Art That Creates Positive Impact

The members of Bangalore-based rock band Thermal and a Quarter talked to The Better India about their 20th anniversary and raising funds to give musical training to underprivileged kids. If you’ve lived in Bangalore for more than a year then you would know that Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ) is a band that is eponymous with the rock music scene in the city. Guitarist Bruce Lee Mani and drummer Rajeev Rajgopal formed it while they were in college in 1996.

To celebrate 20 years of its existence, during which time the band has released seven studio albums, performed in venues across the world and trained scores of talented musicians, TAAQ has decided to provide 1,500 underprivileged children with holistic training in music.

What made the band take up this cause? Rajeev says, “While there are plenty of ways in which we can celebrate staying together, we realised that on a special occasion we’d like to make a difference. We’ve always been inclined to perform songs for social causes and we also enjoy teaching music at TAAQ Academy. So that’s how the idea of providing music education to underprivileged children struck us.” Rajeev and Bruce established TAAQ Music Academy in 2010, when they left their corporate jobs to pursue music full-time. Bruce, who was an English professor at Christ University and a music teacher earlier, wanted to sustain a thriving ecosystem for music production to support talented musicians. The academy employs around 30 musicians and Bruce feels it has allowed many of them to make viable careers out of music. The students who are enrolled in this academy have already produced albums and even performed at international venues like Carnegie Hall in New York. Rajeev says, “It is a premium and exclusive music academy; we conduct music programmes in international institutions and that’s what got us thinking – why should only the rich or privileged benefit from musical training? The advantages of learning music are really huge and shouldn’t be restricted to one section of society.”

The band members are of the opinion that musical training will not only improve the psychological condition of the children by building their confidence and promoting team building, but will also help them transform feelings of unhappiness and loneliness to hope and creativity.

How are they going about this project? Bruce says, “Our first move was to contact prominent NGOs that are working with underprivileged kids in the city. This helped us narrow our focus to three schools – Sri Vidyanikethan School in J P Nagar, Drishya Learning Centre in Byappanahalli, and Sri Ayyappan Nursery and High School in Benson Town. This project has a small target group right now but we’re hoping that if it gathers enough momentum we’ll be able to rope in more schools and train the kids over a longer period of time.” The children will be exposed to both classroom sessions and after school workshops. The classroom sessions will be conducted for classes of 25-50 students each. But, with such a large number, how do the instructors hope to pay individual attention to the students? Bruce says, “If you’re teaching a student an instrument, a large classroom setup doesn't work for obvious reasons. So, during the classroom sessions, we teach music theory, composition, and appreciation, thus exposing them to different styles of music. Once this is done, we’ll conduct auditions in each classroom to identify musical talent among the kids; if they show aptitude for a certain instrument, or if they can sing well. And those kids will be later enrolled in an after-school programme, where they will be given personalised coaching on how to play an instrument. They will also be put in different groups depending on their skill sets, much like the practice at TAAQ Academy, because we do not want to cover just one aspect of musical training.”

The band is not new to raising money for causes that it feels deserve more attention. In 1999, when the Kargil war broke out, TAAQ raised money for the soldiers’ families through concert proceeds. Ten years later, the band collaborated with an NGO called Janaagraha to raise awareness about the importance of voting.

Bruce says, “We went on a five-city tour to appeal to young citizens of the country to participate in the elections and we wrote a song called ‘Shut-up and Vote.’ In 2012, when the Commonwealth Games scandal broke out, we wrote a song about that and requested people across the country to send in music videos. Yes, we aren’t activists but artistes, and the way we respond to things is only through our art. We’ve tried to be socially conscious through our art because we want people to receive important messages in an entertaining format.” And it looks like their approach to activism has been highly popular with the masses – not just because of their huge fan following but also because of the fact that it has only been six days since the campaign was launched and the team has managed to raise 25% of their target already. Rajeev says “The crowdfunding model works perfectly for artistes who want to give back to the world in a meaningful manner. As soon as we came across a credible website like fueladream.com, and an experienced team, we decided that this is how we’re going to raise money.” The proceeds will cover the salaries of the teachers, musical instruments for every school, worksheets for the children, and the cost of recording songs for the students at the TAAQ studio in Whitefield, Bangalore. If you think music should be more than just an extracurricular activity in the lives of children in need, donate here.

