Living in the Now. Weekly Column. 27.10.23

 

Living in the Now | Mrinal Chatterjee | 26.10.23

Raja Ravi Verma: the artist who brought Gods to millions of Homes

Raja Ravi Varma (29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906), whose 175^th birthday is celebrated this year, is considered as one of the pioneers of Indian Modern Art. However, he would be more remembered as a man who brought Gods to the home of ordinary men and women of modest means. Using self-taught European naturalism, he visually reinterpreted the Indian mythological characters, Gods and Goddesses to give them a ‘real’ look and feel. It is like bringing them from the unreachable lofty pedestal to the easy reach of common masses.

Raja Ravi Burma

Born on April 29, 1848, in Kilimanoor, village in the princely state of Travancore (now part of present-day Kerala, India), Raja Ravi Varma's artistic journey began at a young age, with his talent for drawing and painting evident from an early age. He received formal artistic training under Rama Swami Naidu, a well-known painter of the time. Varma's artistry soon caught the attention of the then-Maharaja of Travancore, Ayilyam Thirunal, who became his patron and supported his artistic endeavors.

One of Raja Ravi Varma's significant contributions to the world of art was his unique style that combined Indian sensibilities with European techniques. He was among the first Indian artists to adopt oil painting as a medium, a technique he learned from the Dutch artist Theodore Jensen.

Varma's works were known for their realistic portrayal of human figures and the use of bold colors, making his paintings distinctive and evocative. His compositions often depicted mythological and historical subjects, religious deities, and scenes from Indian epics, capturing the essence of Indian culture and mythology.

He also made efforts to make his paintings accessible to the common masses by printing them. He established a press in Bombay in the late 19^th century and got many of his paintings of Gods, Goddesses and scenes from puranas printed. These lithographs made Varma's art more accessible to the masses and popularized his works across different regions of India. His portrayal of gods and goddesses in these prints helped to redefine the visual representation of Hindu mythology and played a significant role in shaping the modern Indian visual culture.

Goddess Laxmi by Raja Ravi Burma. Oleograph print.

Raja Ravi Varma's artistic genius also extended beyond the realms of mythology and history. He was known for his portraits of royalty, nobility, and prominent personalities of his time, capturing their likeness with precision and artistic flair. Some of his notable portraits include those of the Maharaja of Travancore, the Maharaja of Mysore, and renowned poet Rabindranath Tagore. His portraits were highly sought after and adorned the walls of palaces, mansions, and art collectors' homes.

He also made significant contributions to the field of printmaking and sculpture. His sculptures, though relatively fewer in number, were highly detailed and reflected his mastery over three-dimensional art forms. His prints and illustrations adorned various publications and book covers, adding a visual dimension to literary works.

Apart from his artistic achievements, Raja Ravi Varma was also a social reformer and visionary. He was an advocate for women's education and fought against social evils like caste discrimination and child marriage. He believed that art could be a powerful tool for social change, and he used his art to convey messages of social relevance and cultural importance.

Anjali Shreekumar in her interesting paper titled ‘Nationalism through Raja Ravi Burma Paintings’ maps the contribution the paintings made in the rise and shaping of Indian nationalism.

Raja Ravi Burma also helped to usher in modernism in Indian art. As Ms Shreekumar writes, “His pan-Indian iconography, the use of depth and light for perhaps the first time in Indian art, his insistence on not being limited by geography as he travelled extensively to princely kingdoms and the outposts of Empire to seek commissions, providing in the bargain the stimulus that stirred the movement that would lead, inevitably, to the rise of Indian modernism.”

 

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Window Seat, 29.10.23

Sikkim Express, Gangtok, 29.10.23

 

Window Seat. Weekly 'slice of life' column, 29.9.23

 

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 29. 11. 23

Gram Swaraj

Recently I was invited for a discussion on ‘Mahatma Gandhi and rural India’ on television.

Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi was a city born (Porbandar in Gujarat) and city educated (London) person whose professional commitment took him to Durban in South Africa. It was only when he came back to India on the advice of Gopal Krishna Gokhle, one of the pioneers of freedom movement in 1915, toured extensively across the country to ‘see’ and ‘know’ the land and its people- that he realized the need and potential of rural India.

However, a blue print of the emancipation of India was in his mind since 1909 as he wrote Hind Swaraj which brought together his three basic themes of swaraj: self-respect, self-realisation and self-reliance. In privileging the rural over the urban, Gandhi was arguing for a minimal state, since he saw the state essentially as an instrument of violence. 

