New Delhi, Jun 6 Walking towards the exit gate no. 3 of Patel Chowk metro station, commuters come to a halt as a wall full of childhood memories greets them in form of a colourful mural.
As part of a city-wide initiative ‘Bookscapes in the City’ by children’s literature festival Bookaroo, several Amar Chitra Katha characters including Suppandi, Shikari Shambhu and Kalia have found place on a wall-art at the Patel Chowk metro museum here.
Created by artist Charbak Dipta, the mural at the metro station is the first in a series of 10 colourful illustrations from children’s books across the city.
While the initiative marks Bookaroo’s 10th birth anniversary, it also celebrates Amar Chitra Katha’s 50 years.
“This is going to be the 10th year of Bookaroo. So we thought it is best to celebrate the 10th year by giving 10 good-looking walls to the city of Delhi.
“The walls would be primarily painted by the original illustrator of the children books,” Swati Roy, Co-founder Bookaroo, said.
Among fictional characters from children’s magazine Tinkle, the first wall-art also shows eminent people like Kalpana Chawla, Mother Teresa and Bhagat Singh.
The next wall in the series is scheduled to be created in June in the SPYM Centre, Mukherjee Nagar by artist Arup Chatterjee on behalf of children’s book publisher, Katha.
“We have tried to keep different kinds of walls. Like the second one is going to be at a de-addiction centre and the third in Delhi Public Library.
“So, we are looking at different qualities of wall. This is to make sure that maximum number of children… And different segment of children have the benefit of seeing art happening in front of them,” Roy added.
The mural at the Patel Chowk Metro museum will be on display for the next three months.
This year’s Bookarro festival will take place at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) here on November 25th and 26th.