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Harpreet is an independent musician who is bringing back the voices of India’s forgotten classical Hindi and regional language poets through his music. Thanks to Jagjit Singh and his soulful voice, we today know a number of poems (shayari) by Urdu poets by heart. Many people may not have read Ghalib or Faiz Ahmed Faiz or Sudarshan Fakir, but we still sing their shayari unknowingly when we hum along with Jagjjit Singh. Similarly, our country is blessed with writers who have composed exquisite poems in Hindi and other regional languages. Legendary poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s poem ‘Kurukshetra’ is counted among the 100 best poems in the world. But even some of the most literate people in India are not aware of the accomplishments of Dinkar and other Hindi poets – the uncelebrated heroes of our classical literature. However, one musician is doing for classical Hindi and regional poetry exactly what Jagjit Singh did for Urdu poetry. He is popularizing it by picking some of the best and purest Hindi compositions and setting them to music in his own inimitable style, to the strings of the guitar.

One such composition is ‘Badal Raag’ by the great poet Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’.

https://youtu.be/qzXymuA1XY8

“I had never read these poems, not even at school. A friend of mine just wanted me to compose something about the monsoon. I could think of nothing so she gave me some poems to read. Nirala’s ‘Badal Raag’ was one of them. When I read it, I felt like no one had written anything better than this on the beautiful season. I kept reading the poem for the rest of the day. Finally, when I picked up my guitar, the music just happened,” smiles Harpreet.

This is how he worked on most of his other songs too. Poems by Pash and Faiz - as well as Baba Bulleh Shah, Nirala, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pash, Dr. Shiv Bahadur Singh Bhadauria, Dr. Gurbhajan Gill, Kaana Singh, and Varun Grover - remained with him for more than a year; he kept reading them again and again until they became tunes on his guitar.

Thirty-year-old Harpreet was born in a farmer’s family in Sherpur village in Karnal district of Haryana. His father loved singing Bollywood songs and this was his only exposure to music.

When Harpreet was just six, he started playing the toy keyboard that his father had bought for his older brother. Just like any other child, the first song he learnt to play on the keyboard was ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. But, to everyone’s surprise, little Harpreet soon started playing the keyboard to the tunes of the songs his father sang. Harpreet continue to enjoy this simple and playful childhood in a joint family in the village, until his father and uncle, in order to give a better education and future to their children, sold off their ancestral land to move to the nearest town Nilokheri near Kurukshetra. Life was no longer easy because the family now faced a financial crunch. By this time, Harpreet was also well-known among his teachers as a good singer but a weak student academically. He would hardly study. All he wanted to do was play music and he played whatever instruments he could lay his hands on.

“I wanted a better keyboard but there was no money to buy one. So, instead, I started playing my cousin’s guitar,” says Harpreet.

Finally, with great difficulty, Harpreet finished his schooling and took admission in a diploma course for civil engineering. But his heart continued to remain in music and, instead of studying engineering, he spent his time teaching the students at college how to play the guitar. Within a year, Harpreet quit the diploma course and started going to Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in Delhi to learn music. He would travel 6 to 7 hours from Kurukshetra to Delhi everyday just to attend an hour’s class.

In 2002, after losing his father, his first teacher in music, Harpreet found solace in music yet again. He moved to Delhi and learnt to play the tanpura and received some classical music training from his guru, Diwanji.

But academics and Harpreet were not made for each other - he failed the music exams too.

“My mother and my brother did not want me to pursue music as a career. But they gave in when they saw how dedicated I was. However, they were naturally surprised when I failed the music test too. They expected me to do riyaz every morning since I was a musician. But all I wanted to do was to learn music and play music. I had no interest in getting a formal education or degree,” laughs Harpreet.

