Commercial chamber to help safeguard Maharashtrian culture 
Ravi S. Singh
Tribune News Service

Gurgaon, February 28
It was a moment of fulfillment in the lives of about 300 Maharastrians living in Gurgaon city when the local branch of Jagtik Marathi Chamber of Commerce and Industries (JMCCI) was opened here.

Although the organisation’s name suggests commercial activities, it aims to preserve the cultural and social ethos of Maharashtra.

As declared by Mr R. B. Madhekar, the newly appointed chairman of the local JMCCI, the organisation has been floated to provide a common platform to the Maharashtrians, away from their home.

It would help them socialising and also assist them in times of need, he added.

The local branch was inaugurated with fanfare at a well-attended public function in Gurgaon.

The seriousness of the exercise was visible from the fact that national leaders from the Capital arrived here for the occasion in the evening.

The absence of the Union Minister of Heavy Industries and the national president of the JMCCI did not dampen the spirit of those present in the conference hall of the South City Club.

The Executive President, Mr Chandrakant Salunkhe, more than made up for Mr Joshi’s absence by his pearls of wisdom and words of endearments.

Mr Salunkhe urged upon the Maharashtrians living here to assist one another and work hard to complete the works for which they had left their home back in Maharashtra.

Its north India chairman, Mr R. M. Hejbib, and the chairman of the Delhi Chapter, Col. M. L. Kaktikar, among others, also spoke.

Mr Salunkhe urged the audiences to diversify their field of work by setting up their own business, instead of looking for employment. The Maharashtrians are known for their entrepreneurial skills and they should live up to their reputation in Haryana and other parts of the country, he added.

Mr Madhekar said that the need for such a platform was long felt by the people of Maharashtra living in the National Capital Region.

The names of other office-bearers of local unit of JMCCI are: Vice-Chairman Karandikar, General Secretaries Avinash Joshi and Vishnu Patil and Treasurer Manoj Kumar Kharad.

The body will have 12 members on the executive board.

The inauguration of the local branch of Jagtik Marathi Chamber of Commerce and Industries will go a long way in fulfilling a long lasting aim of the people from Maharashtra in the region for a cultural and social platform on which they could gather and socialise. The Maharashtrians hope that it would help the younger generation to come close to their social and cultural roots. 

ART SCAPE
Paintings of the first water wow art fraternity
Rana A Siddiqui

Trushant Dongre’s creation at Krishna Collection.

Defence Colony is providing the art lovers something to rejoice. It is emerging as an art corner because of its three galleries: Gallery 42, Gallery Om and Krishna Collection. The galleries have paintings of diverse artists and mediums this time. While Gallery Om has a few renowned names, painting with watercolours, Krishna Collection has come out with big and bright paintings, and Gallery 42 shows the mundane life. The theme painting on watercolours, ‘The Discipline of Watercolours’, is what Gallery Om has brought forward this time. Here the well-known artists like Sanjeev Bhattcharya, Paresh Maity and Pradip Maitra, seem to compete with one another with their expression in the medium.

There are others like Sidarth, a Punjab-born artist, who specialises in Thangka technique, learnt from Tibeten lamas at Dharamshalas, Kolkata-born Krishnendu Porel and Benras Hindu University artist, Pramod Kumar. They are all set to cast a spell on the audience with their styles.

The mundane life by Bhattacharya, say a juice-seller on a pavement; a typical villager from Rajasthan and others steal the show.

They are simply unique. While Pradeep Maitra’s light colours set you a-thinking: is it a painting or a real scene?

So does Paresh Maity’s serene ambience on seashore. It transports you to the place itself. “Watercolour is one of the most difficult media to work on,” says Divya Seth, the curator and owner of Gallery Om. “The flow in this medium is very difficult to control. I, therefore decided to do a selective show of the most popular medium of painting and the result is amazing,” she beams.

Watercolour is still an obsession with most artists of yesterdays and today, she observes.

