Fashion gets Bigger
Do you hate the idea of entering the try room? Well, worry no more for on city shelves are smart, trendy and well-fitted clothes for the chubby tubby brigade 
Purva Grover

You are one of the few shopaholics who love to shop, yet can’t. The sale in city stores is never good enough, for it caters to the sexy slim (read malnourished) fashionable lot. The creative abilities and imagination of the designer brigade is limited to 36—26-36 statistics. Result: Your wardrobe is stocked with boring, regular and shapeless stuff. You are fit, fat, fine and fashion savvy. And, you have the right to be sporting the trends as much as the smaller framed fashionistas. Here’s a peek into the city stores that cater to fashion for the plump.

Tempting you to indulge in an extra helping of the dessert is Just My Size-35. The store has sizes that go as high as 5 XL. For women, there are kurtis, skirts, formal trousers and semi-formal dresses as well, all priced between Rs 445 and Rs 1,595. For men there are t-shirts and trousers. Says Rajan Bhalla, manager, “We will be introducing corduroy trousers and jackets in the coming season.” Another store that deals with weighty concerns is Pluss-17. On shelves here are long and short skirts, tops, t-shirts and stretch jeans. “Dominant here is cotton,” tells Pawan Gupta, manager. The largest waist sizes here are 49’’ for women and 56’’ for men.

Has the task of buying a pair of jeans always been a tough one? Well, while not many brands cater to the healthy bunch, a handful does. At Wills-17, the largest waist size in denims is 36’’ for women and 40’’ for men. You can also pick up casual and formal skirts in corduroy, lycra and cotton from here. Levis-17 collection of T-shirts for men comes in XXL sizes. As for denims, they offer waist sizes, 42’’ for men and 32’’ for women. At Allen Soly-17, for men the largest waist size is 44’’. Women can pick up formal skirts in 38’’ waist size. As for formal and casual shirts for both, sizes come in XL, XXL and XXL.

If simple, elegant and ethnic kurtas is your taste, then FabIndia-9 is the place to be. The store introduced large sizes (3 sizes, beyond XL) beginning this month. Playing mostly on A-line and kalidaar, there are kurtas and salwaar priced Rs 550 onwards. Says Neelu Singh, manager, “We have had a good response and women have actually picked up five pieces on a single visit.” There are skirts, capris and trousers here as well (waist size- 44‘’).

And, if it is international trends you wish to keep up with, then head to fashion huts in Sector 8, 9 and 17 and pick on international brands like Marks and Spencer, Zara and Next that offer larger sizes. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and compliment you curves.

purva@tribunemail.com

Broad & Beautiful
Flab is no deterrent for so many city femmes as they dress up in spaghetti tops and low-rise jeans
Saurabh Malik

Call her broad-minded or simply thick with the concept of looking good! Twenty-something Natasha Sharma does not allow fat to come in between her and fashion.

Even if she cannot comfortably slip into all those teeny-weeny medium sized tight-fitting slim jeans, the undergrad manages to fit in circles dominated by ultra-thin babes by wearing a stylish attitude that knows no bounds; not even that of waists.

Chances are fat that you will ever see the paunchy little college student trying to cover up her flabbiness by wearing all those loose tops over regular baggy jeans. If you are having any doubts about the veracity of the assertion, just go to her college any day after noon.

You will find her merrily donning style before sashaying down the narrow ramp of life, and popularity, in nice spaghetti tops over low-rise jeans, just like any other good-looking “sleek and slender” femme her age.

If in the process her adipose tissues manage to peep out of her desperately-clinging-to-the-body tops, the “broad and the beautiful” really does not mind. After all, the flab is a part of her “charming self” and the fair beauty has learnt to live with it, happily and gorgeously.

“The narrow-minded leaner half of the population can cross the thin line dividing decency and rudeness by raising eye-brows every time they see me dressed up in body-hugging clothes for celebrating an occasion called life, I really do not mind,” she asserts with a smile. “I am happy the way I am; and really see no reason for limiting myself”.

Flashing a broad smile, she says: The problem with the Indian society is that it has its own constricted, and even baseless, notions of beauty and behaviour. Living with constantly narrowing vision of ideal beauty, they believe only slim gals look gorgeous; and have the right to dress up in pencil skirts and hip-huggers.

“You can blame the burgeoning cosmetic, beauty and fashion industry for this,” says healthy and wise varsity student Preeti Verma. “In all those advertisements, they show the world belongs to the slim and trim. As for the fat, there is no place. They should feel gloomy, isolated and marginalised. And the only home for them is a slimming centre.”