And the real struggle began here. Harpreet had no money to stay in a city like Delhi. Some days he would get some money from his mother and on other days from his friends, until he got some work.

“I would not step out from my room for days. I would go out if I had money and stay back if I didn’t. But I never got bored or tired. I enjoyed my ‘alone’ time with music. I utilised this time by practising on my guitar or playing the keyboard all day long,” says Harpreet.

In order to make a living, Harpreet started singing covers at a club and also started performing at gatherings. The applause from the audience encouraged him and gave him confidence. He started writing and composing more songs of his own. But mostly, he composed his music around the writings of famous poets, unknown poets and even playwrights. But this was also a time when he could barely make ends meet. And yet, his craving to buy and learn more musical instruments was not yet fulfilled. Once, he borrowed someone’s flute, played it, and decided he really wanted one.

With no money to purchase a flute however, he made one from a PVC pipe and composed the song ‘Gopala Mori’, which became his first big hit on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L5uJhhjHXk

“A flute would have cost me Rs.5000 to Rs.6000. I thought, ‘It’s just a pipe with holes. How can I pay so much money for it?’ So I just made one for myself. It was pretty easy, I just made holes wherever I keep my fingers while playing a flute,” he says.

After the success of ‘Gopala Mori’, there was no looking back. Harpreet rocked every show he participated in with his compositions from Pash, Baba Bulleh Shah, Nirala, and many other poets. He got opportunities to compose music for plays and even puppet shows by Dadi Pudumjee. He had indeed arrived as an independent musician and he received invitations to perform at prestigious music festivals all around the country.

Harpreet got his biggest break when filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee heard him sing at a show. He became the voice of his cover song ‘Kutte’, for the film Titli in 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OtM1us3Sjg In May 2015, Harpreet launched his first album, Ajab Ishq Mati Da, with its different flavours of music. Harpreet is trying to bring back other languages to the current generation also in a more contemporary format.

His recently released song, ‘Ghah,’ based on a revolutionary poem by Pash can give goosebumps to the listener.

Ghah, which means common grass in Punjabi, is compared to the youth of the day… “I am grass and I will do my job. I will grow everywhere, on everything you have done. You can bomb the universities You can bring down the hostels to mere debris But what would you do about me I am grass… I will grow everywhere!” Listen to this terrific song here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHe9HJekJVc

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Ankit Chadha, a writer and storyteller talks to The Better India about reviving an ancient Urdu storytelling form called Dastangoi. Dastangoi is an ancient form of storytelling in Urdu that would have been erased from the collective imagination of Indians if it hadn’t been for the dedicated efforts of the renowned Urdu scholar S. R Faruqi, his nephew Mahmood Farooqui, and the latter’s protege Ankit Chadha. Ankit Chadha, a storyteller talks to The Better India about reviving an ancient Urdu storytelling form called Dastangoi. Dastangoi is a compound of two Persian words – dastan, which means tale, and goi, which is the act of narrating the tale. Initially, the stories revolved around the adventures of Amir Hamza, the uncle of Prophet Mohammed. This oral storytelling tradition became very popular in India but it almost disappeared with the death of Mir Baqar Ali, the last known exponent of Dastangoi. [embedvideo id="k5CCLxfUVP8" website="youtube"] Ankit started performing Dastangoi only in 2010. Before this, he had written and performed street plays in Hindustani, while studying at Hindu College in Delhi. Ankit had always been fascinated by Urdu but it was only after he discovered Dastangoi that he started training in the language. With no formal training in performance or literature, Ankit says, “I gained proficiency in this art form largely through listening to and training with Mahmood Farooqui. While the art form has been very often labelled as ‘dying’, I noticed that it had immense potential to be used as a medium to tell a variety of stories that I find moving.” [embedvideo id="OxEEWmwTvsw" website="youtube"]

The overwhelming response Ankit received while initially experimenting with Dastangoi (on intriguing themes such as the mobile industry in India), reaffirmed his faith in the format. So he quit his corporate job and dedicated himself to research and writing of new content in the dastan narrative style.

