A painter with a penchant for realism
by Ramesh K. Dhiman

BALJIT SINGH is one amongst the select few promising city painters whose tryst with ‘realism’ remains a fierce fascination. Armed with a razor-sharp wit, inexhaustible verve and a clear vision, Baljit is going the whole hog to explore new horizons where he would be free to paint a passion which is not guided by any trappings. This diehard crusader is determined to do something called epoch-making, by resurrecting the ‘real’ and ultimate truth through the powerful medium he has been pursuing since the days of innocence.

Baljit, a brilliant young man brimming with bright ideas, took hold of the brush at a tender age, when his teeny-weeny buddies would play marbles and fly kites on the rooftops. He was in the 6th standard then. By the time Baljit passed out his high school, he had endeared himself as a prodigy to a sizeable number of his childhood chums by creating, at random, a throbbing conglomeration of caricatures and sketches with an uncanny ability and ease to drive home a subtle point or lampoon the loose end of a situation. This proved to be a trail-blazing endeavour for this prolific little painter, who had garnered the much-needed impetus and inspiration from his classmates, teachers and other well wishers by exhibiting a powerful spark of his innate talent.

However, his majoring into the winsome world of water colours from the run-of-the-mill pencil drawings and portraits, etc was, indeed, a gradual transition, guided by a well-defined ambition that Baljit has cherished since childhood. At this crucial juncture, he felt the need for a mentor. And the marathon that he mounted to have one, proved to be a virtual wild goose chase. Coming of from a family with no background in the field, was another hurdle that he had to leap across. Baljit was left to fend for himself. This led him to believe, "Who can be a perfect ‘guru’ than the Creator of this universe — God Himself?" Baljit’s maternal uncle, a consummate painter of the times, was perhaps the only hope, under whose protective patronage he honed the finer nuances of art and could make himself well conversant with its subtle niceties.

"My romance with water colours was, indeed, brief, yet all the more satisfying. My teacher at the Sector 19 Government Senior Secondary School, Mrs Sukhwinder Kaur, a great admirer of my works, inspired me to concentrate on oil paintings. This proved to be a welcome departure, guided by the buzzword "realism" which remained entrenched deep down in my psyche. I did two paintings in dazzling shades, which left everyone present there spellbound. They complimented me for the deft handling of a theme and the fusion of vibrant colours. This was a great morale-booster for a ‘fledgling’ artist like me", reminisces Baljit.

And, of course, the amount of unstinted cooperation and moral support extended to him by his friends and a phalanx of fans, for whom he would paint small gift items and other decorative pieces of art, "would remain a glorious chapter in my life’s history". While he would paint to express his deep feelings for his friends, he would do paintings and portraits on demand to eke out a living. "I wanted to be self-reliant and independent and not exert any more liabilities on my parents, who had already played a significant role in visualising a mission", Baljit minces no words.

Baljit, who was greatly influenced by the immortal works of legendary painters, like Sobha Singh, Kirpal Singh, Jarnail Singh et al, has a handsome collection of more than 200 paintings, portraits, pencil sketches, drawings and caricatures. The oeuvre has the works of some renowned foreign painters whom Baljit has recreated.

An incurable nature lover, Baljit has been greatly inspired by its bounty and beauty. The glorious sunrise, the gorgeous sunset, the magnificent mountain ranges making an ambient backdrop, the roaring rivers, the singing streams, the awe-inspiring interiors, the serene surroundings, dotting god’s own country, Himachal Pradesh, to be precise have always infatuated him. The nature, captured in its myriad moods and manifestations, looks so different and lifelike. Painting nature in its natural colours, is a fitting visual tribute to the Creator of this beautiful world — God Himself.

The folklore of a particular region, too, has been the subject of Baljit’s serious musings. Perhaps his rural roots have inspired him to dwell on such serious themes. The composite cultural heritage of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, has already been well-documented through his powerful brush. He strongly feels that there is a need to check the wanton degradation of our rich cultural heritage, a vital component of our ethos. He laments that the younger generation has contributed greatly to it, by aping the West. He is hard of conviction that an artist has the potential of sensitising the sensibility of our wayward youth of today through the powerful medium he or she has been pursuing.

Hailing from a small village skirting Sangrur in Punjab, Baljit has beautifully recreated the works of great painters of the stature of Thakur Dass (The Gaddi tribals of Himachal Pradesh) and Sobha Singh (The Kangra Bride), which adorn the walls of almost every Himachali home. Amongst the new tribe of painters, the works of Shakti Singh and Mehar Singh have left an indelible imprint on his mind.

On being asked about why he was not inspired by the religious and mythological themes, Baljit beams a winsome smile and says, "How can you expect me to paint the face of someone whom I have never seen? Shall I be able to do justice to my job in terms of treatment in the true sense of the term?" This was perhaps the only good reason for his not getting swayed by such abstract themes. "But this does not mean that I am a non-believer. I believe in His omnipresence in every particle the world is made up of."

About his future plans, Baljit confides, "My only mission is to reach out to the hoi-polloi through humble means, i.e. my art. The happiest day of my life would be when I hold an exhibition of my works and win the heart of every city resident. To achieve this chartered mission, I am toiling hard day and night".

Baljit, who has an inflinching faith in hope and hard work, wants to see the world around him through the ‘realism’ lense. Even though the religious and mythological themes had little impact on his mind for certain reasons, Baljit is a deeply religious-minded person, who shells out a lion’s share of his leisure time in performing ‘seva’ at a religious centre in Sector 27, especially on Sundays. A voracious reader, reading books on art, culture, literature and, of course, religion, especially on Sant Mat remains Baljit’s fierce passion. He steals a little time of his awefully hectic schedule to read English fiction, which is his second love".

