Sunday, August 27, 2000		Scene Stealers

NIRMALA SINGH proves the adage correct that there is no age barrier in learning and experimenting with new skills. Hailing from a family of educationists based in Sagar (MP), she was married after graduation to an Air Force officers in 70s. She was happy shifting from place to place with her husband. But even during that phase the creative urge in her made her learn new skills like beauty culture, ikebana, etc. She started using her own handmade flowers in (made from scraps of cloth) table arrangements, which were supplied to hotels. Her next venture was card-making from cut- pieces which found a ready market in Delhi. These cards won her the Innovating Card Designer award from the government and also got her a huge order from the Khadi and Village Industries Corporation. Embassies, too, started placing orders.

Her passion, however, was painting. She used to dabble in it for pleasure without realising that it would one day get her recognition and happiness. The turning point came when someone sent her a card which had an Encaustic painting. No one in 1993/94 knew much about it in India. She looked up the word in the encyclopaedia which only said that it entailed the use of pigments and wax. Slowly, she learnt more about the craft. It is a pure art form."I learnt through the trial and error method. My father helped by sending me the ingredients and equipment. I used bee wax and pigments. The wax I used to heat with a huge hair dryer which made a lot of noise. It was only in 1996 that information on an encaustic was available on the Internet," she says.

After her husband took premature retirement and came to Chandigarh, she held her first exhibition in 1997 called ‘Expression of Nature". It won her wide recognition. There has been no looking back since then. For her second exhibition, Man ke Vivid Pratiroop, she wrote a poem with every painting. This led to her meeting Nivedita Joshi, who asked her to paint the ethos

of her poems. "We have developed an excellent tuning and total synchronisation" she says. The first joint show was inaugurated in October 1999 at Delhi by the Prime Minister to fulsome praise. Within six months, they held the second exhibition at Jaipur, and the third is being held in September at Allahabad. The chief guest will be Gulzar.

Her house would be Nek Chand’s delight as most of her stuff is made from junk. Her dinning table base is made of painted drums used for storing chemicals. Her lamps are made of palm leaves. She paints on used paper and corrugated used sheets.

Nirmala works 15 to 16 hours a day. She attributes her growth to her creative parents and a supportive husband. "Life has been kind and I have always met people who encouraged and guided me"

Daler Mehndi is the badshah of Punjabi pop music. Inspite of being involved in various controversies, he has been able to carve out a huge fan following. His colourfulturban and a flowing choga (gown) are a part and parcel of his international image. In spite of not being slim, he moves like greased lightning on stage. His fifth music album called Ek Dana, released recently, is already a chart buster and it is believed that he was paid more than Rs 2 crore for it. This first album, Bol Ta ra ra, was released in 1995.

Throughout the summer he has been touring America and Canada. This is his third major tour; the first being with Shilpa Shetty, then with Raveena and now Karisma. Though he hails from Gorakhpur in UP, he has a sound classical base in the Patiala gharana of music. He is also very sensitive to peoples’ sentiments. Recently, when the Akali Youth Dal objected to young boys dancing in his video wearing turbans and kripans, he immediately issued an apology from and had the offending scenes deleted.

It is not easy to pin down Daler for a talk. But when you do, you are pleasantly surprised by the preparedness of his PR department. It has all the updates on the albums sold, tickets sold for his shows, photos et al. They are dismissive of any new challenge and guard Daler well.

His shows abroad this year have been big hits. He has performed in major cities not only among the Indian-born population but also exclusively for Americans. They wore turbans and danced through the show with him. A 10-year-old American boy, Willy, has been following him from city to city. Daler , however, is keen to emphasise his Sikh upbringing. " I am a true disciple of Guru Nanak and so I respect all religions. I truly am a religious person so I would not hurt the sentiments of any person," he repeats incessantly. He feels he has no competition. The sales of his cassettes are the highest and his fan following is the largest among Indian pop signers. He says that his shows generate hysteria and that he sings to make people happy.

He emphasises the philanthropic work done by him. Greening the country, especially Delhi, is on his priority list. Besides, he is committed to many other causes.

— Belu Maheshwari