kabeer n scooter

Kabeer was a sufi poet of early 15th century of India. Born in Benaras(Varanasi). Traveled the whole of north India. Not much is known about what sort of spiritual training Kabeer may have received.He did not become a Sadhu and did not escape. Kabeer never abandoned worldly life, choosing instead to live the balanced life of a householder and mystic, tradesman and contemplative. Kabeer was married, had children, and lived the simple life of a weaver.
When Ritesh was heading towards modernity, from Bhilai to Mumbai by Geetajali Express, an old train was going on a direction opposite to the track to modernization . kabeer was still riding that journey of centuries. And on a certain place and platform, that has no name , both Kabeer and Ritesh could meet for first time. It really was an absurd journey. But Kabeer shared many things that had not been mentioned about him in our common perceptual world. Such as , when Kabeer was young he got a chance to meet a group of gypsies. That Kabeer was an engineer of weaving and had studied in his school of solitude.
Kabeer was a man of threads, logic and curiosity. And , that was a burning noonday, when gypsies returned. This time they brought a "Lamer eta scooter" and gave it to him. At first young Kabeer understood only the risk of combination of the old and the new and not the character of the object. Not knowing exactly what to do and how to proceed. Little by little he became contaminated with the anxiety ; felt frightened and happy at the same time, as he was young. Awake until dawn in the solitary bed that seemed to have a bottom of live coals, he did not dare leave the house for several days and then months and then years. Time matured him and he started calculating the strategic possibilities of melting past and present into each other. And, not very soon, by irresistible power of conviction, Kabeer succeeded in putting together the logic and curiosity. As a son of soil, Kabeer always trusted water and wind. He was fascinated with the force of speed in this nature. He tried to find solutions for a needed speed, with a machine that he was never acquainted with. So for him, scooter was still new to apply in his design of mechanism. Ritesh also could understand that there is a path to walk on, where new becomes old and old becomes new. Finally, Kabeer could train himself in the complicated method of rapid weaving. And in this process young Kabeer could be able to build the image and character we all know of him. This is a secret of Kabeer that is known only to Ritesh.

Ritesh has tried to portray that Kabeer, who was strongly connected to this world, deeply rooted in it, with all its materials and sensibility. Kabeer must have a place for his daily experiments in the backyard of his house. Ritesh has tried to create that ambiance in which Kabeer was dealing with an idea called balance. A balance between mystic and known. "Kabeer n scooter" is an installation executed with many materials, from scrape to aluminum sheets, from nut-bolts to colored walls, from electric lights to water capillaries and from tarpaulin to cotton. Here, Ritesh breaks the wall of known time frame and reassembles it.