No wonder, for them everything involved in staying thin is justified. Going in for hazardous fad diets is right. So is surgery carried out to bypass 17 feet of small intestine for reducing food absorption. This is not all. They do not find anything wrong in vomiting out food immediately after eating.

“But I, and so many others like me, are not like that,” asserts Preeti. “We eat what we like and wear what suits our tastes, even if it is not liked by the masses”. Keep it up gals, let the world realise even broad can be beautiful.

Bang comes Boman
From playing the disgruntled dean to endorsing detergents, he’s been there, done that all
Saurabh Malik

Call him the dean of the Indian cinema or just another actor-cum-model, providing evidence of his theatrical skills while endorsing detergent bars in advertisements on the small screen. There is no denying the fact that Boman Irani has acted his way to popularity from stage to screen.

Oh yes, he has seen both the worlds of footlights and arch-lights. So you really cannot help but agree with the Page Three star when he says theatre movement in India is not dying, though spectators need to adopt a different approach to it.

As he arrives at Hotel Mountiview-10 on Thursday afternoon for promoting Tata Sky network, we catch up with him. Here’s what the veteran, who took the tinsel world by storm some three-and-a-half years ago, has to say about movies and theatre:

“People still dig theatre. That’s, perhaps, the reason why I have been performing all along. Even in Chandigarh, I have displayed my flair before the floodlights on the stage. As such, it’s wrong to assume theatre is gradually fading away into oblivion.”

It’s another thing that the audience has to change its outlook. “They still need to pay far more respect to the theatre,” he asserts. Well said, Boman. Amidst the din created by mobile bugs and popcorn munching population, it really becomes hard to follow the action on the stage even in an elite city like Chandigarh. Go to our own Tagore Theatre and you will come to know how bad it can be.  

In any case, Boman says there has been a deliberate effort in Mumbai to keep theatre minds fresh and working. “You may not know it, but in Mumbai, we actually had three writers’ block workshops in as many number of years,” he says. “We could actually discuss our issues in our milieu.”

Good, but what about his dream theatrical performance? Is there some play he wishes to stage in the near future? “Oh, I would love to do Romeo and Juliet sometimes,” he smiles.

Well, that brings us to another issue. Should theatre artistes and movie makers be going in for original stuff or for remakes? After all, Ram Gopal Varma’s Aag has managed to ignite argument of sorts among the film critics.   “The issue out here is not of original or remake. You have to see whether the moviemaker or the theatre artiste has been able to approach the theme with a fresh viewpoint. After all, it’s open to interpretation,” he insists. “If he succeeds in adding a new dimension to the whole thing, the remake is good and justified.”

Quoting an example, he says, “Ben-Hur, a 1959 epic film directed by William Wyler, succeeded in grabbing as many as 11 Oscar awards. And, it was a remake.”     

Guys, just in case you do not remember, Irani was the disgruntled dean in medical satire Munnabhai MBBS. He made it big with his peerless capability of whimpering perkily in desperate situations. The character, with unmatched abilities to ill-treat not just the patients in a medical college, brought to the fore the versatility of his acting skills. But soon the middle-aged star succeeded in escaping from the comic trap that Munnabhai had sprung on him. His roles in Lakshya and Veer-Zaara helped the audience realise he wasn’t just for laughs. Good Boman, keep it up!

saurabh@tribunemail.com

youth speak
Matter of Lajja 
Ragini Gulati 

Lajja (sharm) is the first word that comes to my mind when I hear the name Taslima Nasrin. Even though it has been over a decade since I first read her book, Lajja, as a teenager in school, I vividly remember how deeply impressed I was with her writing, conviction and ideas on women rights. She spoke out at a time when a women’s opinion, especially that of a Muslim, was unacceptable. There was a public outcry, not only among the Muslim community, but also from the society at large.

That was the 1990’s. A decade later, her name still evokes anger and despise. Her photograph of being mobbed by Majlis-e-Iuehadul (MIIM) in Hyderabad was splashed across all leading newspapers. Is this how we treat our guests? Why could our government not protect the life and honour of Nasrin, who, besides being a radical feminist, is a physician and human rights activist as well? The only explanation may be because she has written on issues society is ashamed of and that which it has kept locked in closets, even till date.

