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Rooted in tradition
First woman to introduce the ‘boutique’ culture in India, Ritu’s couture collection would grace the grand finale of the Chandigarh Fashion Week at Hotel Taj on January 31. The collection that would comprise delicately handcrafted heirlooms with stylish exuberance Ritu says, “Mine would be a couture collection, a mix evening and bridal wear.” While her line is worked with dhapka, mukaish and a range of metallic embellishments, the high point of the line is the peshwas cut (woven in a long forgotten village in Bengal), a blend of Indian aesthetics in coats, trench and bomber jackets, and not to miss would be the bridal wear — replete with gararas and khara dupattas from Aadh and Hyderabad; lehengas from Rajashthan with colourful gota and mashru accessories. The designer has also put a few of her paintings on the silk that these coats are made up of. “The images range from Rajasthan to the painted kalamkaris of the Coromandel Coast. It’s a young, trendy collection,” she says. Known for her traditional designs, Ritu has used subtle colours, intricate embellishments, dull gold and metallic threads interspersed with a line of antique looking textiles for her collection. Ask her how fashion conscious is our city and she says, “Chandigarh has a distinctive style of dressing. It’s a very fashion conscious city and when we use the term fashion it does not always refer to gowns and dresses. The city is high on salwar kameez and traditional wear.” Talk about the Chandigarh Fashion Week and Ritu says, “It’s a welcome change and since I was born in Amritsar, Punjab being my home for many years, I would say the region has a unique culture and its fashion celebrates the traditional along with the avant garde in colours and silhouettes.” What about the modern day Indian bride, how does she like to be dressed? “Whatever people might say, for the wedding a girl would only wear a traditional lehenga, sari or salwar suit. Yes, they would want something modern for the sangeet but the bridal line so far stays traditional.” Being the first to introduce ‘boutique’ culture, ask her how things have changed? “When I started nobody had readymade solution for weddings, but today we have a ready bridal line. Life now is much simpler. We have wider choices. In one word, there is a sea change in fashion.” Not fond of Bollywood dressing and designing, she says, “From Aishwarya to Sushmita I have dressed many, but I don’t like designing for Bollywood movies. Its more dramatic than real. I prefer doing it for real people.” Last but not the least, do we have to tweak traditional designs to generate the interest of youngsters? “Definitely, one has to evolve with time and keep youngsters’ preference in mind,” she signs off. jigyasachimra@tribunemail.com
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Basic instinct
It’s Mike Pandey! And a cup of coffee with him is having conversations flip over from birds to vultures to tigers, bees, elephants, geese…an interaction with him is an exercise in quotable quotes, expedition through forests, excursion in nature, exertion in the wild, an eye-opener on environment…In city for a Tellus Art event, the iconic wildlife documentarian speaks and we listen.
“Last time I was here around two years ago. I came for the vultures. In between also I came once, but that was in connection with the Pong Dam. One of the most pollution free wetlands,” he gets us started and moves on. “Do you know how intelligent birds are?” he questions and continues, “We usually don’t give consideration to birds. When you travel from Delhi to Shimla, you carry a map. They travel all the way from Siberia, crossing the continents, enter a jet stream…I’m sure now when you see a bird next time, you’ll be more respectful.” That perhaps, explains the inspiration, the passion. “I believe very strongly in nature. When you understand something, you respect it, when you respect it, you protect it, ultimately you love it.” He continues, “Even in Indian mythology they’ve respected nature as much as God.” The twice Green Oscar Award winner has some way with statistics. “As many as 40 per cent of the total population of geese come to Pong Dam…Nearly 40, 000 birds just lifted up, not a single one bumped into the other, like a graceful ballerina…about 1.25 billion people around the world don’t have water…In Punjab, at some places the water levels are down by 300 to 400 kms…bees and butterflies pollinate about 87 per cent of the foodgrain.” The statistics you can relate to! What of films, the stereotypical commercial world they called cinema here? The Bollywood he had a brief stint with? “I’m a very serious student of cinema. When I came here I worked for around four years. The films here do not reflect reality, it’s like grown ups playing twiddly wings. I believe communicators carry responsibility.” After ‘The Last Migration’, ‘The Whale Sharks’, what next? “I’m being supported by a very dear friend who’s spent a lot of time with me for the cause.” After a bit of prodding. “It’s John Abraham, his heart is in the right place; the guy bleeds for the right cause. For the last one year we’ve trying to put together a docu-drama ‘The Return of the Tiger’.” Meanwhile there’s time for some lessons. “Around 550 years ago, Guru Nanak said the only way is when all of us unite in brotherhood…whether you’re rich, poor or king, you need water, air, sun to survive…switch off the light when not in use, bring ACs to 22, not 19, don’t use your car once a week…” It’s all about making a difference and difference is all that matters. Told you it’s Mike Pandey! manpriya@tribunemail.com |
