Where Are We Headed?

In our present times, we have succumbed to the practice of introspecting ourselves and the general state of affairs around us, only on special occasions or certain days. Why can’t we do this on a day-to-day basis. Today is the 65^th anniversary of our country gaining its independence and  there are many questions in my mind.  As a nation who and what are we?... What do we stand for?..... What is the meaning of freedom? I regret to admit but, I am quite confused.

My wife thinks that my teaching career comes with its own set of occupational hazards, questioning everything, seeing things in black and white or simply as good or bad. Being an artist is just a cherry on the cake, making my case terminal. As an artist and as an individual, I was there at the cusp of change, which our country has witnessed during last couple of decades. How I understand things is through visual culture or what I see and hear, and through my expression. In today’s newspaper (Hindustan Times, HT City Edition- Chandigarh) I came face to face with article titled “Cost of Freedom” by Usmeet Kaur and illustrated by Diljeet. I do not know these people personally. I did not read the article because I was struck silent and was riveted to the illustration. Ironically, the article which also read Voice of Youngistan, had blatantly copied the iconic World War II photograph titled Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal. The photograph had obvious alterations. It was presented as an illustration with the tri color replacing the American national flag. It appears that our treasure of imagery is either bankrupt or inaccessible, or simply the Indian images are not as patriotic and dramatic as the American images are. We today are ready to plagiarize and steal images towards article that gives words to what is original, when it comes to our freedom and what India stands for. I am amazed by the kind of lackadaisical attitude of the writer and the editor who failed to verify the authenticity of the illustration. I am assuming that the 11 Murti statues or the iconic b/w white image of young Bhagat Singh sitting on the “manji” shackled were not glorious enough. Hail the internet and its use. 

Illustration by Diljeet and Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal

I was recently watching the movie Terminator Salvation. In our recent history, I have not seen any movie that has portrayed a human “Voice” and the medium of radio propagating the spirit of revolution so efficiently. The movie has also depicted radio signal as a powerful and destructive tool. It also reminded me of Amin Sayani from yesteryear's.

Today, when we are constantly barraged by imagery and voices, we are unable to register the subtle nuances that may define the quality of a particular voice, sound or image. I only listed to radio while driving to work and I only drive twice a week to work. RJ Meenakshi of 94.3 My FM, while having invited kids in the studio, was unceremonious enough to discuss the IPL 2012 finals and Poonam Pandey’s  publicity charade. I felt sane, when none of the young participants responded. More recently when the entire media was applauding the recent medal haul by India at the Olympics 2012, RJ Meenakshi jumped on to the band wagon and glorified MC Mary Kom (bronze medalist in women boxing – 51 KG flyweight category) for heralding the dawn of women power and in the end thanked her for her valuable contributions to the sports of “Wrestling”.

11 Murti in New Delhi and Bhagat Singh's iconic image

Do these questions occasionally knock at your conscience? I’m sure they do. Then again we start thinking about our rights, responsibilities and duties, while conveniently keeping the chronological sequence of these three crucial words flexible. 16^th August is going to be just another day. The absence of the daily news papers will be the only change in our mundane life. We will be sore about going to work, and we will again choose to be selfish over selfless, silently taking a vow of mediocrity and to never be exceptional towards ourselves, our nation and its people. Everything today seems to be mediocre. Such a senile attitude is alarming. I hope that there are others who are noticing and are raising questions.  Do we want to build ourselves and inevitably our nation upon such a foundation?  To my amazement, while I was editing this write up, one of the popular TV channel was showcasing the movie “Krantiveer” starring Nana Patekar. It was the end part of the movie where Nana Patekar is about to be hanged. Dramatic enough, at the gallows he makes a last ditch effort to instigate mass soul searching among his countrymen.    

* title borrowed from http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/01/30/reviews/000130.30conwayt.html

Changing Ethos

I am an artist and an academician. It has been almost a year since I moved back to India. During this time, I have been reintroducing myself. Everything seems to have undergone immense change, including me. My memories of Chandigarh, my home town, seem to be fading. Chandigarh is losing its character at an alarming rate. I often wonder if I have lost some of my identity as well over these years. My art and recent state of mind are responsive to this change. My first work since my arrival dealt with the notion of “deterioration”. While making art, I have been able to resurrect many haunting questions. Questions are good. They provide us with an opportunity to explore an uncharted territory.

Sometime around my arrival a year ago, hundred and tenth birth anniversary of the artist Sobha Singh was celebrated. For those who are unaware of who he is, Sobha Singh is a painter equivalent to Warner Sallmen who painted the famous “head of Christ”. Sobha Singh saw god in himself and I mean it in a very artist-anatomical-observation kind of way. Many of his creation, I feel are a visual reflection of himself. He is singularly responsible for providing Sikhism with the imagery of its Gurus’ and a visual identity. While writing the last sentence, I recalled how Baba Ram Rahim Singh, of Dera Sacha Suada sect in Punjab once adorned a dress similar to that of Guru Gobind Singh, an act that instigated riots.