An old quote of Taslima Nasrin reads, “Women are oppressed in the East, in the West, in the South, in the North. Women are oppressed inside, outside home… Beautiful or ugly, oppressed. Crippled or not, rich or poor, literate or illiterate, oppressed. Covered or naked, she is oppressed. Dumb or not, cowardly or courageous, she is always oppressed. How true Taslima, how true!

STEP OUT
Lone rangers
on the edge 
Shiva Keshavan, Kamal S. Oberh & Arun Bhardwaj are the only Indians in their adventure sports
Yana Banerjee-Bey

How many of you know of an adventure athlete who is the only practitioner of his sport in India, and in whose footsteps you aspire to follow? I know most of you will instantly think of Narain Karthikeyan. But Formula 1 is not something that most of us can aspire to. Money, age, temperament and fitness (not necessarily in that order!) are prime factors in most sports – whether traditional or adventure. But in F1, these requirements reach inordinately steep levels. I am going to talk about three Indians who are the only people in their respective sports in India and who have trailblazed a path it is possible for lesser mortals to follow.

One is Shiva Keshavan, India’s only luge athlete. Another is Kamal Singh Oberh, the only resident Indian BASE jumper. The third is Arun Bhardwaj, India’s only competitive ultramarathoner.

When Keshavan was growing up in Manali, some Austrians came talent scouting for potential luge athletes and conducted trials near Chandigarh. The method of the trials is simple – a rudimentary wooden sled with wheels (quite like the contraption street urchins play with!) is used to race on road tarmac. By watching a child balancing himself, a luge expert can judge aptitude for the sport. Three kids were selected; Keshavan was the only one who was to develop a passion for luge.

He trained abroad and became the first Indian to participate in the Winter Olympics – a lone figure bearing the Tricolour during the inaugural marchpast in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. Back home, on the day of his first Olympic race, I was the only mediaperson to write about the Indian boy struggling to reach international standards in a sport nonexistent in his country. He did reach those standards – in 2006 he won a doubles silver and an individual bronze in the Asian championship. By now he has competed in three Olympics. Oberh, a skydiver in the Indian Air Force, is from Jammu. He is a para jumping instructor in Agra and is the only Indian to have skydived over both the North and South Poles. During the South Pole jump, a Malaysian skydiver invited him for a BASE jumping event at the KL Tower in Kuala Lumpur. The KL Tower is one of the world’s premier BASE jumping venues. The tower’s height is 1381 feet but the platform from which the jumps are made is 970 feet. In 2005, Oberh became the first resident Indian to do a BASE jump when he jumped from the KL Tower. He did 10 jumps in all – over three days. He has since returned to KL and done more jumps.

Arun Bhardwaj is from Baghpat, UP. Now a government staffer in Delhi, he took up ultramarathoning in 2000 to inspire his children to be runners. No ultramarathons are held in India and he has to go abroad to compete. He has completed a nuamber of multi-day races in Taiwan, New York, Copenhagen, Moscow, Mexico and Germany. In 2005 he set the South Asian record (558 km) in a six-day race — the Cliff Young Australian 6-Day Race in Colac, Australia.

Bhardwaj is vegetarian. During a race, he lives on bread, fruit, milk, apple juice, ice cream and water. He trains by running at night and on weekends. One day in the week he doesn’t sleep to keep his body used to sleep deprivation. The stories of Keshavan, Oberh and Bhardwaj have one thing in common – they show that if you have the willpower to succeed, you can amaze yourself!

(This column appears fortnightly)

New releases
Chills & thrills of dreams & desires

Aggar
Director: Ananth Narayan Mahadevan
Starring: Tushar Kapoor, Udita Goswami

Showing at: Fun Republic

Mitti Wajaan Mardi
Director: Manmohan Singh
Starring: Harbhajan Mann, Japji Khera, Kanwaljeet Singh, Vivek Shauq, Mahie Gill

Showing at: Kiran, Fun Republic

Nanhe Jaisalmer
Director: Samir Karnik
Starring: Bobby Deol, Katrina Kaif, Vatsal Seth

The film tells the story of a ten-year-old tourist guide Nanhe. He is a gifted child who speaks four foreign languages, but is an angootha chaap! Nanhe Jaisalmer shows how two people from completely different worlds come together to sync a level of comfort. He lives in arid Rajasthan, but his room is as full of colorful posters, as his imagination is full of vivid dreams. But unlike other ten-year-olds, his dreams are not fickle. Nanhe has just one dream that keeps him dimpling through the hardships of life. That one day he will meet his dost, his best friend, actor Bobby Deol.

