Head For The Hills And Plains

Beat the summer visiting an art village, doing a coffee trail, watching windmills whirring, indulging in a ‘farm’ breakfast or just chilling. Some offbeat destinations around Goa are covered here ...

- Aruna Rathod

GREEN fields flank the roads and then begin the climb onto the ghats but not a steep one; Wai in Maharashtra is a small town on the way, made famous because of the Shah Rukh Khan film ‘Swades’. Admiring the magnificent mountains and valleys, one reaches Panchgani. About 20 km away is Mahableshwar; this quaint hill station was once the summer capital of the British Raj, and the name Mahableshwar means ‘God of Great Power’.

ART IN PANCHGANI – DEVRAI ART VILLAGE

A day trip to Devrai Art village is enriching. Situated about 20 km away on scenic roads, this art gallery houses an amazing range of unique art forms. Mandakini Mathur, founder, met Suresh Pungati, an artist from Gadchiroli. Impressed by his art, Mathur set up Devrai Art village where five adivasi craftsmen under the guidance of Pungati began creating beautiful works of art out of river pebbles and brass: beautiful fish, trees, leaves, and women’s faces are made from rock and brass. Devrai Rock Dhokra, is a fusion of rock and brass, although Dhokra is an ancient art form. This marriage of two mediums- of metal and stone has brought a new aesthetic dimension to this traditional art form that had its beginning in the Indus Valley Civilisation, dating back to 2000 B.C. You could pick up a wall piece or two or even a piece of jewellery that is so unique, that it would surely turn heads.

The village strives to empower the craftsmen by giving them new designs and the unique and distinctive style of the product range that comes out through combinations of different mediums such as iron, brass, stone, wood, bamboo and fabric.

WHERE TO STAY