Roe-Rich Art Gallery, Kullu, Himachal Pradesh

A Day at Sainj NHPC

Day before this visit was a rainy day, and it was spent on visiting the NHPC and HPPCL offices at Nagwain and Larji respectively; my friends Akhil and Ankush work in these two govt. organisations respectively.

My afternoon and night stay was at Akhil's residence. Sainj river ran just next to the hedge of the residence colony. In evening when we sat at the rooftop, the river sound dominated our voices, but it provided its own melody to the tunes that we played with Akhil's  guitar. That singing and playing the Bollywood songs got continued till the late night. 

It was an awesome day, but the next day was not planned yet. Ankush joined us at the break-fast, he lived only few kilometres away at Larji. Akhil, Ankush and I are college batch-mates. With his help, I had a brief talk at their office regarding my thesis work, and then in the late morning I departed alone on my motor cycle to reach Kullu. 

Roe-Rich Art Gallery:

Vinod accompanied me from Kullu to Nagar, a place on the left bank of the river Beas, few kilometers back from Manali. However, in the past Nagar was more popular than any other place in the Kullu province. It was the capital of the the king of the state and therefore the centre of the political activities. To testify its history the Nagar Castle still stands there. This historical monument gets crowded in the summer days with numerous visitors.

Other than the Nagar castle, the main attraction of the area is the Roe-Rich  art gallery. Named after the famous Russian painter the Nicholas Roe-Rich, I would like to say that the place is a must visit for any aspiring or even famous painter. Today, we have very good cameras and a number of other sources to see the mountains of the Himalayas, but at the time of the Roe-Rich in the early nineteens such means were not there.

When we look at the paintings of the mountains that he had created only with the help of his hands and paint-brushes, we get filled with awe. The paintings show that the painter understood the Himalaya very well. Any mountain lover must also visit this gallery.

Thanks!