He makes his sister Suman write a letter to his dost every day; sharing all his news, his big battles and little triumphs. He sees each and every film of his dost. His room is filled with cuttings and photographs of his dost.

He lives, breathes, talks dost. In his sleep, too, he dreams only of his dost. Then one day, Nanhe actually comes face-to-face with his dost Bobby Deol! And Nanhe’s life changes forever...

Showing at: Fun Republic

— Dharam Pal

Signature Style
Be it for a cause, inspiration or motivation, sporting a trademark attire comes with its own meaning
Parbina Rashid

It was a meeting with popular Punjabi singer Sukhbir years ago that opened my eyes to the importance of adding a trademark style to one’s personality, especially if you happen to be a public figure. The singer was wearing his trademark dark glasses even at the basement of a hotel, which was the venue of the press conference. “Why do you keep your glasses on even in the dark?” asked a reporter who apparently could not sustain his curiosity. “Chances are that you will have difficulty in spotting me without these. I am just making your job easier,” pat came the reply.

A witty answer but it struck a chord. How important is it for a celebrity to have a signature style to maintain his or her public image? Does it solely depend on an individual’s whim and fancy? Or, does the public’s expectation have anything to do with it, like the crumpled kurta look for an academician or thick gold chains and rings for a pop musician? We find out.

Salil Bhatt, son of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and a classical musician of prominence, may not be a city resident but he is a familiar figure. He can be spotted in rich-embroidered kurta–pyjama playing Mohan Veena, the instrument that took his family to the height of recognition. So when a magazine recently published a picture of Salil in a sleeveless t-shirt and a pair of tight jeans, the image of our familiar lad went for a toss. We asked him what brought the change? “Not that I do not wear casual clothes, but this is the first time I came out in public like this,” he says. And that leads us to our original question: ‘How important is it to wear one’s trademark attire?’ And his answer amazes us, “Have you seen Jackie Chan in Magical Tuxedo. My trademark attire has the same effect on me. The moment I wear, it gives me the magical power to bring out the best in me and the confidence to face the audience.” Salil feels the image it lends is important to strike the right chord with the audience.

Creating the right image is, again the motive why municipal councillor Arshad Khan took to long, flowing Fabindia kurtas and sherwanis over his button-down shirts and designer suits. But his ‘image’ is much wider in its perspective than a mere style statement — and it is to re-define the image of the Muslim youth. “Sometimes appearances can re-enforce an identity. I strongly advocate the need to break the image of a quintessential Muslim, for it is not in his appearance but in his value system and thinking that lie signs of progressiveness or conventionality,” he says. Committed to a political ideology of sex-neutral mainstream education, health, economic empowerment for minorities, Arshad with his elegant kurtas and stylishly matched footwear, shows that one can be traditional and stylish at the same time.

Does it not get too much sometimes to dress for an ideology alone, we wonder. “My cause is bigger than these little urges,” and his conviction refrain us from asking further questions.

The next person we spot is Shiv Singh, standing apart with his complete black attire in most of the art-related gatherings in the city. “I chose to wear black because this is the colour of all colours, and most of all convenient for an artist as stains do not show,” says Shiv Singh who has been wearing black for the past 35 years. “Adopting a particular style or a dress code depends on an individual’s choice, but finally it is one’s works that speaks for a person.” True, as rightfully said by an art critic, copying Shiv Singh’s colour will give rise to Men in Black, but not master sculptor.

parbina@tribunemail.com

SIDELANES
The circle of  love
Joyshri Lobo

Often when we behave well towards others, we expect accolades. If we were ego-less we would not. But if egos are ballooning, we sulk, the anger lines deepen and the mouth is a typical emoticon of unhappiness. Our ire is worse when dealing with the family. And yet, the ones we love most are usually guilty of taking us for granted. They do not appreciate our noble acts and often say “So what? No big deal!” Our egos are humungous and cannot accept that without a snarl and a growl.

Elton John’s song, The Circle of Love from Lion King mirrors a lot of human emotion. We humans thrive on words of praise and often its darker side — sycophancy. The doctors are a community subjected to both. Save a life and they gain godly proportions. Lose it and a battery of lawyers will gleefully walk them into hell.

Not so well known is the fact that many doctors do more than just healing. Bitu is young, handsome, feisty. He has kind words for all his patients and if any of them are related to his fraternity, he treats them like royalty, absolutely gratis. All he asks is that this kindness is passed on to others who are needier. His dream is a hospital in the hills to treat the poorest of poor with the best medical facilities available. People in remote villages have often to walk for a day or more to reach a good hospital. Sometimes they reach when it is too late. Bitu will take a rain check on kindnesses meted out.