In New York, I briefly met Sobha Singh’s great grandson, who appears to have been born and brought up in the U.S. He was suave, clean shaven and married to an “Asian” woman, (the west somehow does not categorize Indian women as Asians). He was a qualified architect and was running a consultancy that did not involve architecture. On bringing up Sobha Singh, he clearly seemed to relish the recognition, yet remained unresponsive. I felt I was putting him on the spot…. on a good spot. I wonder what his real and presumably unshared thoughts were. That reminds me, if someone is really reading this (apart from my wife and one of my students), please Google “Roots of Love”. It is a fine short film, which documents the transforming identity of today's Sikh youth. It is co directed by one of my colleagues.

My commute to where I teach takes around forty five minutes to an hour. With the ever expanding Chandigarh, village Jhansla - tehsil Rajpura and its vicinity has become an education hub, if not one of its suburbs. I prefer to travel by the university bus primarily because driving ceases to be a pleasurable experience in and around Chandigarh. The lush green fields appear to have been swallowed by abrupt and random apartment buildings. It is an urban planning conundrum.

Apart from noticing the unplanned expansion, what I see on the roads is a plethora of expensive foreign cars. However, as a “visual culture” junkie, I am always captivated by the graffiti and stickers that adorn trucks and buses of mass commute. Out of all the images it was the turbaned image of a Punjabi youth with a random slogan that caught my attention. The stylized imagery was remarkably similar to one of the images of college going Bhagat Singh in paghri. I have also seen images of Bhindranwale, which is of course alarming indicator of an unhealthy undercurrent. Let’s get back to Bhagat Singh, the true son of soil. Interestingly enough, on close scrutiny I found that the image is a hybrid of Bhagat Singh’s image and the famous Chandrashekar Azad’s Image. I highly doubt if such a synthesis was intentional. "Serendipity" does this word ring a bell. In addition to the stickers, the turban style has also found place in popular Punjabi music videos. If only Bhagat Singh could travel into future to see today’s India. The over indulgence of our consumerist society today would not have fared well with his communist ideals. Instead of the gallows he would have rather chosen a humble nine to five government job, got married to a women rather than "Azaadi" and fathered children.

I began with Chandigarh and ended up with Bhagat Singh. Many lament Bhagat Singh has been forgotten. While remembering him on the 23^rd of March every year, many of us feel that all the dues to the nation and its hero have been paid. Just wearing a T-Shirt with Bhagat Singh’s image won’t work anymore. It is important to evoke similar sentiment as well. Once you adorn Bhagat Singh or any other freedom fighter on your garment, you carry a sentiment and certain responsibility that accompanies it. One cannot forget Peter Parker's wise word - "With great power comes great responsibility." By the way, I have finally managed to engage our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in my writing.

However abrupt, I feel the thoughts as narrated are sequential. It is a second home coming for me and everything seems to be gibberish. Interestingly, such a scenario educes a child like spirit of inquisitiveness within me, appealing to further explore our ever changing ethos. I hope my art will be able to reflect this rethinking and rediscovery. I will stop writing now. Writing is tough.

Story behind the name ISHRA

I was recently asked “what is the meaning of your daughter’s name ISHRA?” So I went as far as I could down the short yet eventful memory lane of three years or so and tried to recollect. I still remember how it felt like the first drizzle of rain, when Vandana told me that our family was going to grow. I will always cherish the moment. I pondered how our lives would be transformed, like a flourishing landscape after monsoon. In our case the lush bounty of a life was to stay forever.

Amidst immense pressure, Vandana started her quest for a Childs name, which had to be unique, modern, easily pronounceable, never used before …the list was limitless. After knowing that we were going to be blessed with a daughter, search for the name got more focused and intensified.

As a Brahmin, if not a devout one, I wanted my daughter to have a name that personifies Hinduism and instill in her a sense of Identity, conveniently forgetting the fact that she would be an American citizen. I strenuously if not religiously, scanned the entire Shrimad Bhagwat Gita, only to find that apart from the divine truth, it is also a great store house of boy names.

And then one day, my wife with a sparkle in her eyes enquired “how does Ishra sound? “ It was refreshingly new, at least to me. Her hard work had paid off. To set the record straight, I give my wife whole and full credit for naming our first born. “Ishra” as a name, relates to names/words such as Ishvara, Ish,Isht, Eish and Shri Ishwar Das – a prominent name in Vandana’s ancestry and Ishri Devi from my side.

However, a concise yet serious research narrowed our search down to Ishvara, which is directly related to Ishra. The meaning of the word Ishvara translates as “The Controller of the Cosmos”, the cosmic Mind, the Manifest Divinity, and the Supreme Being. The word Ishvara contains both the words ISH and RA, which when combined form the word ISHRA, our lovely daughter’s name. In Sanskrit RA is the acoustic root of fire. RA also connotes with light or spiritual light.

Vandana and I, both have our values deeply rooted in the Indian ethos. We strongly believe in the spiritual philosophy of our Vedas, which nurtures introspection, re-interpretation and re-evaluation in order to attain the new that embodies an un-denying and omnipresent truth. We both, as individuals engaged in creative professions, wanted a similar notion to guide us in determining our daughter’s name.

My daughter Ishra will turn two and half years on 13^th July, 2011. Yes, she was born on the thirteenth day of the first month of the year, one of the most auspicious day in Indian calendar i. e. Makar Sankranti or popularly known as Lohri in Punjab. ISHRA is the truth of our life. ISHRA means Gods Light that shines on us and manifest as Almighty’s Blessing.