DELHI, India — When American artist Gregory Thielker set out to sketch scenes from National Highway 2 — the new superhighway that runs from this capital city to Kolkata — he expected to hear complaints about how construction of the road meant the destruction of homes and temples.
“I had this expectation that when they build one of their massive highways, there’s a lot of loss. Communities and families are disrupted,” Thielker said of his prior notions during a recent interview at his third-floor studio in the Shahpur Jat Village.
“But when I went and started talking to people, it was much different than I thought. … People didn’t really seem to mind,” Thielker said. “They felt the highway means more jobs, more schools, more money, more opportunities.”
That, Thielker said, was one of the most interesting revelations of his journey as a Fulbright scholar, which began last fall when he packed an easel, voice recorder and various art supplies into a driver’s silver 2006 Suzuki Esteem, and set out to sketch whatever there was to draw along the way.
The 918-mile trip, which Thielker made in segments, began at the Old Iron Bridge that stretches over the Yamuna River in Delhi, and it ended at the Ganges River in Kolkata. He printed out a Google map so he would know exactly where he’d be stopping.
Along the way, Thielker sketched a variety of people and places. His sketches, some of them quite striking in detail, range from a truck crash scene to a scar-faced driver with disheveled hair, to things as mundane as a mile marker and a receipt from a guest house in Kolkata.
Thielker sought to get the stories behind the things he sketched and saw. One temple, for instance, was seen as so important that the highway splits to go around it. Some regard it as a special place where wonderful things happen. Others saw it as a cash cow for a local politician.