Sona has the bedside manners of a beloved family doctor. He explains and consoles. The extra time given is money lost but loyalty gained. He treats the needy for free. Charu works in the OT. Her gentle voice, reassuring words and warm hands are the last thing patients are aware of before the oblivion of anesthesia. They regain consciousness in a happy frame of mind.

All the abovementioned, work hard and earn well. What makes them special is that little extra towards mankind which they want passed on. Kindness has its own reward. Apart from making us feel saintly and superior, when shared, the circle races to be completed. If the laws of science are true, the whirlpool effect gets wider and wider and hopefully the circle never ends.

“Sahibji! pet per laat nahin maarna,” is one of the most heart rending pleas from anyone who tries to keep the minimal roti, kapda aur makaan together. However, we often, unthinkingly, laat maaro and create great harm. In our country every old shoe finds a foot; every torn shirt will adorn a back. A little bit of us, our love and caring goes with whatever we hand out, materialistic or time wise. The good wishes earned are banked and come in handy when the need arises.

The Sector 19 temple invites people to feed  sadhus and cripples on Saturdays. If this very karmic thought and action could find a global audience, Osama and his ilk would be history. Join us in the Circle of Love.

Bank on yourself
Archana K. Sudheer

“Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after you”, has truly become a mantra of the city’s residents today. With lots of options, such as mutual finds, pension schemes, life insurance, and several other choices, the people in the city are surely proving that being independent is the norm of the day.

City residents are fast learning the ropes of staying financially independent.

The situation, just a few years ago, was different. People saved for their daughter’s wedding or children’s education without any real thought about their retirement. Now, the picture is different. Although people still save for their children, they are also sentient of the need to save for themselves.

“Earlier, people thought they could depend on their engineer son for monetary help in old age. Now, even engineers have to hunt hard for jobs. If you do not have a job, how can you take care of your parents? People now realise that they will have to take care of themselves once they retire. This is a trend that has emerged since the last five years,” says Vikas Bajpai, a senior manager with HDFC.

Moreover, with the introduction of the MNC culture, people go from one city to the other in search of jobs, forcing their parents to fend for themselves. “My daughter is doing her engineering and after that she will go wherever she gets a good job. So, I’ve begun accumulating for my future. After all, one never wants to ask his son or daughter for money,” avers Sandeep Jain, deputy controller, Punjab Police Housing Corporation.

The need to be monetarily secure is very much on the minds of city residents. Says Renu Sachdeva, a working mother, “It is foolish not to plan ahead. Along with taking care of my child, I am definitely making sure I have savings for myself. Depending on someone else is not wise.”

Moreover, with the slow disintegration of the joint family system, the motto of the day is ‘every person for himself”. You are your own caretaker. “Our kids prefer to go to places like Bangalore or Delhi, for work. So, the traditional idea of a joint family is no more feasible. No doubt, one has to fend for himself,” says Ashok, another working mother.

Gone are the days when a government job would see you through after you were done with your job. Even government employees in the city are investing in other schemes to make sure that they have enough stored up for the future. “The government will soon finish out the pension scheme. Employees will only be left with their provident funds after that, which will not be enough to satisfy one’s needs,” adds a government employee.

Sadhu Jain, branch manager of Vijaya Bank advises all those who have not started saving up, “Invest when you are healthy and get the returns when you retire.”

archana@tribunemail.com

Sliced & ready
Saurabh Malik

Chopping up vegetables has been eating away into your precious morning time. No matter how fast you try slicing the onions, the tomatoes, and the okra before leaving home, you always find time cut short for reaching the office without boss showing you the watch.

Just for you, retail vegetable outlets mushrooming in the city have come up with a perfect time-saving recipe. They have added to their menu of services chopped up vegetables that promise to add the ingredient of velocity, and pace, to your lives.

To begin with, Reliance Fresh is offering the sliced pleasure to all its customers. If so far you haven’t picked up cut-and-packed vegetables, just drive down to an outlet. You will find sliced and ready-to-cook vegetables in refrigerated counters; all set to be picked up.

You can buy almost everything you can ever think of cutting and preparing before the blue flame in the kitchen. Right from bitter gourd to cauliflower and ladyfinger, you name it and the salesman will take you to the counter displaying the stuff in the AC store.