Given that the practitioners of Dastangoi are using a form of storytelling that was considered dead in the 20th century, how do the performances appeal to contemporary audiences? Ankit says, “The frame in which Dastangoi is presented is traditional. The audience sees a person in 19th century charming attire, speaking a forgotten language that offers aural delight. At this level of the form, the struggle is to move from incomprehensible to intriguing. If we educate our listeners by creating the right mix of the beautiful Urdu that flows from Persian and the Urdu that they already speak (and hear in the Bollywood lyrics), you've got them hooked. Similarly, at the level of content, the contemporary story might be something that they would have probably heard or read about in the news. It is the treatment of the theme in Dastangoi and the alternative narratives that the presentation puts forward, which changes the way our audience responds to it.”

One of the most appealing things about the Dastangoi format is that it doesn’t require an elaborate set; the performer needs only a microphone and an enthusiastic audience.

Ankit says, “The minimalist setup was one of the main things that attracted me to Dastangoi. The form allows its practitioner to be independent. You need no resources – lights, sounds, costumes, properties, space, or even a team. It also brought me closer to a different kind of writing – writing for oral narrative storytelling. When you know that all you have is the story and your voice, you make the most of these things.” [embedvideo id="MhZkKEltCts" website="youtube"] Of late, Ankit has been including tales such as Alice in Wonderland and using references from various scholarly essays such A.K Ramanujan’s Three Hundred Ramayanas. His narratives often trace historical events, while making jibes at conservative political ideologies, such as in Dastaan-e-Sedition. Where does he get his material? He says, “Each story deserves a different research approach. For my biographical dastans on Amir Khusrau and Dara Shikoh, the research included a lot of scholarly readings and I was fortunate enough to get generous support from academics like Sunil Sharma and Supriya Gandhi. For the dastan called Society on the Internet Access and another on pastoralist lifestyles, the work involved a lot of field research, which meant travelling to remote villages and witnessing the stories that are being lived on the ground. And then there is literature like The Little Prince, the adaptation of which requires a deeper engagement with the text. Usually, it is a mix of all these approaches. The story leads you in the direction of research. What remains a core part of all research for creating a dastan piece is the search for oral literature - meeting people who carry the stories and traditions passed from one generation to the other.” Ankit feels that performing for children is special because they remind him about the basic premise of storytelling – to believe the storyteller. He says, “They surprise you by opening up interpretations and possibilities that you did not know existed. Dastan Alice Ki was the first modern adaptation of Dastangoi for children. Mahmood Farooqui's adaptation compounded Carroll's classics Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass into one tale that regaled kids and adults alike. It was a unique opportunity for me as a performer because, with no precedence, we had to come up with an innovative style of storytelling with this shift in the audience profile. It was great fun to see how our bodies and voices became much more animated to suit the story and its listeners.” ankit-chadha

Almost a century ago, Dastangoi was a popular form of entertainment for all classes. But how about today...can people from various social backgrounds still be a part of this tradition? Ankit says, “Even today, many stories told in this form appeal to people from all classes. However, with television and mobile internet becoming almost a universal phenomenon, the way people experience entertainment has become less social. Moreover, this attitudinal change has led to a significant fall in the value that the traditional ways of storytelling were given. I still believe that the richness of Indian folk will bring us back to the stories of our soil. As the breed of storytellers starts growing, the listeners too will realize the joy of celebrating in togetherness. Of course, this means that the art form is practised beyond cities, in villages, and in community spaces other than modern spaces for performance like the proscenium theatre.” It is essential to the storytellers that their art engages with cultural politics continuously. When Ankit and his team performed Dastan-e-Sedition on the JNU campus in February 2016 (during student protests), one of the listeners made a very pertinent point. Ankit says, “She said when certain meanings are being bestowed on the idea of nationalism, stories remind us that everything is meaningless if it conflicts with the idea of humanity. Stories cannot amend unfair laws or provide food to the poor. But they give voice to what many want should remain unseen.” [embedvideo id="rgEOJQhBavc" website="youtube"] Ankit’s latest performance will be in Bangalore on October 23, 2016. He says, “Dastan Jai Ram Ji Ki shows, in the context of the Ramayana, how multiple narratives circulate in the world in place of a singular one. We must very carefully choose what and whose story we are telling.” To book tickets for his performance click here.