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As trendy as it gets
From multi-utility furniture to photo frame switches and digitally printed floor tiles, the exhibition showcases a smart couture for a smart home. A one-stop shop for home shopping and designing, the show has over 75 companies in the industry dishing out their latest home improvement ideas and products. The concept of technology giving the edge and nature keeping it real, your living room gets a trendy makeover within minutes. Thanks to some theme-based solutions that creatively enhance the interior and exteriors. Maya Furniture Studio from Delhi had much to offer. "We provide customised furniture designed to suit your space and décor. The idea is to go minimalistic and keep it simple, yet elegant," says Puneet Wahi, proprietor. They have brought in innovations like wood and stone furniture, storage wall panels, movable plasma window, which can help you move around the house and yet not miss out on your favourite show! Chemically washed wall installations in rusted iron add the rough and real appeal. So, your furniture does all the multi-tasking! Even the ceilings and floorings turn designer with digitally printed as well as processed marble tiles, which bring in the Italian exclusivity, and textured glass panels. The more adventurous ones can experiment with digitally printed leather wall panels. Some designer elements from Amit Kashyap's Enlivens would help accessorise your home further. Wall hangings in metal, wood, stone and poly marble add to the landscaping and architectural value. For the traditionally trendy, Victorian style wall clocks from Mumbai are another pick. Embellished with seashells and stones, they make a great collector's item. The garden too gets its share with murals, stone, glass and wood fountains, designer lights and light furniture. And if you don't have one then create your own green space by maintenance free artificial grass. Move over the modular kitchen and get a working kitchen with movable doors, furniture and cabinets. In addition, get your own spa with designer jacuzzi, spa tubs and rain showers! - Neha Walia On till January 31 |
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Side Lanes Felix Bernard Manley, fondly remembered by his nickname "Buster," passed away in London on January 21. His beloved Chevrolet is still seen tootling around Chandigarh. Like everything he did, the vehicle was perfectly maintained and its engine has not been opened to date. Tall, fair and good looking, Buster married Tutu, my dadi Norma's sister Alice Mitter's grand-daughter. Nita, Tutu's mother was the wife of Ramchandra, ICS, who, after his retirement, became a trustee of the Tribune. He was an aristocratic looking individual, gentle but firm in his ways, and set an example in secularism by marrying a Christian. His son Romesh Chandra was a leading communist and head of the World Peace Council. He was once deported from Heathrow during Mrs Thatcher's time. Romesh had piercing eyes, a Roman nose and longish, straight hair parted at the centre. He was extremely polite and interested in whatever anyone had to say. I met him years ago when he visited my parents. He complimented me on my poems and stories, which regularly appeared in this paper. Did he mean it? I am not sure but he did make me feel very tall. Ramchandra and Nita owned a house with a sprawling orchard at Forest Hill, Shimla. Whenever we visited them, they offered typical British high teas, complete with dainty sandwiches, meat patties, cake and tea served from the best china. As we left, we were given cherries, apples and peaches from the garden. Nita was a very kind person, extremely concerned about cleanliness and germs. She looked after her servants, who spent their entire lives working in her home. The Ramchandras would come down in the winter months to spend time with Tutu and Buster. In summer, the Manley's would go up to Forest Hill. There are very few people of that vintage in Chandigarh, who do not recall the grace and elegance that personified the Ramchandras and Manleys. Tina and Anil Manley, who are younger than I, spent a lot of their holidays horsing around with us cousins. Towards the end, Buster lived with Tina and her family. He never reconciled to Tutu's passing on. Tutu knitted some of the finest vests when my son Jayant was born. Four years later, Rohit too wore them. When she had a thyroid operation, she requested me to spend a little time with her at the PGI. As the cut on her neck was joined with metal staples, she felt I was one of the few who could stomach their gory and painful removal. I felt chuffed at her faith in me. Whenever anyone was ill or in hospital, Tutu worked out a roster of duties. Often, friends and relatives who offered only lip-service, were roped in to do their bit. She also maintained her mother's tradition of serving elegant teas. I never heard her talk ill of anyone and she spent her life looking after people. With Buster's passing, an era has ended. He was one of the last few British officers who chose to stay on in this country. Tutu and his presence made for an easier transition from the Raj to an independent India. He will be sorely missed by all those who knew him.