For the sake of convenience, you even have special trays of raw mixed vegetables. Costing less than Rs 50, they have all the elements of a healthy dish. You just have to go home; unwrap the stuff; and cook it till the pleasure is ready to be savoured.

“And you know something — for saving time you do not have to spend too much out of your pocket,” says government employee Lalita Chopra. “The difference between chopped up vegetables and the uncut ones is more often than not just Rs 2 per packet.”

Always running against time to reach the office before 9.30 am, Chopra and so many other busy bees like her do not mind pulling out those extra coins. After all, it saves them more than just effort. They tend to gain anywhere between half-an-hour and 60 minutes just when time really matters.         

“All these days I had been depending upon the maid servant to do the cutting for me,” says young schoolteacher Tanushree Mehta. “But timings were always a problem. Sometimes she would arrive just when I was leaving home to reach school.” And then, there was the perpetual problem of hygiene. “Though I was depending upon the maid to chop vegetables for me, I was never satisfied with her personal hygiene,” says budding entrepreneur Radhika Garg. “Despite thoroughly washing the vegetables, all this unhygienic handling of stuff was leaving me a little worried. But now I really can stand back and watch raw vegetables take the form of a scrumptious dish without letting frown lines appear on my forehead”. 

Reese’s nightmare

Oscar winner, Reese Witherspoon gets recurrent nightmares about drowning. It all started happening after she watched her mother rescue kids from watery graves. The actress confesses that she is very much scared of water. She often wakes up in a frenzy after dreaming she is drowning. “I have those dreams where you’re drowning and nobody’s helping you and people are just standing on the bank watching you drown?” she was quoted by a magazine. “I remember three occasions where my mother dove into a pool to save a child that was drowning. Watching children by the pool, I have nightmares,” she added. — ANI

Bengal Tigers
Parbina Rashid

The eyes invariably dart towards the huge canvas, which transports you to the time and space of Ajanta and Ellora. So as you take a closer look to read the artist’s signature, the curator of the gallery is too happy to fill in — “This one is by Sanatan Dinda and it runs into several lakhs,” and the figure she quoted, took our breath away. But then, the thought that surfaced next filled us with pride — finally the city is ready for the best that the art world has to offer.

Little wonder that Art Folio-9 decided to bring the works of seven bigwigs from Bengal. Among the senior masters are Ashoke Mullick, Bratin Khan, Ramananda Bandhopadhyay, Sanatan Dinda, Shyamal Mukherjee, Somenath Maity, Sudip Banerjee and Swapan K. Saha. So after a round up in the gallery you come across various genres of Bengal art — starting from Dinda’s ethereal figures in monochrome to Ashoke Mullick’s forms and figures to Shyamal Mukherjee’s Bengali men and women.

Known as a worthy representative of the Bengal School of Art, Ramananda Bandhopadhyay is one of those artists who gets inspired by the simplicity and uncomplicated lives of the rustic and that’s exactly what we get to see in two of his paintings — village women executed in strong lines and with economy of colour. Sanatan Dinda of course stands out with his figure, which belongs to the world of the ethereal and the spiritual. The artist has gone into the minutest details to impart the periodic look to his frame.

Others like Somenath Maity and Ashoke Mullick have played with human form and structures, Maity’s oil on canvas capturing the luminescence and darkness of the city life, while Mullick’s mythical figures contrast the modern structures establishing a hazy link between ‘now and then’. Falling in similar line is Sudip Banerjee’s women series, and keeping true to his signature style one gets to see the strength of lines and his modernistic approach.

For those, who like the Indian miniature touch, there is Bratin Khan with his Tempera on canvas. He remains true to the traditional method of this genre of paintings as he captures Radha-Krishna in slightly unconventional form. On the other side of spectrum is Swapan K. Saha’s floral series executed in acrylic on acrylic sheets, outstanding for their subtle blend of colours.

After looking at works that are pregnant with meaning, Shyamal Mukherjee’s series of Bengali men and women come as a refreshing change — for the vibrancy it radiates with their bright, almost gaudy dresses and cartoon-like faces. But most of all, with Mukherjee’s work we get to see what becomes of the strong figurative tradition when interpreted in a contemporary idiom. But then again, this is what Bengal Art is all about — fiercely traditional and yet inventing and re-inventing every minute to keep the surprise element alive.

On till September 18

  Health tip of the day

Sit ups strengthen abdominal muscles which help improving posture by providing stability to the lumbar spine and holding organs of digestion but do no facilitate reduction of fat.
— Dr Ravinder Chadha