Sudharak Helena at Cymroza art gallery

yesterday was a big day for the 17 women who are taking up Photography classes with sudharak olwe and me. the ninth day of the workshop was held at cymroza art gallery, mumbai India, where

sudharak and helena is holding their two person show of photography exchange.

well this does not seem to be an official reporting of the art event or show.

i have been always conected with this workshop as part of the learning and teaching and it always gives me a great pleasure to be in a workshop as life is a workshop.

here the pictures are of the gallery.

roti kapda makan aur condom

Me painting on the great wall of Mumbai..... thank you Times of India thank you Deepak Mer, Vijay Lakshmi, chinti and thank you Priyanka Borpujari and The wall project here is the news in Times of India Tulsi turns over a new leaf The Great Wall of Mumbai from Mahim to Dadar now sports everything from Warli to Wacko and social messages sprayed with humour: roti kapda makan aur condom Mahafreed Irani I TNN One of the city’s longest walls running down the length of Tulsi Pipe Road was splashed with colour and humour on Independence Day. From the early hours of the morning, over 50 Mumbaikars armed with spray cans, chalk sticks, roller brushes and witty slogans turned into muralists. Initiated and organised by the BMC and The Wall Project, a group of Mumbai graffiti artists, the idea was to allow the public to beautify and bring to life an inviting but drab 2.7-kmlong surface along the railway tracks that is now being hailed as The Great Wall of Mumbai. The painting session will continue on Sunday, with a new bunch of painters being mobilised through Facebook and Orkut to leave their writing on the wall. The BMC is providing all the gear—paint, spray paint, buckets, mugs, stools, chalk, brushes, thinner and gloves. Drinking water and chemical toilets are also at hand. In her pink track suit and baby-pink crocs was four-yearold Kaira Arya, who woke up early and drove in from Juhu with her parents just so that she could paint 25 sunshine yellow smileys. By noon, the wall from Mahim to Matunga was a rainbow of diverse art ranging from Warli figures to free-flowing designs and pixel art to typography and geometric logos. Street children, doodlers, calligraphists, office-goers, tourists, expats, college students and people from the neighbouring buildings showed up to slap on some paint. Among them was additional municipal commissioner R A Rajeev with his children, Amartya, 8, and Arundhati, 3, both of whom doodled away assiduously. “This project is an extension of the BMC’s Clean Up movement,’’ says Rajeev, who thinks this is the “least cost alternative’’ to beautify the city. It was he who approached The Wall Project when he read about how they had turned the compound walls of a few Bandra cottages into murals. He hopes the graffiti bug will spread to the city’s subways too (so much better than paan stains!). Walls along Mahim’s Kataria Marg and the southern end of Lower Parel’s Senapati Bapat Marg could be next in line for brush hour. Walking up and down were Wall Project’s Nisha Jacob and Nitya Amarnath to make sure the rules were being followed. “No adverts, religious writings, political slogans or foul language,’’ they warned. ‘I love Mumbai’ and ‘Swine Flu go back’ messages were clear favourites. Suzanne Percy and family drew a stick figure of a boy carrying bricks with the effective message, ‘This is how Raju uses his head. Each one, teach one.’ Undecided and looking for a theme to paint, Hemal Gala looked in his pocket for inspiration and found a sticker of Michael Jackson. “I’m a big fan,’’ he said, pointing to his sketch of a moonwalking Jackson. Helping Gala were British tourists Nick Wade and Natalie Hough. They talked about the hugely famous and best-selling London graffiti artist Banksy, who has to use guerilla tactics to dodge the law. “Banksy is not allowed to do what he does,’’ says Wade. “It’s great to see the civic administration give sanction for such art here.’’ The Tulsi mural joins the Mumbai marathon in being a secular community initiative that brings all kinds of Mumbaikars together. The contrasts were stark. On the one hand were street and slum children drawing rangoli designs, on the other were youngsters and advertising types in funky jeans and chattai chappals piling out of cars with loud music. Many Sir JJ School of Art and Sophia College fine art students were among them. Happiest of all was Rishad Ali who is sick of parking his towing truck against a wall where people either spit or urinate. “Now my area will look good,’’ he said in a satisfied voice, and sprayed on a fluorescent red heart on the wall. (Painting will go on from 9.00 am to 8.00 pm on Sunday) URBAN LEGENDS Priyanka Borpujari and Ravi Shekhar tweak the title of a Big B starrer; Hemal Gala pays tribute to the King of Pop

who is an Artist ?

artist is the person who takes the risk of living life according to his/her own understanding.

he is coureagious person, who is ready to make mistakes. and life blesses him on a very different level.

the most important change is- he / she does not have fear.

and enjoys every mystries.

in the process of living his/her life- whatsoever he/she does is art.

that may not be a painting or a song.

in fact art happens within you.

but then no one can market it.

search is the art which can be bought and sold.

so the problem is with the people who market art.

not with the artist.

artist can be happy creating and sharing it on the net.

see

people create wonderful forwards these days

is it not creative?

are they not artist?

corporate world want the icon to sell.

the real art survives the test of time.

