The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sculptor in pursuit of perfection
By Kavita Bhargava

FOR Ganesh Kumar Sharma, 45, the conferring of the National Award for the Welfare of People with Disabilities on him by the Central Government was not an overnight development. He had worked hard to gain such a recognition. This award has been the result of a continuous process of hardships and meditation and depicts his strong will. It was presented to him a couple of years ago on the World Disabled Day at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

What makes this award more important is the fact that he is the only person from the state of Jammu and Kashmir to get this honour. This award carries Rs 33,000 in cash, a citation and a certificate.

Art has been an obsession with Ganesh. It is the driving force in his life which even brought him back from the jaws of death when he met with an accident about eight years ago. Even though the doctors had lost the hope to see him walk again (he had sustained compound fractures on his right leg), yet his desire and will power to be on his own and work again on various art forms was so intense that he recuperated gradually. But the accident left a perfectly healthy man a permanently disabled one at the age of 35.

Today, Ganesh trudges his path with the help of a stick which he has to carry always, but it has not deterred his will to create masterpieces. In the post-accident period, he made many sculptures which won the appreciation of art lovers and critics all over the country.

Hailing from the border village of Sanoora in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district, situated 55 km from Jammu, Ganesh remembers that while his whole family and relatives were in the Army, he had an inclination towards art from the very beginning. Clay, as such, had always fascinated him and he, in his spare time, used to work in this medium.

After passing his matriculation, he joined Government Degree College, Kathua, but quit the course after completing the first year to join a painting course in ITI, Hiranagar. Later, he also joined the Institute of Music and Fine Arts in Jammu.

It was under the guidance of Prof Vidhya Rattan Khajuria, Head of Sculpture Department, that his interest was generated in this medium. Ganesh says he has been greatly inspired by him. A few inspirations have also been drawn from Rajinder Tikoo, the famous sculptor and Triennale awardee.

Khajuria had a tremendous influence on Ganesh who would work till late night in his mentor’s house. A number of sculptural forms had taken shape in that period. But when he got a job in Industrial Training Institute, Kathua, he made a decision which he still regrets. He left his studies to join government service. Till date he has not been able to complete his degree in Fine Arts from the college. Unfortunately, even his department has not been allowing him to proceed on study leave to complete this course.

Though Ganesh has been working in various media, wook, stone, glass, cement etc, wood has been his favourite. One of the reasons being that it is easily available in his town wheras stone is difficult to find. Besides, the ITI, where he is serving, has a lot of discarded things like metallic pieces, spare parts of machines and stray iron scraps. As he loves to experiment in various media, he used these discarded things in his art and the results were simply striking.

His works possess a distinction which makes them stand apart from the rest of contemporary sculptural forms and have a freshness of the dew drops. For him, these artistic pursuits have continued despite all complexities of life and the search goes on. New thoughts continue taking shapes. “I feel that this exploration will continue till my last breath”, he says.

Despite many impediments, none of these could hamper his creative pursuits. In fact, the more the problems, the more determined he was to carve a niche for himself in this field. And he truly did. The relentless, hardworking artist has participated in a number of state, national and international art exhibitions. These include Inami International Wooden Sculptures Camp, Japan, 1995, NZCC, Patiala, painting workshop at Kasauli, Rashtriya Kala Mela, Bangalore and New Delhi, National Art Exhibition, New Delhi, AIFACS art exhibitions in Delhi, Varanasi and Lucknow, Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academy etc.

Besides the National Award — ’98, Ganesh has also been honoured by Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, in 1997 on the 53rd birth anniversary of late Rajiv Gandhi. He is also a recipient of the Broadway Award by J&K Academy of Art Culture and Languages, J&K, the President Seal of Honour, USA, World Lifetime Achievement Award, USA, and was nominated as the International Man of the Year 1996-97 by International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England.

Ganesh feels that though there is not much artistic activity in the small town of Hiranagar, where he lives, still the peaceful and tranquil surroundings help him a lot in his creative pursuits.

He has been pursuing his art without any help from quarter. He feels that the state government should encourage those artists who are disabled but very good at their work. “Wherever I go and whatever accolades I fetch, my department’s name goes everywhere with me. But the fact remains that it has never done anything for me”, he says, adding that every society is in complete without its art and culture. Thus, a sincere effort needs to be initiated by the government to encourage artists otherwise their creative talents will go unrecognised.

He has always received undaunted support from his wife Reva, who runs a school in Hiranagar. She provided him moral support and stood by him in misery and saw him emerging victorious. She is also a great critic of his works. Out of his two children, his daughter has shown interest towards sculpture while son has an inclination towards sports.

Calling her own tunes

ANOUSHKA SHANKAR, daughter of world renowned sitar maestro Pt Ravi Shankar, is a “sitar star in her own right,” the London Times said recently.

“In every respect bar one, Anoushka is a typically hip California teenager. She dresses, giggles and talks the part. She likes to listen to drum ‘n’ bass and Talvin Singh dee-jayed at her 18th birthday a year ago. But she also happens to be the gifted and privileged heiress to one of the most ancient classical music traditions in the world,” the daily said.

