Riddle wrapped in mystery inside NGMA
NGMA, National Gallery of Modern Art, at Jaipur House off Delhi's India Gate gol chakkar, is a sanctuary. From heat, hubbub, and humanity.
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NGMA may not be the Musee d'Orsay, Prado or MoMA, but it's intriguing that one of our country's premier art galleries, home to some of the finest works of our artists, go practically empty every day. It seems visiting galleries and museums is something we do only when we go abroad.
There are people who seem to be at work whose job is to make a visit here a challenge. At the ticket counter, the lady is brusque when I buy a ticket for ₹20, as if admonishing me for not being a foreigner for whom the entry price would have been ₹480 more. As soon as I pass the main gate, a posse of guards ask me where I want to go. One would have thought that if one enters a museum, one wishes to visit the museum.
While I keep my bag in the locker in the baggage-security check room, I see an Australian woman and her daughter asking the guards (a separate set from those outside) whether they would be able to buy water inside the museum premises. In universal Hindi they are told no, and that the museum cafe is currently closed. I intervened and told the lady that filtered water from a tap was available inside. But she said that they'd rather stick to bottled water and hoped neither of them would get thirsty.
Another round of ticket-checking
