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Wednesday,
August 29, 2001, Chandigarh, India 
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CREATIVE SIDE SOCIAL MIRROR
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CREATIVE
SIDE
ASSIGNING the role of x-rays to his eyes, he scans the face of his subject to penetrate the natural mask provided by God to get to the subject’s true personality. A complex phenomenon, hard to put in words, it is perhaps some sort of ‘seventh sense’, which enables him to peep into the inner personality of a person and express it in the form of a mask. Meet Viney Vadhera, the contemporary mask-maker par excellence, a pioneer in his field in the region. Right from drawing caricatures of his teachers during childhood, to acting and directing street plays and performing folk dances during his college days, to making a name in the field of mask-making, he has embarked on a life-long journey to do something worthwhile for society in general and art in particular. And occasionally, he tries his hand at writing poetry too. "Through my paintings and drawings I seek to express the reality beneath the appearance", says Viney. "The face that we wear to interact with others begins to slip and crumble, and a different person emerges from underneath. What we imagine a person to be, may not always be the real him, but quickly, with indecent haste, ‘the public face’ reasserts itself. The mask keeps slipping and re-appearing, as it were. I have tried to expose idiosyncrasies and sanctimoniousness of human beings."
As we have progressed and become ‘modern’, we have also learnt to wear a mask when dealing with people. We conceal what is in our mind. The world has become ‘artificial’. Gone are the days of frank and straightforward talk. We express our true opinions only when we are in the company of our close family members. In public, we always wear masks of different shades and hues. So, through his masks, and paintings based on the theme of masks, Viney tries to depict what he thinks ‘would be the real person when unmasked’. He prefers to use papier-mache, wood or terracotta to make his masks. Regarding the choice of colours, he does not have any set preferences. He chooses the colours depending on the characters to be depicted, and expressions to be conveyed Among the first few people to propagate the concept of summer workshops for children, he fondly remembers the days when the pioneers of this field used to hold such workshops for children by spending out of their own pockets. "I very well recollect how Viney spent long laborious hours, sweating with children of the locality to stage a street play named Insaniyat Dam Toar Rahee Hai. He wrote and directed the play in his endeavour to create ‘artistes’ out of ordinary street boys, and succeeded pretty well. But this was 18 years ago. Now, the whole scenario has changed. Commercialism has seeped in, and selfless dedicated people have become a rare commodity", says Gaurav Sharma. Working as a Senior Visualiser in the Educational Television Centre at the TTTI, he spends almost whole of his spare time in pursuit of his chosen artistic field. "Don’t you feel irritated when he sacrifices domestic duties at the altar of his creative endeavours?" "Not the least. Masks are a sort of passion for him. And an artist cannot rise unless and until he is passionate about his work. So I happily make a little ‘sacrifice’ for his sake", chuckles his wife, Geeta. While Viney squats on the floor of his room to give shape to his ideas, working till late at night; once a while, Ishaan and Arpan — the ‘little Vadheras’ — infiltrate into their father’s domain to paint a line or two on the mask. Artists in the making? Vadhera is not a traditional mask-maker. His style and subjects wear a contemporary stamp that keeps changing with people’s lifestyle. In addition to holding individual shows, he has also participated in a number of national and international exhibitions, apart from attending workshops and camps in India and abroad. He also represented India at the SAARC painters’ camp. His works are housed in a few museums in India and in private collections in the USA, England, Canada and Australia. Mask-making was slowly
going into oblivion in this region, when Viney stepped in to breathe a
new lease of life into this dying art. While his work has been
cherished by a number of connoisseurs of art, and he has won awards
from state akademis, unfortunately, the Chandigarh Administration has
failed to put in even a line of appreciation.
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SOCIAL MIRROR
AGING is now an option. If such saucy speculation intrigues as much as it tantalises, there is more where that came from — more pithy truisms and more sense too. "It is entirely in our hands how happily or healthily you want to ‘grow older’, not ‘get old’. Productivity is the key to successful aging." Dignity Foundation, the five-year-old Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) that has been as dynamic, and high profile as it has been successful, not only believes this but manages to prove it too. This approach comes as a refreshing change since aging generally inspires only fears of handicap, dependence and mortality. This stereotype of aging holds true not only for the world in general — which reports an increasingly aging population in the same breath as negative labour demographics and state expenditure on health support — but also India where traditionally patriarchal joint family systems are under stress. By premising itself upon the ‘optimistic developments’ in the fields of geriatrics and gerontology and offering ‘structural opportunities’ to exercise the choice, life with Dignity has everything to do with thinking young about growing old. Dr Sheilu Sreenivasan is at that indeterminate age, which can neither be called young nor old, which could probably be why she so ably combines enthusiasm and vast experience. Having put in many years in the publishing industry, she spent some more heading the publications department of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, a position that gave her access to the various pressing issues that worry the Indian conscience. But, while there were many organisations helping other oppressed segments such as street children and women, Sreenivasan realised that the elderly were both physically and mentally retired from the mainstream, their problems festering and forgotten. Gerontology and the advances thereon came as a revelation, which seized her imagination and time. Sreenivasan launched the Dignity Dialogue magazine in 1995 and its growing circulation only served to bring in perspectives which demanded a more tangible involvement with the issue. Dignity’s services for senior citizens began with a helpline, which responded instantly through crisis counselling for distress calls. Their Mumbai wing alone averages over 20 calls a day, of which 10 to 12 are new cases. The complaints received vary from physical and mental abuse from children and relations to threats from landlords and mental depression, some even contemplating suicide. On receiving the call, a professional social worker commissions a trained registered volunteer to visit the caller within 24 hours, leading to personalised assessment and confidential dialogue problem solving. These efforts have now been formalised under the aegis of the newly opened counselling centre which has separate cells for the legal, financial, medical, psychological, travel assistance and security concerns of the elderly. At the highest level, a closed door hearing of the case, as perceived by the parties in conflict, is held by a Reconciliation Forum made up of eminent members who are judges, police officers, government servants and psychologists. Police intervention is sought when necessary and senior practicing lawyers volunteer time to fight cases at cost. Even as the physical needs of the elderly are addressed, the mental ones are no less demanding. Dignity Companionship focuses on the need of the elderly to feel wanted, dispelling their fears of helplessness with conversation and activities like a walk or a trip to the movies. The next logical step of making senior citizens feel productive and successful is attended to by Dignity’s Second Careers Division — remunerative employment in keeping with their time constraints and professional experience is located from a well-developed database of prospective employers. Another imaginative initiative has been Dignity’s public cleanliness and garbage management project. Other initiatives to evolve workable solutions include having ‘dignity wardens’ helping senior citizens living alone with their security needs — an effort which resulted from the frightening spate of murders and robberies which targeted those who were elderly and living by themselves in a mechanically preoccupied metropolis like Mumbai. On the anvil is the Dignity Homes purchasable units project in the sylvan surroundings of nearby hilly Matheran. It could well become a dream destination for the 400 senior citizens who can choose to live in the very affordably priced home-away-from-home. A complete physical, spiritual and medical support system, it will also house a specialty 100-bedded hospital for those who suffer from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases — the first facility of its kind in India. Says Sreenivasan, "We now have people coming to us to ask for the help of our members. Be it an exhibition or some event which needs managing or a problem in a ward, they say — call Dignity. Our senior citizens are a highly respected community in our society — they command cooperation and are admired for their maturity and experience." The foundation’s
experience has been that young people look up to their elders when
they are very busy, very interested and very occupied with
responsibilities of their own. And Dignity Foundation provides them
with those opportunities. The doors remain open to admit anyone who
wants a life with dignity. And age is no bar. |
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