Mahabharat have survived the thousands of years.

the greatest story!

which writer can stand with that kind of monumental work.

here people are trying to convince and educate others- what is art- and who is artist....

nobody knows

the name of artist

who painted Ajanta

carved Ellora..

or

wrote Upnishad....

urge to create

makes you the creator

the artist!

Ravi Shekhar' s Drawings

'carry bag with a lock'

pen & ink drawing on archival paper

based on my own photograph.

this friday

mumbai is witnessing the highest tide in the history.

while, i am witnessing the lowest in finencial front.

but life is flux, busy and full of surprises.

i went to dahanu with nachiketa radhi and other friends, not knowing that this may start a new chapter in life.

there i met Hemant Babu and Michellel Chawala of Nomad India.

they are into community radios.

and soon i will be able to explore my hidden talent broadcasting too.

hemant is in the business of setting up low cost transmiters in the different part of the country.

and he felt i will be of some help in trainging people fir creating there own programs.

( he saw two short films on the sunaday evening)

and here i am...

thinking about my early pre-telivison days, when i had a great romance with the radio.

i was a hard core AMEEN SAYANI fan and got selected as a drama artist for ALL INDIA RADIO varanasi, after failing the test twice.

along with SUDHARAK OLWE and PRIYANKA BORPUJARI, i am the part of training 17 women ( i do not want to write that they are muslim and atleast married once, as priyanka wrote in her report. )

we had three sessions so far. and yesterday , they had their first experience of shooting pictures with holding Nikon D3, the most reputed and expensive digital camera of the time.

i will write more about my experiences of these workshops with images.

I promice to myself !

words from a friend

My friend Nachiketa desai invited me to spend a weekend with other friends at Dahanu.

i met great people who smile and laughed with my camera.

Nachiketa wrote these words for me on orkut !

thank you Nachi for so much love !

Nachiketa

The Philosopher Photographer

I met Ravi Shekhar in 2000. I was the editor of indiainfo.com's multi-lingual portal and was looking for best of talents who could contribute to the Hindi portal. Ravi, essentially a photographer, had worked for the Hindi weekly Dharmayug and the Illustrated Weekly of India. Indiainfo had a section on 'religion and spiritualism' and another on 'travel and tourism'. Ravi volunteered to write for both the sections. I had not seen his writing and wanted to check out his writing talent.

Ravi returned after two days and handed me an article on the city of Mumbai. The feature on Mumbai had a very refreshing air about it. Since then began our journey together. I must admit here that a factor that drew me endearingly towards Ravi was his Banaras connection. Banarasis are in general 'mast maula' - carefree.

Ravi had come down to Mumbai in 1989 to work with a photo studio which had some ambitious expansion plans. After he helped the owner expand the studio, Ravi was told to go back to Banaras because the studio could not afford to keep him occupied full time. Ravi decided to slog it out in Mumbai.

Ravi started working as a freelance writer-cum-photographer for the Times Group's two most respected weeklies - Dharmayug and the Illustrated Weekly of India. Impressed by his work, the Illustrated Weekly of India offered him a full time job as the staff photographer.

During the course of his work as a photographer, he came to know about Vipassana, the Buddhist method of meditation and self-exploration. He was also attracted to Osho's philosophy. His photography took him all across the country, while his spiritual inclination helped him look inwardly.

Ravi is an amiable person who makes everyone he interacts with comfortable. He radiates peace and harmony. This gets amply reflected in his photography and writing as well.

Ravi, thank you very much for capturing those lovely photographs!

he wanted me to meet TOBI

it was a surprise!

we are at press club-

we means-

ravi, sudharak, priyanka and surendra rao,

we should have called Pooja too!- says sudharak.

but this , he was telling me 6.30pm in the evening.

i was there with him at VT.

he has asked me to meet in the evening to sit in the press club for the drink!

and i reached.

i did not know why we are going to drink?

he wanted me to meet TOBI,

a german photographer, who was in the city for last seven days, shooting mumbai.

he is on the world tour shooting 11 great cities around the world

he reached mumbai after shooting, cario, narobi, dubai, cape town,

and he will be going to bangkok, shanghai, tokyo and new york.

the pictures will be used with an music orchestra to be staged in muninch in september.

and i shook hands with tobi at press club.

he is a very tall man well built and energetic.

he is a musician and performs on the stage as clown.

he was a mechanical engineer before breaking away to his creative talent.

he showed us the photos of the cities he has shot.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT

he is carrying a folding bicycle with him.

so for the shoot he goes on his small bicycle.

we came out of press club.

his bicycle (size of the wheels were much smaller than a children's bicycle but with 7 gears) was parked out side the gate.

he is a comic character!

we say him all the best for his future journey!

and he paddled away!