As Gandhi got a feel of rural India, appreciated its problems and potential- the thought of Gram Swaraj gradually crystalised.  

Gram Swaraj (village self-rule) is the central concept of Mahatma Gandhi for India’s rural reconstruction and development. This concept was later further developed by Vinoba Bhabe and others. Gram Swaraj promotes conversion of every village into a self-efficient autonomous entity where all the systems and facilities for a dignified living are available. It envisages a decentralized form of Government where each village is responsible for its own affairs, as the foundation of India's political system. It envisages creation of self-sufficient and self-governed villages, which can look after the basic needs of its people like decent livelihood, food, shelter, health, education, justice dispensation system, general sanitation and general well-being based on ethical and spiritual constructs. In this village women will be respected and there will not be any discrimination based on caste or religion. Egalitarianism will be a social practice.

Gandhi penned his first thoughts on Gram Swaraj in his book Hind Swaraj, which he wrote in just nine days, aboard a ship while he was travelling from London to South Africa in 1909. It contains his thoughts and philosophy on several subjects. It is also often cited for its considerable influence on the Indian freedom movement along with Satyartha Prakash (1875) by Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Anand Math (1882) by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhay, Unhappy India (1928) by Lala Lajpat Rai and several other.

His ideas were later crystalized as he actively practiced experiment of rural reconstruction in Champaran in 1917, Sevagram in 1920 and Wardha in 1938. He also urged his followers and colleagues to focus on rural reconstruction.

The question that is often asked: how relevant are Gandhi’s thoughts regarding Gram Swaraj in present post-modern times?

I’ll try to answer this in the next week in this column.

Howrah station    

I live in a small town in central Odisha with a recorded history dating back to 16^th century with less than one lakh population. Kolkata’s present population is about 2 crores - that is 200 times more than Dhenkanal, Mumbai and Delhi are even more. I have been living here for over 23 years now, and have gotten used to open space devoid of crowd. The railway station wears a deserted look most of the times of the day.

In stark contrast, Howrah station, which I visited recently, was teeming with millions. For record, Howrah Junction, located in Kolkata (opened to the public in 19905), is the busiest railway station in India, serving over one million passengers per day. It has 23 platforms, making it one of the largest railway stations in the country.

It was so crowded that at one point I felt completely disoriented. Then standing beneath the grand old clock I forced myself just to look around as if you did not exist, or exist like an inanimate object like that old signboard. And then it made sense. You discover a pattern in the seeming madness. You notice a cancer patient with tubes taped to his blackened nose waiting to board the train on an overcrowded platform, two young lovebirds chattering sweet nothings to each other oblivious of the din around, some people having a nap right on the platform, even as thousands of passengers are passing by. You see the kaleidoscope of life and realize: life in deed is beautiful.

Vitamin Lassi   

I saw a board at Bhubaneswar road side: Vitamin Lassi.

Lassi may have some ingredients which may have vitamin in it. It may also have protein, carbohydrate, and loads of fat. Some minerals also could be found.

But foregrounding only ‘Vitamin’!

Why, bro, why?

I could not ask, as the shop was closed.

Life Insurance

The way the smart executives explain the benefits of life insurance, it seems you earn more profit being dead, than alive.

 

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Pathe Prantare, Weekly column in Odia. 29.10.23

Samaya, 29.10.23. 

 

Article in Odia. Oct. 2023

Anibhab. Oct 2023

 

Fiction (Short Story) in Odia. Oct. 2023.

Shovana Oct. 2023

 

Window Seat. Weekly Column. 22.10.23

 Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 22. 10. 23

Durga Puja of Cuttack

That Durga Puja is a big festival in Bengal is a known fact. Kolkata, which has a 300 year old tradition of ‘sarbajanin’ (community) Durga Puja, wears a colorful look and with its 1000 plus puja pandals turns into the biggest open air art installation in the country. From depicting partition trauma to recreating the works of Sukumar Roy, to creating a pandal with the theme of shadow- the puja  pandals are feast for the eyes of art connoisseurs.

Cuttack in Odisha also has the tradition of ‘community’ Durga Puja that goes back to 16^th century. Legend has it that it was Sri Chaitanya Dev, who visited Cuttack in 1518 and stayed at Binod Behari Temple started Durga Puja. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose started community Durga Puja in Odia Bazar, where he was born.

