What happens when a die-hard journalist turned passionate storyteller decides to stop being a hermit crab and go mingle with folks? She meets interesting people who do interesting, crazy, funny and adventurous things with their lives. Now that she has handed over the manuscript of her new book to her publisher, our favourite Fiesty@Fifty columnist is determined to spend the next few months charging up her own creativity listening to the stories of an eclectic lot of Pune folks who, she says, awe and inspire her with their creativity. Meet the #StoryCatcher on Pune365 every other Tuesday
It is not every day that I am brave enough to take on Pune’s crazy peak hour evening traffic and head out anywhere. I am glad I did it last evening though and headed out to Pune art lovers, Mona and Lisa Pingale’s lovely artistic space, for the inauguration of Sujata Bajaj’s Ganapati show.
Maybe it was the nip in the air that heralded the onset of a real winter in Pune or maybe it was the setting itself – Monalisa Kalagram is a charming, free-flowing artistic space set amidst lush greenery- but the weariness of a hectic working day and commute to the venue disappeared the moment I arrived.
Those who know Sujata will know she is a Pune girl, even though she grew up in Wardha. It was in our city that she studied arts and painting and it was here too that she did her first solo at the Bal Gandharva Art Gallery, at the insistence of one of her teachers at SNDT. Sujata was in the middle of her arts course but took up the challenge, burning the midnight oil till she had a collection ready to show. That solo show, held 28 years ago, marked the beginning of a long and memorable journey that has taken the artist and her work to various corners of the world where her work is appreciated and lauded. The Puneri girl made Paris her home in the late eighties after she went there on a scholarship to hone her talent but says a bit of her forever belongs to Pune.
Sujata’s Ganapati exhibition, meanwhile, is an awe-inspiring collection of the benevolent elephant God in his many forms, a labour of love that she has been quietly working on in her studio back in Paris, for an unbelievable 30 years. Her fascination with Ganesh began over three decades ago, when an accident laid up in bed for weeks; bored and restless after a couple of days, the young girl doodled on pieces of paper and each time the doodle ended up in the form of Ganesha. An abstract colourist –her signature style is her stunning use of colours- not many would have imagined the artist would come up with a collection a project on her beloved God. The Ganapati exhibition , as it stands today, is an extensive collective of painted fibre glass sculptures, mixed media works, drawings, etchings and collages of Ganesha in various forms.
“I feel a sense of complete freedom and liberty in abstracting Ganapati’s image. No other form lends itself as vividly to the abstract,” the artist said last evening to a gathering of Pune art lovers including Arti and Atul Kirloskar, who inaugurated the show.
The artist had a lovely anecdote to share with the gathering about her first solo and her association with the Kirloskar family. Turns out her debut solo show had been inaugurated by Atul Kirloskar’s father, Chandrakant Kirloskar who, impressed with the young artist’s work, decided to encourage her by buying three of her paintings from the show. “They were the first paintings I had ever sold. When he gave me a cheque of Rs 1800 for the paintings ,I felt like I was the luckiest, richest girl in the world.”
In my college days, I used to be intrigued and fascinated by the many forms and representations of Lord Ganesha and started collecting Ganesha figures; my magnificent obsession continued till the practicalities of life, such as finding space to keep my ever-growing collection, made me give it all away to friends and family a few years ago, albeit with a heavy heart. The exhibition brought back memories of my own personal journey with Ganesha and I was happy I made it to the inaugural event.
Last evening, I also ran into a lot of interesting folks, many of who I had lost touch with because of my propensity to become a hermit crab while I am writing a book. I ran into Lisa’s father, horticulturist Suresh Pingale, who is hon sec at Empress Gardens and learnt that the sprawling green lung is all set to have an art gallery, an environment centre and an orchidarium, thanks to a generous donation from Bajaj Auto Chairperson Rahul Bajaj, who is also current President of the Empress Gardens. Pune’s own Orchid maven, Sumantai Kirloskar, will lend her knowledge about orchids to give shape to the orchidarium, while architect Christopher Charles Benninger will conceptualise and implement the entire project.
I have always said that Pune city has made scant use of its many gardens and green areas. It was with this intent that I started my Writing In The Park Project, an initiative to get people out of their homes, off their gadgets and exploring their creative sides while communing with nature. The first of these workshops was held at Empress Gardens on a winter morning a couple of years ago, when a group of 30 young boys and girls sat under the shade of age-old bamboo thickets, writing and sharing stories , as a mild winter sun stole in through the dense foliage and wrote crazy patterns around us.
An art gallery in a garden is wonderful idea and I can’t wait for it to take shape. Finally, there will be something to do on lazy Sundays, that does not include eating copious amounts of food, shopping mindlessly or watching an inane movie. There is nothing like a day spent surrounded by art and in the company of artistic folks.
You can reach her on sudhamenon2006@gmail.com or her twitter handle@sudhamenon2006
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