The Storytellers of Cobalt Blue
Picture this.
It’s 1997 and you’re in one of the bustling colleges in the heart of Delhi, studying, picking up little vices, making friends, enjoying your roadside chai, hoping you’ll make meaningful connections.
This is where the story of Ruchi Ruuh and Sundeep Verma began.
Eyeing each other from the distance, wondering if they’d be friends — they never really spoke, simply wondered what was to be.
A couple of years ran by and it went from white tees and a pair of sagging denims to collared shirts and business portfolios — they’d both grown. They found themselves back in the college. This time when Sundeep noticed Ruchi as he stuffed his face with fond nostalgia in the form of anda parathas, he decided to speak to her.
“…looking for internship….good opportunity…” , he overheard.
“You know, I could help you out with that”, he stepped in, “Forward your resume to me and I’ll see what I can do”.
A few years and no forwarded resumes later, Sundeep found himself in London and Ruchi herself in Nottingham. Slowly, they both felt this desire awaken within them. A desire to tell stories — to explore the tales of the past, redefine the outlooks of today and maybe pen some of their own. Little did they know, they’d go a long way from the stories their grandmothers told them — mythology was in for an overdue facelift.
Many Facebook Messenger chats later, there they were — an October day of 2017, bubbling over at Townhall pub in Greater Kailash, Delhi with ideas and experiences. That’s when it happened — a friendship was born, a partnership formed and a story unleashed.
The duo found themselves going from cafe to book store in huge demand, doing what they were always meant to do — tell stories. However, that wasn’t all, they were shedding light on art, on mythology, on history and on relationships. This wasn’t just about stories, it was about a re-introduction.
But there was more to come.
Between shows, the two would wander into museums and galleries (Ruchi admits it was more for the tapri ki chai than for the exhibits) and Sundeep loved being dragged into these fascinating spaces with Ruchi. Slowly, they noticed that they were rather alone there. Not many people visit museums, especially in India and the ones who do are out in fifteen minutes. After all, let the bygones be gone, right?
While standing in front of one such bygone (also known fondly as a Raja Ravi Verma painting), the duo knew — this would be what they did next.
As a huddle of 65 people awaited their very first storywalk at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi, the storytellers had only just begun to paint the world cobalt blue.
