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on record Till a few years ago, only male artists were creating art. Now, there are more women artists. A good artist does not only paint the female body, but is rather creating content in art that deals more with women than the form. Who would like to see a male nude!
When a person looks at a painting, what is he or she looking at? Surrealist painter Andre Breton raised this question - a painting looks out at something, what is it? When you read a literary content, the narrative of emotional conflict follows a chronology, you move with it, so, there is a resonance of that conflict and its release with the progression of the content. In visual art, the tension and its release are concurrent, everything is happening simultaneously. Therefore, they say artists are gifted with synesthesia - the ability to blend senses, which gives them the power to build metaphors and motifs and communicate emotions for different senses, simultaneously. What kind of content enriches art? In traditional, religious and iconographic art, the artist remains absent from the work, he is painting myths and characters and their conflicts in a traditional style handed down to him, here and there a few shades of his personal tensions may sneak in, he gets readymade content. But, as individual became more important under western influence, the artist was visible on his canvas with his conflicts and complexities. These conflicts enriched content in art. Henri Matisse used arabesque form for de-sexualisation of his female forms, to resolve his sexualised looking at his mother. Gauguin was very deceitful in real life. He had to compensate for his other failures by creating honest planes in his works. Picasso treated women as junk, and gave life to junk in his art. Back home, Husain's works are rich in emotional content. In Souza's work, his conflicted sexuality creates a fresh creative space. Where do you place Rabindranath Tagore's works? All the female portraits of Tagore have dark and melancholic faces. Tagore once said: "I want to be happy, but somehow all my portraits bear a deep sadness." All the portraits of female characters of his had Kadambari Devi's eyes, their melancholy comes in his works with his sense of loss and guilt. Kadambari Devi was Tagore's sister-in-law. They shared a deep loving relationship. A few months after Tagore got married, she committed suicide. Tagore wrote a lot about Kadambari and dedicated his books to her. He barely mentions his wife in his writings. With these works we return to the sights of his loss, and somewhere we relate to our own loss, that's why they bear a strong appeal. How important is form in art? Where does it come from? What makes art is form. It happens unconsciously. Though there are some scientific theories, too, like neurologist Dr V Ramachandran says it's a 'biological phenomenon', they explain it through the presence of certain chemicals in the brain. But others like Abhinavgupta, Kumar Gandharwa et al say art comes from transcendental unconscious, creative imagination connects these people to the universe. That's why these artists are geniuses. A lot more practising artists believe in the latter theory, that's why they call her 'muse.' Ghalib was attuned to his transcendental unconscious, so was Tagore. Science is trying to demystify muse. What does clinical psychology say about creative power of mind? These are at best, hypothesis. What makes great art is an elusive phenomenon. How does a psychoanalyst make sense of transcendental Indian art and its regressive social reality? We have taken from the West their spectacles, by losing our eyesight. We are taking only perversity, only their dross. Their quest for power of knowledge is disregarded by us. We have begun to value everything in one denomination - money. It's amazing how money has devalued everything, art and knowledge. The individual is replaced by his or her worth in money. The relational view of Indian society is lost. Social regression sets in as a complete rejection of this new value system to hold on to the old, as a kind of safety device. But we are losing on both - knowledge and transcendence. We have taken the worst from the East and West. Indian contemporary art has not been able to find its rightful place on a global platform. We have many practitioners of art and there are some very original, unique voices, but we lack culture of art. There are hardly any scholars on contemporary art, research foundations, publications, writers. We need all of them to create culture of art appreciation. India needs a school of history of art. Art is judged on the parameter of money alone, which causes great loss of multiple perspectives. Why has visual art shown an obsession for female nudes? Freud said abstinence is good for scholars, but not for art. So many artists believe the power to create comes from their sexuality. And most art stems from conflicts of sexuality, so, the obsession with female form. Till a few years ago, only male artists were creating art. Now, there are more women artists and a good artist does not only paint female body, but is rather creating content in art that deals more with women rather than female form. Moreover, who would like to see a male nude!
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The team propounded the theory that the rocky planet orbiting a nearby star was made completely of diamonds. Dr Madhusudhan feels astronomical science is vibrant and has sufficient scope for youngsters. Researchers say their discovery supports the idea that there may be carbon-rich, rocky planets whose terrains are made of diamonds or graphite. Scientists say one might see land masses and mountains made of diamonds. On such rocky planets, sand could be rare and diamonds plentiful. "India is actively participating in several large collaborations in astronomy. There is ample scope for young people to participate in these new ventures in India," he says. There are some areas in astronomy like extra-solar planets where India is yet to catch up. Explaining his finds, Dr Madhusudhan says: "This is our first glimpse of a rocky world with fundamentally different chemistry from the Earth. The surface is likely to be covered with graphite and diamond, rather than water and granite." The planet has a mass eight times greater than the Earth, making it a "super Earth," he says. Dr Madhusudhan is a mining engineer from the IIT-BHU. "Astronomy may not have been on my mind, but I always wanted to be a scientist," he says. After completing his engineering, he did his MS at the Research Laboratory of Electronics at the MIT, followed by a PhD in physics. He pursued two post-doctoral positions at the MIT and Princeton University, before moving to Yale University. He says there is a somewhat higher level of societal acceptance and more efforts by the government and media in promoting science in the West. "Young people in India tend to be highly motivated to pursue professional degrees such as engineering, medicine and business rather than basic science. I think the government, corporations and media can play a greater role in changing this outlook," he says. Diamond-studded planets have been spotted before, but this is the first time one has been seen orbiting a sun-like star and studied in such details. "This is our first glimpse of a rocky world with a fundamentally different chemistry from the Earth," Dr Madhusudhan says, adding that the discovery means distant rocky planets could no longer be assumed to have chemical constituents, interiors, atmosphere, or biologics similar to the interiors of the Earth. |
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good news HE is simplicity personified. He has been working tirelessly to promote education and environment in the rural backwaters of Punjab, an effort which also fetched him the Padma Shri award. Baba Sewa Singh Khadur Sahibwale has been enlightening the lives of thousands of children with the light of knowledge, besides breathing life into the deteriorating ecosystem of the state. Lighting up lives He does not merely impart school and college education, but also prepares students for cut-throat competition. This is evident when one visits Khadur Sahib, a small town in Tarn Taran district dotted with educational institutions and hostels set up by Baba Sewa Singh.