Over time Durga Puja in Cuttack has turned into a big festival, celebrated by all communities. The main attraction of Durga Puja in Cuttack are the idols adorned with silver filigree ornaments, which is a specialty-craft of Cuttack .

Nirendranath Chakravorty@100

Birth centenary of Nirendranath Chakrabarty, one of the path breaking poets of Bengal began on 19 October. He was born in 1924 at Faridpur district of undivided Bengal in 1924. After graduating from the University of Calcutta, he started working in newspapers. He became known for his poignant poetry and sharp prose.

One of his most well-known poem is ULAGNA RAJA(The Naked King). He was conferred Sahitya Academy award for an anthology of poems titled Ulagna Raja. He also wrote extensively for children, a trait many Bengal litterateurs have had from Bankimchandra, Rabindranath to Sunil Gangopadhaya and Samaresh Bose.

Kishore Kumar

Kishore Kumar is arguably the most-heard male play-back singer of Bollywood. More than three and half decade have passed since he died on 13 October 1987 on the day of his brother Ashok Kumar’s birthday. But his songs are still uber-popular.   

Kishore Kumar was not only a playback singer but also an actor, composer, lyricist, and director.

Born as Abhas Kumar Ganguly on 4th August, 1929 at Khandwa, now in Madhya Pradesh into a wealthy and educated family, he was not institutionally trained in music. But he became arguably the most popular voice of Bollywood. He started his cinema career as a chorus singer at Bombay Talkies, where his brother Ashok Kumar, by then an established hero, worked. Music director Khemchand Prakash gave Kumar a chance to sing "Marne Ki Duayen Kyon Mangu" for the film Ziddi (1948). He never looked back.

He was eccentric and moody and had his share of problems with the Government during the emergency. So much so, his songs were not played on AIR for a long time. He was  uber-romantic. He married four times. His first wife was His first wife was Bengali singer and actress Ruma Guha Thakurta aka Ruma Ghosh. Their marriage lasted from 1950 to 1958. He married Madhubala in 1960, even as she was suffering from cancer. Their marriage ended with Madhubala's death on 23 February 1969. Kumar's third marriage was to Yogeeta Bali, and lasted from 1976 to 4 August 1978. Kumar was married to Leena Chandavarkar from 1980 until his death.

Caricature by Uday Mohite

Hemis Monastery

Hemis monastery in Ladakh was first established in the 11th century by the revered Tibetan Buddhist master Naropa. It was later re-established in the 17th century by the Ladakhi King Sengge Namgyal.

Situated little far from Indus river,  nestled in the breathtaking landscapes of Ladakh this monastery  this ancient monastery is a harmonious fusion of Tibetan architecture and Buddhist traditions.

It observes a 2-day religious ceremony in June known as the Hemis Festival. This festival is celebrated in honour of Padmasambhava, who, it is believed hailed from Odisha.

I visited the imposing monastery in early September this year.

 

 

Tailpiece: Ladli

Saw this morning at the back of a Haryana registered truck: Jija ki Ladli.

Translated into English, it reads: Elder sister’s husband’s darling.  

Papa ke Ladli suna tha; aab “ Jija ki Ladli’!

Mera desh badal raha hai!

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Pathe Prantare. Weekly Column. 22.10.23

 

Window Seat. Weekly ’slice of life’ column. 15.10.23

 Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 15. 10. 23

Kumortuli

Located along the Hoogli river, Kumortuli (meaning potter's colony) in northern Kolkata, carries a 300 year old tradition of clay idol making. Durga Puja being the largest celebration in Bengal, Kumartuli gets hyper-busy in the days before the puja begins.

Kolkata has had the tradition of Durga Puja from the early 17^th century. Since 1610, the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family has been organizing Durga Puja at their residence in Barisha, Kolkata. This is probably the oldest Durga Puja festival in Kolkata. Nabakrishna Dev started Durga Puja at Shobhabazar Rajbari in 1757.

It was Raja Nabakrishna Deb who brought skilled kumors (potters) from Krishnanagar, the traditional seat of the skilled potters about km from Kolkata to create idols of the goddess. He settled them at the banks of Hoogli river, so that they could easily get the required clay. Thus began the tradition of Kumortuli.

