Sometime in the late 1960s, the mayor of the Spanish town Cadaqués declared three days of holiday to commemorate the arrival of an Indian elephant. Uttara Parikh, the then Air India deputy commercial director, was the man behind this bizarre exercise. After being turned down by the authorities from the Byculla zoo, Parikh finally found the little guy in Bangalore. What transpired then can only be called fitting chain of events for the person who was the recipient of this gift was the legendary surrealist artist Salvador Dali.
A remarkable parade was organised, guests were served special drinks made by infusing wine, pink champagne and Indian tea. Moreover, an Indian astrologer was flown in to bless the festivities. The scenes, as one can sense, were straight out of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. But what spurred all this? Well, the legend has it that it all started with a chance meeting between Dali and Air India officials in New York.
Air India, among the most reputed airlines in the world at the time, asked Dali to design special ashtrays with a touch of his signature surrealism. The result was a piece of art made of unglazed porcelain. Dali was able to create an ashtray which had a snake running through its fringes which, at a glance, showed two surrealist elephant heads and when placed upside down, became a swan. In his words: “The reflection of an elephant’s head looks like a swan and the reflection of a swan appears to be an elephant. This is what I have done for the ashtray. The swan up-side-down becomes an elephant’s head and the elephant inverted — a swan.”
This ashtray was recently on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art as part of Maharaja’s Treasure: Select Works of Art from the Famed Air India Collection.
It is as remuneration for his work, that the Spaniard asked for a baby elephant from India. These ashtrays now are scattered around the world. Experts predicted them to be around 500, however, many have seen ashtrays which carried the numbers 839 and 859 as well.
Dali apparently had grand plans with his new friend but was dissuaded by his wife. These plans included riding the elephant while crossing the majestic Alps. However, the story quickly became a tragedy. Many believe Dali’s infatuation with the elephant was lost over time and the animal was sent to live out his life in a Barcelona Zoo.
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