What does Goa have that Bengaluru doesn’t?

I am deep in North Bengaluru’s forests, where eagles soar and owls perch. But this evening, the venue is aglow with string lights and teeming with music enthusiasts eager to take in the around forty Indian and foreign performers on the schedule, including Sid Sriram, 8Kays, Thaikkudam Bridge, and many more. My complaint is that there aren’t enough female artists.

According to festival organizer Roshan Netalkar, Echoes of Earth positions itself as “India’s greenest music festival” by including “conservation into the conversation”. To do this, they construct the enormous sets from repurposed materials and give them imaginative names, such as this year’s tusker, rhino beetle, and snake. Since plastic is prohibited, RO water is widely available and is served in stainless steel glasses rather than disposable paper cups. Most significantly, the festival’s theme honors nature every year. The previous year’s theme was “circle of life.” The Western Ghats are honored under this year’s theme, “ensemble of the earth.”

As Netalkar is from Karwar, he has a personal connection to the Sahyadris. “The Western Ghats support forty percent of our population, three rivers originate there, and it is the eighth-largest biodiversity hotspot in the world,” he exclaims. This leads him to his fondness for pets. “How do you talk about sustainability with the younger generation? “Music is the solution,” he declares.

The Echoes of Earth event started in Bengaluru in 2016 and has been expanding each year. However, and this is a sobering notion, the event is moving to Goa in February of the next year. Why are so many creative types drawn to Goa, and what does it offer that Bengaluru does not? In this piece, we won’t discuss the affluent individuals who are acquiring half of Goa. This essay is about how the land can inspire creative ferment and certain cities—Jaipur, Chennai, Pune, and Goa spring to mind—do it better than others. Is Bengaluru able to aim to be included in the mix?

What conditions must be met for a city to inspire creativity? Which towns throughout the world are renowned for encouraging creative ferment, much as Florence did in the fifteenth century? Only five Indian cities—Srinagar and Jaipur for crafts, Chennai and Varanasi for music, Mumbai for cinema, and Hyderabad for gastronomy—are included in UNESCO’s list of Creative Cities. Goa wouldn’t have qualified since it’s not a city, yet most Indians would refer to Goa when discussing the creative life.

Two things are necessary for creativity to thrive: a group of enthusiastic supporters and a gathering of artists who can influence others by way of pupils. Bengaluru hasn’t got either as of yet. Our city has been so engrossed in business and trade that we have been working hard to launch new businesses, which is fantastic for the city’s economy but may not be so wonderful for that elusive thing we call culture.

A few organizations are attempting to alter Bengaluru’s cultural character. For example, this year is the first year of a festival that is thought to be held annually and celebrates Bengaluru in all its splendor, including the arts, nature, performances, history, and walks. The event, called Unboxing Bangalore Habba (Habba is for the festival), welcomes as many potential “partners” as it can. That’s why it’s a platform business rather than a patronage approach. Participating organizations in the Habba provide “properties” including literature readings, museum walks, dance performances, and nature excursions that are intended to draw in new patrons. The Habba, which takes place from December 1–11 this year, aims to grow yearly and draw visitors from all across India and outside, following in the footsteps of the Chennai December Music Festival.

The recently finished Bangalore Literature Festival is still community-funded and becomes larger each year.

These festivals are similarly similar in that they are able to unite a large crowd around a common topic. After COVID, no one wants to host virtual events. Face-to-face conversations that include touch and eye contact are enjoyable for all of us. In these kinds of gatherings, you often run across folks you know casually or somewhat. Talks take place, giving rise to ideas that, ideally, are developed further into something. This is what occurred when Socrates was living in Athens, when all the Sanskrit poets and academics traveled to Varanasi in the eighth century, and when American-raised musicians like Sid Sriram settled in Mylapore, Chennai, in the present day.

Currently, Bengaluru is not a destination for artists, whether they are authors, performers, or graphic designers. Artists who settle here have other connections: family, climate, spouse’s career, and upbringing. Most don’t *look* to Bengaluru as a location where they can thrive as artists. Is this flexible, and can Bengaluru make it work?

I really hope so, because let’s face it. It’s all very well to pursue money as the startup capital of India. However, the most precious or cost-free things in life are the greatest. Bengaluru has only just come to understand this. It now has to put this insight into practice.

(Shoba Narayan is an award-winning novelist from Bengaluru. She also writes for many periodicals as a freelance writer, covering topics including gastronomy, fashion, travel, and art.)