Photo: Mrinal Chatterjee

Presently, there are over 600 artisans in Kumartuli. They hire over 5,000 labourers every year. There is a very high demand for the idols made here. A medium-sized Durga idol along with her four children and the Mahisasura costs around Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.3 lakh and can go up to Rs 1.8 lakh.

According to the old traditions, the practice of Idol making begins on the day of “Rathayatra” after offering prayers to Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi. To make the idols they follow three basic patterns. First, they make the main framework out of bamboo or wood with the exact required size and shape. Then they cover it with straw to give a basic structure to the idols. Then they cover it with clay which is said to comprise ten types of Clay. The last part is painting the idols and decorating with bright coloured clothes, accessories, and artificial weapons before they are finally taken to the “Puja Pandals” across the country and even abroad.

Kumortuli gets hyper-busy before the Puja. The narrow lanes and by-lanes are filled with idols in different states in the making. Many people visit Kumortuli during this time just to see this. I also went this year. I found the place extremely crowded with camera wielding people of different age-groups; and young men and women taking selfies with their phone camera. Bloggers and Youtubers, in increasing numbers, are visiting the place. This camera wielding crowd is gradually becoming a menace for the potters, who are trying to get on with their works. 

Remembering Akshaya Mohanty

Akshaya Mohanty, popularly known as Khoka Bhai, the legendary singer-music composer of Odisha was born on 12 Oct in 1934 at Bankimundai village of present  Kendrapara district. At the age of 22 in 1956, he joined Government services in Cuttack, a city he would later be identified with. By that time he was an approved lyricist of All India Radio, (AIR), Cuttack. In 1959 he became an approved composer of AIR, Cuttack.   He quit the government job after seven in 1963 and made music his full time profession. 

He recorded his first song Gadiala Bhai Dharichhi Sura Re in the 1950s. His first song as a playback singer was Gori Gori Gori in the 1959 Odia movie Maa. There was no looking back after that. He composed music for over 75 films, sang countless number of songs, acted in few films and composed path breaking music for radio.

He also wrote stories and novels. He has written over 100 stories and 12 novels, many of which were published to both popular and critical acclaim.

Akshaya Mohanty became a legend in Odisha. Interestingly he was so rooted in the city of Cuttack, that he hardly explored other horizons; though he sang some Bengali songs, which were quite popular.

He died in Cuttack on November17, 2002.   

Internet

In just 40 years, the Internet has almost monopolized the communication ecosphere at a global level.

January 1, 1983 is considered the official birthday of the Internet. Prior to this, the various computer networks did not have a standard way to communicate with each other. A new communications protocol was established called Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP).

However, its seed was sown in the sixties. Arpanet was the first real network to run on packet switching technology (new at the time). On October 29, 1969, computers at Stanford and UCLA connected for the first time. In effect, they were the first hosts on what would one day become the Internet.

Internet and mobile phone were launched in mid-1995 in India. In less than three decades it has occupied the central position in the communication ecosphere.

The fascinating history of India Post

October 10 was the National Postal Day. The close to three hundred years old postal history of India is closely tied to its political history. Britain’s involvement in the postal services of India began in the eighteenth century. Initially the service was administered by the East India Company who established post offices in Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta (now Kolkata) between 1764 and 1766.

First Postage Stamp of India. 1947

East India Company and the British Post Office in India opened the posts to the public in March 1774, when Warren Hastings was the Governor General of British India. Prior to this the main purpose of the postal system had been to serve the commercial interests of the East India Company. Serving economic and political needs of the ruling authority remained a driving force in the development of the postal service. The Post Office Act (1837) reserved the government the exclusive right to convey letters in the territories of the East India Company.

In 1850 a uniform postage rate was introduced. Previously charges had been calculated on weight and distance; after 1850 charges were calculated dependent on weight alone.

From the late eighteenth century political power began to slip away from the East India Company. The Company was finally abolished in 1858 and India became a Crown colony ruled directly by Parliament. In addition to managing the postal services of British India, the Post Office was involved in the transmission of correspondence between England and India.

In the 1820s Thomas Waghorn began investigations into improving mail routes between England and India. This led to the establishment of the overland route between Alexandria and Suez. Mails had previously taken three months to reach England, but Waghorn’s letters accomplished the same journey in just 35 days. Letters conveyed by Waghorn carried their own cachet ‘Care of Mr Waghorn’. After ten years of Waghorn’s efforts the British Government and the East India Company were convinced of the viability of this route and took it over.

