Back-to-back droughts, lakes frothing at the mouth (quite literally) and now, some on fire — the city seems to be battling a complicated history with water. Just in time, a group of citizens are coming together to create a narrative on the precious element with the Lifetide Water Festival, a month-long festival in the city starting from April 1. Their hope? That when people decide to come together, change is inevitable.
This festival hopes to bring together a myriad of groups – environmentalists, activists, scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs, artists, and citizens, to engage with water. “There are a lot of discussions in place already, but somewhere, our relationship with water and the essence of the argument seems to be lost,” notes the festival’s director, Vivek Chockalingam, adding that they wanted to bring in a non-activist way of looking at it.
The water festival opens on April 1st at Shoonya – Centre for Art and Somatic Practices with an art exhibition by six artists from the city. This will be followed by an open discussion on Bengaluru’s lakes, film screenings and a full-day narrative building workshop on the city’s lakes. Through these well-chalked out activities, “The aim is to create a space for community-based engagement with issues around water. By increasing our collective understanding of water governance, planning, conservation, restoration, we are more enabled to develop actionable plans to create a healthier city to live in,” says Simar Kholi, founder of Lifetide, a platform for sharing ideas and establishing coalitions to conserve water, that is organising the festival.
City folk are kicked about the promise that it brings. “What’s great is that it encourages more public interaction and engagement,” says multimedia artist, Bhavani GS who will be presenting her video, Journey with the River Cauvery. “When I started out, all I wanted to do is follow the river from its origin in Talacauvery to Poompuhar where it empties,” she tells us. But as is the nature of water, it carried her off on another course – “I started thinking about the exploitation of water by factories and how, we are creating the demand for products that use water excessively,” she says, going on to make another video called Embedded Water. The conversation with water is being explored in a myriad ways. Take 25-year-old Ragini Bhow’s graphic novel about a ‘water being’, for instance. “It’s from an existential point of view and looks at water as having a life force – a personality and gestures,” she says. Ragini echoes the sentiment of the city when she says, “Various communities wanting to do the same thing. This hopes to bring everyone on to the same page.” Afterall, that is the objective, “That people come out more aware, more empathic, selfless and definitely more active,” says Simar in conclusion.