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This is an organisation over 125 years of service, with an annual turnover of over Rs 40 crores and a Six Sigma rating from Forbes, a 99.999999 per cent correctness in functioning, which means error in one in six million transactions. What they do is to distribute 565 million dabbas every year to Mumbaikars everyday giving them a taste of homemade food, from downtowns to suburbs. They are the world famous Mumbai Dabbawallahs, one of the most efficient and biggest food supply chains. With such a profile, they are businessmen who don't ride on the fact that they are big. "It feels good when people appreciate the effort put in by each dabbawallah everyday," replies Raghunath Medge, president, Dabbawallahs Assocition. As many as 5000 men, traveling 70-80 km each day, providing lunch to 200,000 Mumbaikars everyday all in a span of 3 hours is no joke. "For us, it's everyday business," comes another humble reply. Now that their everyday business has become a case of study in Harvard and got global appreciation, ask them what is their secret of success and you hear, "Trust. It works as a brand ambassador for us. We have three generations of customers who are a part of our loyal customer satisfaction list. And, it's growing." Medge along with Gangaram Talekar, secretary of the association was at the CII, sharing their experiences and success story. Supplying food over the years, they still follow the traditional methods of distribution traveling on bicycles and local trains for their task. Their menu hasn't changed but just got healthier. "We have to serve people with all kinds of taste buds. With us the concept of home cooked food means giving customer what he wants to eat. We also have nutritionists consulting us for providing diet food," says Medge. And, what's more interesting than their work is the fact that they don't have a retirement age. Now, that's some incentive.
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On display are works of architects from across the globe like Massimiliano, Fuksas, Jean Nouvel, Stefano Boeri, Javier Pioz and Vincent Callebaut, including the Indian architects Stephane Paumier, SD Sharma and Pradeep Bhagat.
What else, there's comparative study between two clients and their respective homes. A comparison between two houses, housing two different professionals from two different cultures. Moving on, there's a section on changing skyline of Paris La Tour, Guy Dolmaire High School Mirecourt, France, different views of St Louis Fort. One work is on the winner of the international composition for La villa in Marseille. Floating ecopolis, another works talks of how 1m rise would affect more than 50 million people. The last section deals with the city; the extending Chandigarh spirit of Architecture. On till 6th February at Alliance Francaise-36.
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Objet D’ ART
Electronic screens may have replaced those ivory sheets. And pen, unless it comes from the factory of Mont Blanc, lies in that forgotten cupboard. Letter writing is, of course, an art of the yore.
And the entire process of waiting for the postman to deliver a letter is something to get nostalgic about, whenever we hear Carpenters crooning Mr Postman or Beatle doing the same with Please Mister Postman. So, what is the context of bringing it all out now? We would not have, if Bheem Malhotra had not sent us, and in fact the entire city, a lovely New Year greeting card featuring a long-forgotten red letter box. “What prompted me to paint this one is its location – the red colour dominated the surrounding greenery. Where else do you find a letterbox in such a scenic place? Most of them are located near dirty corners or crowded areas. In fact I am planning to do an entire series on the old bottle type post boxes from the British era,” says Bheem. And he is not the only one. The fascination for post boxes is eternal as well as international at the same time. Way back in the eighties, Ladi, a young artist then, sculpted a huge post box during one of those art workshops. Nobody knows what had happened to it and now it exists only in the participant’s memory. The same magic of the red box has been recreated by British artist Morgan Fitzsmons in her painting, where one gets to see the red coloured box in front of a British
bungalow. Morgan who was born in north of England in 1939 is known for her illustration work for several publishers in England. Francis Robson from Northumberland, England, is another one to have painted a Victorian post box. A trained musician and composer, Robson loves to explore both through his music and art. If so far we have caught only the nostalgia, there are others who have sent out a message or two with the help of this relic box. One such artist is a former student of the Government College of Art, Sanjeev Kumar, who has painted the red box to drive home this point - how general negligence has driven both letterboxes and sparrows into extinction. Hope his painting would awaken the public and soon Mr Postman on the bicycle would once again become a familiar figure!
parbina@tribunemail.com |
Literally as well as metaphorically it’s green, for the colour is as green as the cause. Tellus Art, a Sweden-based NGO, brings to the city ‘My home, My planet’, an art exhibition and creative workshop by artists from Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Scandinavia. Pointing to the children’s display, Kishore Shankar, a volunteer, says, “We received as many as 15,000 entries from 210 schools in Asia. We chose 700 for display.” And, each had a story to tell. Elephant, tiger, zebra, all merged in the dominant backdrop of nature’s hues. As for the Fusion 10, the exhibition, brings, “Seventy artists in all, 20 from Scandinavia, 20 from Chandigarh and the rest from Haryana and Himachal.” “This is my home city and I want to bring the global artists here to raise awareness on environment. After this, we go to Africa, Sweden, South America, Austria, New Zealand…we plan on touching each continent. There are 2.2 billion kids on the planet and we want to reach out to at least one billion,” Ajmer Sandhu, founder, Tellus Art, says. Moving on and walking through the exhibits, it’s actually a fusion of works, artists and techniques. Among those displayed were Vinay Malik, Prabhinde Lall, Shiv Singh to name a few. Shares Anette C Andersson, Scandinavian artist, “I’ve painted a typical Swedish tree, which you don’t find at very many places.” Yet another thought provoking work captures a cycle, a circle and a shadow. Shares Vinay, photojournalist, the artist, “The wheel basically denotes journey. The shadow, the darkness all stands for global warming. Also how ultimately we’ll all have to cycle if we run out of resources today.” Another merges man into tortoise against the backdrop of the sea; yet another depicts plain bamboo shoots. A sparrow overlooking lush green grasslands, dense forests… the green shines through! — Manpriya Khurana On till 2nd February at the Fine Art Museum, Panjab University, Chandigarh.
