A two-day festival titled Oasis and hosted by Vajor was recently organised in the capital, with an aim to promote mindful art, music and fashion. The event featured workshops on healthy and mindful eating, an art gallery, talks and panel discussions, and performances by indie bands, among other things. Also, there were food stalls with regular delights served in an organic and healthy manner with every product being plant-based.
Nathasha A.R. Kumar of Vajor best expressed the idea behind the festival in her statement — “The purpose of hosting a collective like this was to get together a community of like-minded individuals and witness a flux of ideas, creativity, and conversations.”
Coming to the artistic side of things, Shreyasi Pathak, an in-house artist, felt, “You give people and tell people what they don’t want to hear. It’s not about creating something that will be appreciated but it is about creating something that will spark a thought.”
She was upbeat about the present role of art in creating awareness about the environment, saying, “A lot of artists are trying to create awareness about animal welfare as well as the environment. For instance, we saw people coming together and painting elephant sculptures to bring awareness about the survival and protection of elephants.”
Moving from palette to palate, we caught up with Himanshu Kapoor, founder of C.Green and a nutritionist, who points out that mindful eating has always existed but it is long-forgotten. She says, “When we are hungry, we pop things in — we pop things without even thinking what we are eating because our mind is somewhere else and the mouth is satiating the so-called hunger.”
To ensure mindful eating, one has to consider the quality of food, the quantity of food and, lastly, the connection between people and their food. Himanshu adds, “Mindful eating is the Buddhist way of eating. Connecting to the soil is getting to know the farmer — the person who is growing food and processing it for you.”
A lot of people think that living organic is an expensive proposition. To that, Himanshu says, “It’s not that expensive if you actually look at it; it is 20 per cent more than what you are paying otherwise,” she says and later adds that even if you have a small quantity of organic products, it is good for you.
