The Path Home

All you see is the drizzle of stars, and just off the centre of the canvas Earth is suspended in the blue nothingness. This is an astronaut’s view of Earth from space. A reminder that this tiny globe holds—with its swirls of brown, and blue and white—all of life as we know it. Pale Blue Dot by Jethro Buck serves as a reminder that this is “a very special life form floating in the cosmos” (as the British artist says). He created this painting from one of the first photographs of Earth as seen from space. Right by this painting stands a pair of headphones on which one can hear Carl Sagan speaking on the Pale Blue Dot. It is an uncannily moving experience to hear Sagan in his deep baritone say this pale blue dot “is home. It is us”.  The renowned American astronomer and planetary scientist concludes by asserting that this view of Earth from space, “underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot…the only home we’ve ever known.”

Buck’s Pale Blue Dot is mounted in Mumbai’s Sarmaya as part of the exhibition High Seas, Open Roads: Journeys that bring us home. It aptly serves as a totem for both the space and the show. The 3,600 square ft gallery was opened by Paul Abraham and his wife Pavitra Rajaram in November 2024. In its previous avatar, Sarmaya was a digital space and a physical archive in Dadar. Its new form brings it to the heart of Mumbai’s heritage district, as Abraham says, “We wanted a space that will be able to invite people in and create intimate moments.” Situated in the 150-year-old Lawrence & Mayo building, they could hardly have found a more fitting location. While refurbishing it they found that behind the dust and plaster lurked Malad stone and an old Burma teak ceiling. By preserving these elements from the past, the gallery today seems to be in conversation with history itself, even while its windows frame a view of the city’s bustling Kala Ghoda area. The walls are lined floor to ceiling with bookshelves, packed with nearly 10,000 volumes on Indian coins, cities and arts. Sarmaya (which is Urdu for a collective or shared wealth) invites you into its embrace. With its large windows and streaming sunlight, one feels one is entering a living home rather than a fossilised museum. It is a space devoid of ostentation and rich in erudition.

Abraham, President Hinduja Foundation, has been a collector for four decades. The origin story goes that when he was 12, and living in Delhi, his father gifted him a Vaseline jar filled with old coins. (The jar preserved under a vitrine can be seen at the current show.) These coins made him wonder, where were they minted? What did those emblems mean? Who issued these coins? From these initial investigations, Abraham, and his first wife Tina, started to seek out mementoes from the past which revealed long-lost histories, incredible stories and fascinating characters. As he writes in the founder’s note, “Let us not allow boundaries to hem us in, let us always offer each other the freedom of perspective, let us delight in the layers of assimilation that shape us all uniquely, and most of all, let’s show our children what a privilege it is to be Indian.”

High Seas, Open Roads successfully does all of that. The photographs, sketches, coins, paintings—all remind us of how intrinsic travel is to human civilisation, and how travel comes with its own costs and perils. One of the first works a viewer encounters is Old Mumbai by Saju Kunhan, which is a map of Mumbai burnt onto wood. With remarkable detailing, it illustrates both the scale of the city and its multitudes. It poignantly acknowledges the loneliness of the crowd. Adjacent to it, Tushar and Mayur Vayeda’s artwork Our City: Regenerating Hope offers a more positive interpretation of the metropolis. The two brothers from the Warli tribe illustrate modern themes with traditional techniques. In this work, made on unbleached cotton by bamboo sticks, two stick figures hold up a circle from which life mushrooms. They are surrounded by landmark buildings of the city, but we also see the natural world infiltrating the built environment. Fish swim in the water, just as trees tower over monuments.

Created out of Abraham’s vast collection, this show is eclectic and specific in its own way. While the late 19^th and early 20^th century photographs show a Bombay of coconut trees and bullock carts, we also see the grandeur of a deserted Flora Fountain and the façade of the Watsons Esplanade Hotel. Abraham says that it is believed Jamsetji N Tata was once denied entry into its swanky precincts, and this led him to build an even grander Taj Mahal Palace next to it.

A contemporary work which is particularly moving is Rithika Merchant’s Bateau I & II. Abraham explains that Merchant used to often visit the Barcelona beach in 2016, where the government had installed a large digital counter next to one of the city’s popular beaches that tracked the number of refugees who died in the Mediterranean. Merchant interprets this unnerving and tragic statistic by depicting a boat on the ocean packed with human eyes, which seem to follow us with every step. At a time when the migration of people is an especially fraught topic, this painting shows the human toll of journeys undertaken over perilous blue seas.

High Seas, Open Roads, wonderfully illustrates the many stories that have been told by India, and the many legends and parables it still holds.

(High Seas, Open Roads runs at Sarmaya, Mumbai, till February 15)

art ExhibitionHigh SeasMumbaiOpen RoadsRithika MerchantSaju KunhanSarmayaWeb Exclusive