Krishna Collection, however, has oil on canvas as a medium for the artists. Haren Thakur, Trushant Dongre, Dr Dinesh Sharma, Ragini Sinha and Ritu Srivastav are a few artists whose creations are displayed here. Trushant Dongre’s untitled work and Dinesh’s ‘Pratiksha’, showing Lord Krishna waiting for her beloved while ‘gopis’ waiting to have a glimpse of him are most catching.

At Gallery 42, Mohinder Kaur’s ‘In Harmony with Nature’ shows her relativity with Mother Earth, its vegetation, the village life and the faceless women.

Though the use of bright colours attempts to make them lively, the hidden melancholy prevails in most of the works. Her paintings evoke a good response, the owner of the gallery informs. This 85-year-old artist’s longing for an intimate companionship and an identity with her homeland, both India and Pakistan, can be easily witnessed in many of her creations. Mohinder was born in Multan, Pakistan in 1927 and came to India after Partition.

Tribute to curator

The sculptures, images and paintings at The Home of Folk Art, a museum at Gurgaon, Haryana, is missing a soul that talked with them, cleaned them lovingly and took great care of them as if they were human beings. But, the man who brought them here is no more.

K C Aryan, a painter, sculptor, curator, art historian and illustrator, breathed his last only last month. The news shocked the entire art fraternity, though his 82-year-old ailing frame had already indicated the possibility of the last journey.

Aryan, an institution in himself, was known for several firsts. He proved through meticulous research that the Aryans originated in India and from here, they migrated to several colonies of the world. His research was based on countless artistic and archeological evidences. Mr Aryan was also known for reviving Punjab, Himachal Pradesh’s paintings and tribal art in India, in his writings.

In fact, he is the first to write a book on Punjab murals, which is a first-hand study of ‘pahari’ mural paintings in Punjab during 19th century.

As also he is the first person to write on the ‘the cultural heritage of Punjab’ — a thorough study of completely neglected aspect of Punjab of pre-partition days.

He also brought Punjab to the world scenario by writing on its bazaar school paintings. Himachal Pradesh feels indebted to him for categorising and bringing its folk embroidery to limelight for the first time.

The most neglected arena of art, India’s rural and tribal art as well as its folk bronzes, was put on the world map by the enduring efforts of Aryan. Known as a ‘mobile encyclopaedia’ on Indian art, Aryan was also the first to publish a mini encyclopaedia of Indian art, design and cultural references as also the first to write Hindi and Urdu calligraphy with pen and brush instead of the special ‘kalam’ that is used for the same.

A self-taught artist, Aryan, was born in the family of artists, though he never took any formal training.

He breathed art. His quest for getting deep into the background of Indian art made him the first to establish that the basis of decorative devices and motifs in Indian art and architecture had their origin in its religio-philosophical background. He was the first to record the square format of Devnagri alphabet in his book ‘Rekha.’

Several of Aryan’s books on applied art, drawing, Indian decorative designs are very helpful to the art students. Not only that, Aryan also published a scholarly work on Hanuman, taking into consideration all facets of the monkey god. He had proficiency in shastras, fine arts, sciences and philosophy.

Born in Punjab in 1911, Aryan began his career as an artist in 1937. He never looked back since then.

A winner of several prestigious awards from India and abroad, Aryan finally wrote an autobiography, Sadhan KalaYatra (SKY), which saw the light of the day in January 2002. In this year, he also achieved ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by the National Museum for his contribution to Indian art.

A sigh of relief for Doordarshan 

Doordarshan can heave a sigh of relief now. Its position is being elevated ever since Prasar Bharti had a tie-up with Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), a non-profit organisation, recently. Under the tie-up, PSBT will receive 50 per cent funding from Prasar Bharti and arrange the rest of the 50 per cent from other sources. The alliance will result in the commissioning of 52 documentaries made by independent makers. For DD, the tie up has come as a breeze in scorching heat for its several decades-old history, as it was never able to send any documentary to any festival, national or international. After the tie-up, it sent a few documentaries for Mumbai Film festival and one film is also selected for the upcoming Berlin Film Festival in March.