Indian Extravaganza raises funds for Jaisalmer people

The charity event at Victoria and Albert Museum collected funds for helping people who live around the Jaisalmer Fort.

It was an Indian Extravaganza, as the event was titled, when the grand Victorian building of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) was transformed for a colourful Indian evening to collect funds for helping people who live around the Jaisalmer Fort. With an annual event, for a few years the charity has helped in improving sewarage and water supply and also helping in repairs of dilapidated houses. The enthusiasm of the people who came this time was remarkable. A handful of them doing things for people thousands of miles away whom they have never met.

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Dressed lavishly in Indian outfits, guests and supporters poured in to mark the evening jointly hosted by Jaisalmer in Jeopardy and V&A. The Maharawal of Jaisalmer, patron of JiJ, a charity to restore the fort of Jaisalmer, and improve the living conditions of over 2000 people who live in the fort area, was himself present. He said, it was, "heartening to see how every year more and more people gather in support of Jaisalmer".

"It is a city that belongs not just to India but to the world. I invite you all to come and see the joy this work has brought in the eyes of the people of Jaisalmer."

He added: "It is sad that although most major corporate houses in India are ftrom Rajasthan not many have helped the cause."

Like every previous year, Sue Carpenter, a journalist who has worked persistently for the cause was also there. The highlight of the evening was a cheerful and witty conversation between TV personality Barry Norman and Indian director Shekhar Kapoor. When asked why Kapoor had a reputation of not completing projects, the director of the famous Oscar- nominated film Elizabeth said: "Most of the time I get myself fired or provoke a fight so that I can go off without being blamed."

Talking about Elizabeth, Norman asked Kapoor if he was disappointed that he did not receive an Oscar nomination for best director, to which he said: "I was just so surprised that the film did get nominated at all. How can you separate the director from everything else that happens in a film."

He said he chose Cate Blanchett for the title role of the film because, "Elizabeth had to be played by someone vulnerable, yet hard. Someone of this world and yet not of this world... someone of this spirit and not of this spirit. I knew I had found her in Cate Blanchett but we needed to conduct screen tests and she was the only one I gave dialogues to the previous night."

Speaking on making of the film, Kapoor said: "You have to take liberties with fact when making a film like Elizabeth and shrinking 40 years of a life into two hours. It has to be the best possible interpretation of a life because you can't put everything. That's where the director's imagination kicks in."

The evening, which was sponsored by India Tourism and Greaves Travel, resounded with beats of the Bollywood Brass band. The occasion also coincided with the exhibition Encounters being held at the museum. The exhibition explores 300 years of artistic, cultural and technological interaction and exchange between Asia and Europe.

Hundreds of printed version of three original paintings done by MF Hussain for the charity were bought out at the auction that followed the festivities.