SIGHT & SOUND
Away from the gloom, life goes on
by Amita Malik

FOR over three weeks the people of Gujarat have been undergoing intense agony and endless suffering. And since the earthquake and its aftermath came right into our homes because of the media, we have agonised with them and wondered in what ways we could help them in our own inadequate fashion. But life, as they say, must go on. And in the way, of some relief, perhaps we should have a look at some of a serious nature.

For instance, I am grateful to a colleague who reminded me that Discovery Channel was running every night at 11 p.m. a fascinating programme, Stephen Hawking’s Universe. Hawkings, one of the greatest living scientists, was recently in India. Not all of us were able to attend his lectures, then DD botched up his appearance and we were feeling very left out. This programme which features Hawking himself and other eminent authorities goes into the very essence of the universe and they try to explain various theories in simple terms. The programme I watched on Tuesday night was all about alchemies with accompanying visuals and comments and took me back to my student days. It was just fascinating.

Then extremely moving was the courtroom speech by Nelson Mandela years ago, when he was being sentenced, with the famous words, about freedom: "It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." Although it had been filmed and recorded, it was believed that they had deteriorated too much to be coherent, let alone of broadcast quality. But the technicians of British Library worked on it, 11 years after Mandela’s release, to restore it in time for his birthday. And BBC World put it on for us to see last week. It was played back for Mandela, who was deeply moved to hear it, and his co-accused Goldberg added some revealing comments about how they felt at the time of the sentence. A wonderful archive treasure and we must thank British Library for their painstaking efforts.

CNN’s 10 p.m. answer to BBC’s India-orientated programmes has generally left me cold in spite of Mallika Sarabhai’s charm. In fact, Style South Asia has settled down comfortably as Style, Western India. Its three flats which made use of limited space were as uninspiring as the couples who live in them, one flat being positively hideous, cluttered up with ugly gee-gaws and a badly dressed, inarticulate couple. Which is why I was cheered, after all these weeks, to see an item which was good TV and unusual subjectwise. This was Vijaya Mallya’s yacht, Kazima, which used to belong to Elizabeth Taylor. A luxury yacht with separate bedrooms for Liz and Burton and much else besides. Mallya’s commentary was correspondingly sophisticated and relieved by wry wit. I enjoyed every moment. I wish we saw and heard more of Mallika than her sub-commentators who are not in the same class.

For earthquake relief we had Sachin Tendulkar and Madhuri Dixit in a special long session of Kaun Banega Crorepati and both played their parts with charm. Most enjoyable of all was Madhuri ringing up her heart surgeon husband in the USA in the helpline Phone a Friend, to get the answer to who performed the first heart transplant operation ever.

TAILPIECE: It was most amusing to find all channels going full throttle over Valentine’s Day, advertisements, an interview with Arbaaz Khan and wife Malaika Arora on Star News, films about love down the years, songs about love, the lot. Even Ye Olde Doordarshan went along merrily with the crowd on all its channels while Bal Thackeray was frothing at the mouth in Mumbai, and the "moral" police tearing up Valentine cards and smashing shop windows in UP and elsewhere. In the middle of all this bedlam, what on earth induced Good Morning India to bring in an earnest-looking Western classical music trio, whose cellist confessed that they were more interested in Bach and Beethoven, even when Ruby Bhatia suggested they take up pop music, which has more money in it. They said they were not interested in money-making. To make them perform sporadic background music and play Love Story with obvious reluctance was cruel.

ART & CULTURE
City enwrapped in aesthetics
by Suparna-Saraswati

THE week gone by saw a myriad of art-related events that has certainly provided the people of the city an opportunity to relive the past with a contemporary reference. The beginning was made with Piety and Splendour — Sikh Heritage in Art at Chandigarh Art Museum, Sector 10.

The paintings are a visual treat for those with an aesthetic inclination towards such forms of art. The sections of the display are methodically and chronologically well defined. These frames clearly depict a triangular thematic approach which is to say the theme shown is purely Indian in its context, the style and technique used is Persian as well as Chinese (for instance the rocks shown in the paintings is typical of Chinese art). Besides the Sikh Gurus, the Misaldars and the Maharajas of Punjab have been exquisitely painted with features.

‘Human Graphics’ by Sandeep Singh is another window to the kind of art happening in the city.

The exhibition is an amateur’s attempt at comprehending and interpreting ideas, themes, concepts and terms. Images captured in only black and white do lend a bit of starkness to the display but then perhaps that is where the artist’s depiction of art lies. It is the ordinariness of these pictures that is its appeal as well. The somewhat routine and day-to-day affairs also possess a mystique of their own that this young aspiring photo artist has tried to recreate through the lens. The exhibition is at the Alliance Francaise Art Gallery from January 31 ended on February 10.

The culmination of the week’s events was with the three-day Tibetan Festival held on February 2, 3 and 4 at DAV School, Sector 15, Chandigarh. Organised by the students and assisted by the All-India Tibet Association, the show was intended to familiarise the residents with an ancient and rich heritage that might not be for long if care and concern is not taken towards its fast depletion due to various reasons. Besides introduction of mouth-watering Momos (typical Tibetan food item) the visitors were able to get a sneak preview of the land’s performing arts as well. There were traditional dances from Tibet. The various stalls exhibited books, musical instruments (a Tibetan Jaltarang was played deftly by one of the students manning the stall), cuisine, Tibetan naturopathy, handicrafts (a range of oxidised silver items and colourful cloth bags), floor coverings such as durries and mini carpets were also available. The festival also showed a panorama of feature films and documentaries on and about Tibet. Prominent among these were ‘Seven Years in Tibet’; ‘Kundun’; ‘The Promised Land’; ‘Cup’ and the cartoon ‘Tintin in Tibet’.

These art events provide much more than a mere glance or exposure into the world of the abstract, the beautiful and the essential.