Sunday, October 1, 2000		Scene Stealers

FOR the MTV generation, the leggy, lissome beauty, who wears those skimpy clothes with high heels (at least 6 inches) and answers love queries with Cyrus Barocha in Loveline, Malaika is a familiar name and face. But the most glamorous  among the glamorous says that she is a "home-loving person." It may sound strange to many of her fans who see her as a bindaas girl but the Arbaaz Khan’s wife says that she is "totally domesticated."

Malaika Arora is a model who has excelled in print and visual advertising right from her childhood. As a sweet and cuddly child, she did many advertisement campaigns for products such as soft toys, coffee and watches.

The event that catapulted her to the Big League was when she was featured on the cover of the Society magazine. After that life changed and there has been no looking back. The second major push came when Farah Khan, the choreographer, asked her to do Chchaiyan Chchaiyan in Dil Se with Shah Rukh Khan. Her dance was a hit throughout the country. She says it was fun working with the team. Moreover, being a classical dancer (Bharatnatyam and Jazz ballet), steps come easy to her.

Married to Arbaaz Khan, Malaika in real life is a far cry from the glamourised image that she projects. She loves being married, looking after the house, doing mundane chores and being with the family. Those who know her say she is a simple, petite girl who is totally domesticated. She has no starry airs and is game for trying out new things. Her apartment is understated and very tastefully done up. There are no flashy filmy touches. She serves the guests herself. VJ-ing is just a job for her and the persona and image accompanying that job is left outside the home.

It is heartening to know that there still are people who put service to humanity above self. In Karnal, the birth-place of King Karna who was also known for his charity, a modern-day philanthropist is giving relief to the old and poor.

Amrik Chawla is running a vridhashram (an old people’s home) for the aged and the infirm. People of Karnal are full of praise for the work done in the ashram. Poor and destitute inmates have been provided with 140 rooms, with attached toilets, for their lifetime. They are also provided with free food, clothing, medicare and recreation facilities. This ashram was constructed only two years back on two acres of land.

Amrik Chawla’s life story has a fictional quality. He came to Karnal at the time of Partition and had to leave his schooling to contribute to the family’s income. He started working in a blacksmith’s shop at a salary of Rs 40 per month. Then he opened a cycle-parts factory in partnership with another person. Finding the going tough, he shifted to Delhi and started making transformers and voltage stabilisers. Sensing that there were more opportunities in Bombay, he established an electrical goods factory at Andheri, Mumbai. He soon became a leading industrialist and supplier of electric gadgets in Mumbai. He also went to Germany to acquire new technology.

But soon money-making lost its appeal and he wanted to do something more soul-satisfying. He thought of Karnal to start his mission. He registered a charitable trust in his parents’ name and built a vridhashram. In April 1999, he opened the Sant Nikka Singh Public School with 570 students. Within a year, the strength doubled at Nirmal Dham for poor children. Another school is coming up -- it already has 500 students. No fee is charged and free uniforms, books, transport is provided to each pupil.

The third project involves helping financially weak widows. This is also being accomplished and already 100 widows from Karnal and neighbouring villages are being paid a monthly sum , which ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 500. A free library has been established,too. In future, he wants to shoulder the marriage expenditure of poor girls.

Amrik Singh, 66, has many plans to expand the activities of the ashram. He himself resides on the premises so as to be fully part of the venture. The ashram is willing to provide assistance and guidance to any needy person.

The visiting card shows a beautifully etched dance mudra, indicating, at first sight, that it belongs to a dancer. Geeta Chandran is indeed a Bharatnatyam exponent who was voted the most beautiful and attractive dancer in Delhi recently.

Geeta is innovative and has never shied away from breaking new ground. She has used contemporary poems in her dance and even danced to modern short stories. She has worked with Hindustani musicians and danced to the tune of their music genres -- thumri, dhrupad and bhajans -- all of which are so different from the Carnatic music form that traditionally accompanies Bharatnatyam. She has also worked with painters and sculptures and managed to integrate their visual language into her dance. She has choreographed for theatre (Mahesh Dattani’s Dance like a Man) and even for a fusion-fashion show.

Trained in the traditional Thanjavur style of Bharatnatyam, she is translating it with her conviction on environment protection and gender equality. She presents these through a new art form called "performance-dialogue" where the artist becomes a communicator engaging audiences to think, react and respond.

Geeta’s chief objective is to make Bharatnatyam attractive to the younger generation. According to her, "Classical dance is more than mere esoteria — it is a viable means of communication, a specialised language that, once mastered, can be used to aesthetically communicate several ideas". She further feels, "We should promote the aesthetics of the dance because, increasingly, we are all living in a more violent and ugly world."

"Unless the young are repeatedly taught about peace and beauty, this pervasive ugliness will soon engulf them. So, I think all our unique classical and folk art, music and dance forms are extremely relevant. Today, these uniquely Indian modes of expression — our dharohar-- is what will be our trump card. Once the veneer of globalisation that is currently dyeing us all with boring uniformity, loses its gloss we will still have our special identity."

Geeta Chandran’s latest work Her Voice, with puppeteer Anurupa Roy, is a dramatic plea for peace. It portrays the futility of war and the searing angst that conflicts ignite in all human beings, especially women. Interestingly, she is a very contemporary woman. She is a mathematical statistician from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi, and a postgraduate in public relations and video filmmaking.

— Belu Maheshwari