Tailpiece: Nuggets from Kumortuli

The handwritten poster in Bengali put up at an idol making shanty at Kumortuli, Kolkata reads: ‘Readymate’ Dugga Ma available.

Photo: Mrinal Chatterjee

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Pathe PRANTARE. Weekly Column in Odia. 15.10.23. Samay Taranga

 

Samay Taranga  15.10.23. 

Living in the Now. Weekly Column. 14.10.23

 

Living in the Now | Mrinal Chatterjee | 12.10.23

Empathy Deficit

and why we should be concerned about it

Remember the horrific incident of a brutally raped twelve year old girl begging for help on the streets of the holy city of Ujjain and nobody coming forward to assist her. The poor bleeding girl walked till she fell unconscious. It happened early October this year.

The question that immediately comes to mind: why didn’t people help her? What prevented them? The answer is loud and clear: lack of empathy and social responsibility.

Oxford English Dictionary defines empathy as “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.”  Empathy goes beyond sympathy, which is broadly defined as understanding how someone else feels.

Empathy enables us to actually experience those feelings for ourselves. We feel the emotional pain of others as if it was our own. There is a Sanskrit word which comes quite close to it: samabedana (sama means same, and bedana means pain). There is another word in Sanskrit: sahanubhuti, which means the same feeling (sama means same, anubhuti means feeling). However, in English it translates to sympathy.

Studies in neuroscience have discovered that the key brain regions which evoke empathy in a person appear to be the amygdala, which is involved in the regulation of emotional learning and the reading of emotional expressions, and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which activates when people experience their own pain or observe others in pain. But the most important region of all is the medial prefrontal cortex (MPC), also known as the prefrontal lobe. A "hub" for social information processing, the MPC modulates self-awareness and our awareness of other people's thoughts and feelings. It also appears to play an important role in "marking" certain emotional experiences so as to provide us with emotional shortcuts to actions that are positive and therefore likely to be rewarding.

These discoveries show that empathy is hard-wired and that we are primed for morality, hence the writer Jeremy Rifkin’s claim that these circuits are the source of humanity's desire for "intimate participation and companionship".

This finds resonance with several Indian seer’s claim of the basic goodness of human being and also with Scottish Enlightenment philosopher Adam Smith's notion of a "moral sentiment". As Mark Honingbaum writes in the Observer ..(they) have come to regard empathy as intrinsically pro-social. When we empathise, they argue, we mirror the distress of an "other" and, unless our brains are damaged or we are developmentally abnormal, we are moved to alleviate their suffering. The result is that, like other modern moral sentiments such as trust and altruism, empathy is increasingly seen as a "social glue" and the evolutionary basis of human cooperation.

Empathy is vital for the running of a civilized society. Empathy is important for developing social relationships and being able to live with others. In fact empathy has often been termed as social glue- that binds the members of a society- even if they are not personally related or even know one another.

So why are we experiencing this downward trend in empathy levels, especially in young people? There aren’t any clear answers to this question.  Some experts are suggesting ICT (Information Communication Technology) may be largely to blame.

ICT may make communication easier and more frequent, however,  it promotes only superficial connections rather than the deeper connections you can only get in person. As Dr. Michele Borba, author of UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World, puts it: “It’s very hard to be empathetic and feel for another human being if you can’t read another person’s emotions. You don’t learn emotional literacy by facing a screen. You don’t learn emotional literacy with emojis.”

The second reason could be the constant push to succeed. To be rich, at any cost. To acquire material possession- at any cost. And to be happy at any cost- as if happiness is a physical entity and one can buy it with loads of money. This misguided and fallacious notion of success and happiness is making us soulless morons.

Empathy is the bond on which human civilization sustains and thrives. Without empathy the bond slackens, and so does the growth and advancement of the civilization. Without empathy, we stop growing and gradually regress. Presently we are in a peculiar situation- call it an existential crisis. Our body and science are in the twenty first century- poised for even further development. But our mind is regressing to the middle ages. A me-only existence will give rise to a hollow civilization.

Therefore, we need to practice empathy- at individual level, at family level, at community level and at societal level. Nature has endowed us with empathy. We need to let the feeling flow and translate it into action.

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https://www.odisha.plus/2023/10/empathy-deficit-and-why-we-should-be-concerned-about-it