In an interview, the London-born 19-year old Anoushka admitted “people are never going to know me just as Anoushka”. She received her first lessons from her father when she was eight and by the time she was 13 had appeared in concerts with him.

She also learnt the piano but felt limited by the lack of an improvisational tradition in western music. Her cosmopolitan nature and cross-cultural upbringing position her perfectly to fuse eastern and western music in the manner of Talvin Singh or Nitin Sawhney. But she is adamant that, for the moment at least, she will remain loyal to the strict classical Indian tradition. “I want to earn respect in the classical world,” she said.

“Once I have established that, then I will have the freedom to do other things. But I don’t want to hop on any passing bandwagon. You’re never going to see me up on stage with my sitar playing with some rock band,” Anoushka said. — PTI

Sight & Sound
Off the beaten track
by Amita Malik

I THOUGHT it was time to get off the cable strike, the Olympics and of course, politics. So I indulged in a little bit of random channel surfing last week.

On Tuesday afternoon Zee TV sprang a pleasant surprise. A short interview, shot in Manipur, with Ratan Thiam, Manipur’s own gift to the theatre world. I was once in Moscow with Ratan Thiyam and was amused to find this normally reserved person buying a bright yellow shirt and thoroughly enjoying wearing it. A product of the National School of Drama and later heading it, he is indeed a colourful figure who has certainly put Manipuri theatre and its martial arts on the world map with performances all over Europe and many other parts of the world. Pity they did not include some visuals from his ‘Mahabharat’ and other productions. He deserves a longer programme in his own right and not just an episode.

In the plethora of domestic soaps and with ‘Saans’ getting totally out of control I find something substantial in ‘Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’. It has good characterisation backed up by intelligent casting and acting and because of that one can overlook the heavy theatrical make-up on the cast.

It has credible situations, creates an ambience of its own and can be classified as one of the better domestic dramas in recent years. I feel very sorry that what with one thing or another, I have not been able to watch ‘Rajdhani’ as consistently as I should, certainly with Farroukh Dhondy in the credits. But I promise to catch up. Especially as NDTV is hard at work on the Indian edition of ‘Yes, Minister’ which has a hard task ahead considering the original. One can only wish it luck. But these serials on contemporary politics and bureaucracy are certainly brightening up the Indian TV scene.

There were some unexpected laughs during the week. I thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle of my old friend Jaspal Bhatti riding a horse to counter the rise in petrol prices. What would we do without him? Some of this talent has since been diverted to the world of films but he remains a TV original and I wish we could see much more of him on the small screen.

Of the new channels which have burst upon the Indian scene I find the most interesting B4U. Perhaps because of its NRI origins it somehow manages to be different from the comparatively new music (and other) channels which all tend to look and sound alike particularly their fast-talking and skimpily clad anchors who seem to be more interested in showing off their legs than their enunciation. There are several new faces on B4U, the presentation is crisp and confident and in spite of its avowed pro-cinema bias it has quite a few original touches. I think it has based itself more on the channels for Indians originating abroad than in India and that makes the difference. It will be interesting to see how much more difference Shah Rukh Khan makes to the channel.

I was wondering recently what original contribution Doordarshan has made recently to television. One of them is certainly the art of doing running commentaries on outside events long-distance from monitors inside studio. During the Clinton visit, the events at Hyderabad House were covered entirely from the studios by Mrinal Pande and newscaster Navin Kohli. Imagine my surprise when I found a doubles tennis match at the Sydney Olympics in Australia (I think it was the finals) being covered long-distance from the Delhi studios by woman commentator Amrita, who is one of our most experienced commentators, but surely this is not the way to cover a tennis match thousands of miles away. It immediately makes the viewer feel he is being cheated. What was wrong with the local Australian commentary, anyway, and where were Jaideep Mukherji, Naresh Kumar and others who were supposed to cover tennis from Sydney? It seems there were more sports officials than sports commentators from the government side at Sydney. Which is as it has always been hasn’t it?

Tail-Piece: It seems dynasties are no longer confined to politicians. The daughter of the head of Doordarshan’s News Channel has been appointed a weather-forecaster on DD en route to bigger things. And the princess, aptly known as Sahiba, being rather short on memory, the other forecasters who previously had to memorise everything are now getting the benefit of an auto-cue which accompanied the princess.

Forthcoming Events
CHANDIGARH

Exhibition of photographs by Sanjay Kumbkarni: Punjab Kala Bhavan, Rose Garden, Sector 16; October 6 and 7; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Exhibition of works of art by ‘Different Eyes’ — an ensemble of 13 artists: Government College of Art, Sector 10; October 6 to 12; 10.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.

Exhibition of works of art by S.K. Sahni: IndusInd Bank art gallery; October 6; 5.30 p.m.

Film ‘Tony’, directed by Jean Renoir: Alliance Francaise, Sector 36-A; October 6; 5.30 p.m.

Shooting of ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ — TV show for Zee Punjabi channel: Tagore Theatre, Sector 18-B; October 9 to 14.