Necessity, as we’ve long been told, is the mother of invention. Well, it now seems to be the mother of much chic-ness as well. Lado Sarai is a higgledy-piggledy urban village, not too far out from the long shadow of the Qutub Minar. Ostensibly, we are in Prithvi Raj Chauhan territory: the ruins of Qila Rai Pithora wall built by the legendary king in the 12th century stretches in fits and starts (ravages and savages of history have done their bit) from the capriciously tilting Minar to the dusty terrain of Lado Sarai. The sad ruins of four gumbads (domed structures) stand like sentinels from the past, trying to preserve the memories of ancient lives from evaporating into an irretrievable past.

Being a pucca Delhiwala – born but not completely bred here – I had never even heard of the place until very recently. (There are so many sarais -- remnants of old villages that are rapidly being encroached upon by slick urbanites.) Nor had I even accidentally wandered into its narrow, cluttered lanes spilling over with tacky little shops selling the unadorned or nitty-gritty stuff of life from provisions, kitchen utensils, nuts and bolts and clunky hardware to boutiques and studios of fashion designers. Suneet Varma and Aki Narula set up their studios here some years ago.

Today, this little bit of almost-forgotten Mughul Delhi seems to be metamorphosing into an art district – an embryonic SoHo with its chic boutiques and art galleries. I first went to Lado Sarai a couple of weeks ago for the opening of the ever-elegant Mala Aneja’s gallery Art-Motif’s new home. You could have struck me down with a feather. After navigating the narrow road – just about escaping with our car still intact after an encounter with a boisterous bridal party on the move, escorting the groom on a horse – we suddenly stopped short at the glass-fronted entrance manned by liveried doormen.

Previously housed in the basement of a home in Safdarjang Enclave, Art-Motif was a rather cute little gallery frequented by those in the know and in search of fresh young talent. In its new avatar it is more like Cinderella, post-wand. High ceilings and a series of well-lit rooms flowing into each other do justice to the private collection of canvases on view at the inaugural opening.

Clearly, that wand is transforming many other small galleries into belles of the art ball – and, into the realm of BoHo chic in Lado Sarai. The blueprint for the spunky ‘colonisation’ of these urban villages is Hauz Khas village. Bina Ramani is its Christopher Columbus and later areas like Shapur Jat and Khirkee villages became the stomping ground of the arterati. Art-Motif is just the third gallery to have set up shop in Lado Sarai in recent times. Gallery Threshold opens its doors this summer to an even more cavernous space and higher ceilings. It was originally located in a much smaller space in Sarvodya Enclave. The peripatetic Tunty Chauhan often held her major and large shows in public spaces in the city.

Blazing the trail was Mamta Singhania of Anant Gallery. Her gallery straddles two buildings with a connecting courtyard and still retains a trendy, rough-edged warehouse feel about it – ideal for the getting-to-be ubiquitous huge installations and sculptures. Reggie’s Art Pilgrim gallery moved next door later. Make that literally next door. What is even interesting about these brave new spaces is the fact that they are all in a row and share the same address: F 213 Lado Sarai.

It wasn’t just whim that forced these gallerists to move to the outer reaches of Delhi where the templates of the first and third world co-exist in uneasy tension: farmers from the neighbouring state of Haryana used to own much of the land in the area. It was necessity – the sealing drives of the Muncipal Corporation of Delhi – that pushed a few art galleries out of some residential areas in South Delhi. Even for those not directly threatened by the MCD, the possibility of expulsion was ever present, like the sword of Damocles.

Old Damocles may have done them a favour. They can now showcase the installations, large sculptures and huge canvases and more cutting-edge work that an increasing number of the younger artists are now doing. Generation Next has begun to edge out many of the oldies in auctions and taken away a lot of their buzz.

Scouring the art scene
It’s been a virtual invasion – one that is not quite over yet. Women and a few men from hallowed museums and blue chip galleries and auction houses from London and New York have been scouring the contemporary art scene in Delhi and Mumbai looking for ‘hot’ artists – the bold and beautiful and essentially young. First, there was the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) lot. Following in their wake was a large posse of about 20 from the Guggenheim -- hopping from galleries to the homes of collectors of the more avant-garde art. Intermittently, scouts and consultants for the galleries of Charles Saatchi (now furiously adding Indian art to his collection), Frank Cohen as well as the Serpentine Gallery in the UK have been doing the rounds.

After China, it seems that India is the Next Best Thing hunting ground for excit-ing art. Cohen’s show in Wolverhampton, titled Passage to India, was first off the mark. Later this year iconoclast Saatchi will, in his new gallery in London, exhibit contemporary Indian art with the saucy title of Empire Strikes Back. The Serpentine Gallery is currently planning an exhibition of contemporary Indian artists.

The blitzkrieg visits may have left many young artists preening, even though some of them complain about being perpetually on parade for the international arterati. However, they need to narrow down those wide grins: Indian artists lag far behind their Chinese counterparts in the international art mart. Alas, and inevitably, our art is compared with theirs.

Happily, the scenario is gradually changing. The pool of buyers for contem–porary and modern Indian art is rippling out beyond the NRIs and Indians. Last month the prestigious Marlborough Gallery in New York showed the work of Viswanadhan. The painter who divides his time between Paris and Cholamondal near Chennai is the first Indian to be included on the roster of this gallery that includes Mark Rothko.