Glenn C. Kharkongor
Walkway to the entrance of the festival
Winter Tales began with the idea to celebrate the arts and crafts of Meghalaya. The fourth annual festival was held on December 14-16, 2023 at Ward’s Lake, Shillong. The concept and conduct of the festival is the initiative and ingenuity of Rida Gatphoh, a design professional who set up Dakti Crafts in Shillong and runs the Meghalayan Age store in New Delhi. Rida and a team of gifted and enterprising artists and artisans made his year’s version of Winter Tales, the best and most colorful of all. It was a splendid exhibition of the immense talent in the state.
Art gallery
A Winter Wonderland
The first impression of the Winter Tales is of an artistic and attractive showground. The craft sheds, art displays, sales stalls, performance arenas and demonstration stages were creatively designed using bamboo, cane, gunny and other local materials. Imaginative installations of local biodiversity themes like mushrooms and pitcher plants were interspersed on the grassy slopes and when lit up at night created a winter fairyland.
Winter Tales by night
Demos and discussions
The live demonstrations of art techniques, wood sculpting, bamboo crafting and pottery making brought these traditional occupations alive. Artisans from all over the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills brought their rural creations to the festival, inspiring awe and perhaps enterprise.
A pottery making demonstration
Folklore is an age-old tradition of tribals. At Winter Tales, storytelling moved from the fireside to the fairground. Patricia Mukhim, editor of the Shillong Times and Kynsai Ria Kharkongor, a student of Azim Premji University in Bangalore, read the story, “The Mystery of the Cave” to an enthralled audience of children in Khasi and English, while the colorful illustrations of the book, created by Careen Langstieh were projected on the backdrop screen.
Storytelling for children
The forthcoming book, “The Birds of Meghalaya” was announced with a presentation of excerpts by the co-authors, Sandra Albert and Kynsai Kharkongor, and fun quiz conducted by Glenn Kharkongor. The prize winners, young and old, were awarded stickers and mini posters of local birds.
Kyntiewbor War, the creator and founder of the enchanting and much-loved Ever Living Museum in Mawshbuit, Shillong, narrated his life story of love for the cultural and biodiversity heritage of Meghalaya. Throughout his career as an engineer posted in various parts of the state, he collected specimens and samples that have now been curated in a one-man museum.
Panel on the theme of the festival: Come Clean, Go Green
A showcase for entrepreneurs
A subtle thread of enterprise and entrepreneurship seemed to be the unwritten theme of the festival. Brisk sales of artwork and crafted items, hand loomed textiles and fabrics, beer and wines, food and snacks, and books and comics, demonstrated the growing and vibrant start-up scene in the state. Young businesspersons, men and women, with a flair for attractive design and displays and a savvy sense of marketing are visibly on the rise. Surely this heralds a new era of national and world class products from Meghalaya.
Wine tasting, cocktails and local beers
All sorts of buys from the festival
A family event
Best of all, Winter Tales had something for everyone. Children were all over the Kids Zone, the playground made from local materials. The range of food catered to every palate and the fairy lights provided selfies for couples and Instagram aficionados. The archives display and discussion panels were educational and informative. ECORI, a start-up that recycles plastic waste to usable everyday products organized the waste management for Winter Tales, using student volunteers from the environment department of Martin Luther Christian University on all days.
And the pulsating music
No one does music quite like the tribals. The percussion of traditional drum beats, the musical twang of strings, and the plaintive notes of the wind instruments hark back to our ancient heritage. No less than 28 performing artists, ensembles and troupes, traditional, contemporary and fusion, took the stage with heartstopping music.