Baba Gurmukh Singh Uttam Singh Senior Secondary School, being run by him, has 2,230 students, out of which 400 are from economically weaker sections. These students are being imparted education free of cost. The school is run on no-profit, no-loss basis and the fee charged from the rest of the students ranges from Rs 250 to Rs 800 a month. The students have to pay a one-time admission fee of Rs 1,500. The school is equipped with state-of-the-art computer laboratories, music room, sports ground, Astroturf, and "smart" classrooms, which is a luxury in rural areas where dilapidated structures usually house government schools. The school is so popular even in the neighbouring areas that the authorities are planning to build a new block to accommodate more students. The degree college has professional courses like MSc (IT) and BCA, besides vocational courses to enable unemployed youth to earn their livelihood. Baba Sewa Singh has also set up schools in Kartarpur and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. Nishan-e-Sikhi Baba Sewa Singh has also set up Nishan-e-Sikhi, an eight-storeyed multi-crore tower to impart education and enable the rural youth to compete in the fast-paced world, with the help of Kartar Singh Thakral, a philanthropist from Singapore. It houses Guru Angad Institute of Religious Studies on the first floor, where new-generation Sikh preachers are being groomed under a five-year integrated course in Gurmat studies. The board and lodging is free of cost. Besides Punjabi, they are being taught English and Spanish so they can spread awareness about Sikhism and its principles on foreign shores. Guru Angad Dev Institute of Competitions, on the second floor, prepares the youth for engineering and medical examinations, for which the faculty has been hired from a renowned coaching academy in Kota, Rajasthan. The institute trains bright students from Baba Gurmukh Singh Uttam Singh Senior Secondary School for competitive examinations. The institute has already seen 170 of its students making it to reputed engineering colleges, two to an MBBS course and 23 to a BDS course. Now, plans are afoot to open a coaching academy to train the youth for the NDA and civil services examinations. Baba Sewa Singh is sponsoring IAS coaching of nine youths from the area in New Delhi. On the third floor of Nishan-e-Sikhi is Guru Angad Dev Institute of Careers and Courses, where girls are being trained for entrance examinations as well as physical ability test for paramilitary and police forces for the last around four years. Besides coaching, board and lodging is free of cost for the girls. The institute has carved out a niche in less than five years of its inception, with 208 girls and 43 boys from the institute getting selected in paramilitary and police forces. Plantation drive Baba Sewa Singh has planted around 2.5 lakh saplings along a road measuring 250 km. Ten water tankers, each having a capacity of 10,000 litres, and an army of volunteers water the saplings at regular intervals. He has also launched a drive to augment green cover in 100 villages of the state every year. Under the project, they plant at least two saplings (preferably neem and jamun) in every household. The project has turned out to be a huge success, with around 35,000 saplings having been planted in 76 villages in the first year of the drive.
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The PM is well read and a wise economist and Virbhadra Singh's money which has sprouted from trees can be a topic of research for him to study how money grows on trees. Taking a dig at Dr Manmohan Singh What the country needed at this crucial juncture was some revolutionary changes in the interests of the common man and not political gimmicks to fool the aam admi. Parkash Singh Badal, punjab chief minister Reacting to the Union Cabinet reshuffle There's a lot of responsibility to captain in IPL. You are answerable to many questions. It's better to captain the country. Nobody would phone you and ask what went wrong. Sourav Ganguly, cricketer Announcing his decision to quit IPL I'm very impressed by Shashi Tharoor's answer. I think a ministry of love affairs should be made for such an international love guru so that the country can also gain from his wisdom. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, bjp leader Reacting to Shashi Tharoor's tweet I am ready for any probe against all allegations. Let Robert Vadra also face a probe. Why is Robert Vadra not ready for an inquiry like me? Why is the Congress not investigating him? I'll fight a legal battle and come out clean. Nitin Gadkari, bjp president Refuting charges against him |
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Sudhir Kakar
A
team of scientists led by Dr Nikku Madhusudhan, a 32-year-old Indian scientist at Yale University, has discovered a diamond-studded planet, twice the size of the Earth, called 55 Cancri e. It orbits a sun-like star in the constellation of cancer and moves so fast that a year there lasts a mere 18 hours. Its radius is twice that of the Earth and a mass eight times greater. It is also incredibility hot, with temperatures on its surface reaching 1,648 degrees Celsius. 
Among these are a higher secondary school, a degree college, a BEd college, an institute for religious studies, two institutes for competitive examinations, and a hockey academy. 
Brinda Karat, cpi politburos