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Aamir on a high
Bollywood star Aamir Khan is extremely happy that his production venture Peepli Live was received well by the audience at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, US.
“Our film Peepli Live was really well-received here at the Sundance Film Festival. We had our first screening at the Egyptian Theatre, Park City, on January 24. The audience really seemed to love it,” Aamir posted on his blog on Wednesday. Directed by Anusha Rizvi, Peepli Live is a satire on rural life in India. It features Raghuvir Yadav along with debutant actors from Madhya Pradesh. The actor, who has been conferred the Padma Bhushan, the nation’s third highest civilian honour, on this year’s Republic Day, says he was waiting for the reactions. “I was really keen to see the reaction here at Sundance as I wanted to get a sense of how a non-Indian audience reacts to the film. Ninety per cent of the audience was non-Indian. I am now even more certain that this film has the potential to engage a world audience. The big challenge, when we release the film worldwide, will be to get them (audiences) in. It doesn’t have any stars and is in a language that they don’t
understand,” he adds. — IANS |
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Ranbir, Priyanka to see Stallone
In fact, one of the temptations for them to do Sajid Nadiawala’s Anjaana Anjaani was that the producer was a friend of Stallone who featured in his last film Kambakkht Ishq. “Ranbir and Priyanka definitely want to meet him. I’m flying down to Las Vegas to join them on January 27. We’ll be meeting Stallone on February 4th or 5th,” said Nadiawala. Earlier, Nadiadwala had taken Saif Ali Khan to meet Stallone in Los Angeles. Sajid and his son Subhaan were supposed to meet Stallone during the New Year. But the actor injured his neck and the appointment was cancelled. Now a new date is being worked out. And Priyanka and Ranbir insist on accompanying their producer for the meeting. “I think Ranbir and Priyanka will kill me if I go without them to see Sly. We’ll all be driving down from Las Vegas, where Ranbir and Priyanka are shooting, to Los Angeles to meet Stallone. It’s a two-three hour drive,” said Sajid. Ranbir, a big Stallone fan, owns a series of Rocky tee-shirts. He intends to get a couple of them signed by the star. — IANS
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Over the moon!
Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan has transcended his popularity on earth and is literally over the moon with a lunar crater named after him by the International Lunar Geographic Society. According to the official website of the Society, the decision to rename the crater, earlier known as Arago B, after the famed actor came following overwhelming petitions from his passionate fans in India and around the world. The crater is located on the Moon’s Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility) district and was given the designation as the Crater S.R. Khan on Shahrukh’s 44th birthday on November 2 last year. It is located at 3.4° North (latitude) and 20.8° East (longitude) on the so-called Earthside of the Moon and measures approximately seven kilometres in diameter. The official designation of a lunar crater is a singular honour bestowed upon only a select few luminaries like Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Columbus, Sir Isaac Newton, Julius Caesar and Jules Verne. — IANS
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An epitome of elegance, the high priestess of Indian fashion industry, Ritu Kumar, is one name that embraces both the traditional and the contemporary Indian designs.
Looking for something more than just a designer home? Don' worry, you've got plenty of options to pick from at the ongoing 'Inside Outside Mega Show' at AKM resorts on Patiala road.
This one is out and out for the architectural community. And, for Indo-French relations. Bonjour India Festival, present in 13 cities of India, celebrates the Indo-French friendship and co-operation. Rendez-vous d'architectes is an exhibition promoting French architecture in India.
The exhibit put together by architect Rajendra Kumar, a Chandigarh College of Architecture alumnus, displays projects of various scales ranging from multi-storeyed high rise buildings to museums, hospitals and schools. 
And a chance of meeting him the other day reveals the seed of the painting germinated in an art workshop conducted near the Viceroy Lodge in Shimla last year. One of the relics of the British Raj of course!
Priyanka Chopra and Ranbir Kapoor, who are shooting for Anjaana Anjaani, are set to meet Rocky-Rambo superstar Sylvester Stallone.