Doot

Parked in the courtyard of the Madhavendra Palace is an Ambassador car that is not an Ambassador car. It is a sculpture by Subodh Gupta with the title “Doot,” the Hindi word for Ambassador. But this car has been cast in aluminum and weighs more than a real one would. Long the symbol of official India and the thrill of every foreign tourist, today the car is out of production and it symbolizes the License Raj and a closed economy. Gupta’s ”Doot” is ghostly and opaque, giving away none of its contents nor history. Like most of Gupta’s sculptures, it is a common Indian object that the artist has grown up with that has been given greater symbolism by its visibility throughout the country. One cannot travel anywhere in this Ambassador, but as an icon it has travelled far.