting that is largely in tune with the conventional ethos. Apparently, some Jhunjunu residents are gaining a brighter idea of their place’s tourist potential.
A chunk of the havelis of Shekhawati region, of which Jhunjhunu is the centre, was built during a century’s period starting the 1830s—and typically consists of two courtyards: one for men, the other for women. Those in the eastern part of Rajasthan—and thus closer to Delhi—are heavily influenced by the architecture of the Mughals, who were a major force in northern India.