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"I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being." - Oscar Wilde

A fusion of music, dance, drama, stylized speech, and spectacle, folk theatre is a composite art form with deep roots in local identity and native culture. An important indigenous tool of interpersonal communication, this form of theater reflects the social-political realities of its time. India has a long, rich and illustrious history of folk theatre. In ancient times, Sanskrit dramas were staged at seasonal festivals or to celebrate special events. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, actors and dancers were given special places of distinction in the courts of several Indian kings. For instance, in the 18th century, the tamasha folk theatre was patronized by the powerful Peshwas of the Maratha kingdom. The Maharajas of Travancore and Mysore also competed with each other to establish the superior talent of their drama troupes. The maharaja of Banaras was the producer and patron of grand ramlila, a 31-day play based on Ramayan with spectators numbering in thousands!

This led to the infusion of local myths, costumes, and masks into the ancient form of drama, resulting in the evolution of diverse regional styles of folk theatre. This tradition continued in the princely courts of India even under British rule.

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A folk theatre artist getting ready for performance[/caption] In the absence of urban theatre in most Indian cities (with the exception of metros like Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru), folk theatre has kept the rural audiences entertained for centuries. It has also played an important part in the growth of modern theatres in different languages. Bhartendu Harishchandra, the 19th-century drama writer who is also known as the father of Hindi theatre, used to combine folk conventions with Western theatrical formsthat were popular at that time. Rabindrabath Tagore's plays reflect the influence of baul singers and folk theatre too. [caption id="attachment_72187" align="aligncenter" width="800"] devendrasharma_sultanadaku

Nautanki[/caption]

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Today, folk theatre is considered an art form that keeps the basic elements of a drama intact, while taking on the stories and flavours of the region its stems from. This very aspect makes folk theater a vibrant and vital aspect of India's intangible cultural heritage.

While some folk theatre forms like raslila, nautanki and ramlila are recognized all over the country, there are some which, in spite of being equally amazing, remain largely unnoticed. Here is a list of 12 beautiful yet lesser known folk theatre forms from across India.

1. Koodiyattam

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Koodiyattam[/caption]

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One of the oldest traditional theatre forms of India, Koodiyattam follows the performative principles of the ancient tradition of Sanskrit theatre. However, it has its own distinctive characteristics that are firmly rooted in the culture of Kerala. This theatre was traditionally a part of temple rituals performed in sacred theaters, called Koothambalams. In 2001, Koodiyattam was officially recognized by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

2. Yakshagana

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Yakshagana[/caption]

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Yakshagana is a popular folk theatre form of Karnataka with a long history of nearly four hundred years. It is a unique harmony of musical tradition, eye-catching costumes, and authentic styles of dance, improvised gestures and acting, with its extemporaneous dialogue holding a wide appeal. The themes are generally derived from the mythological stories and epics. Traditionally presented from dusk to dawn, this folk theatre is predominantly seen in the coastal districts of Karnataka, especially the Kasaragod region.

3. Swang

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Swang[/caption]

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A popular folk theatre form in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, Swang is centered around music. In this folk theatre, religious stories and folk tales are enacted and sung by a group of a dozen or so artistes. Characterized by loud rendering of dialogues and songs (a legacy of its open air performances in the past), Swang has two important styles - one that belong to Rohtak (performed in the Bangru language)and the other that belongs to Haathras (performed in the Brajbhasha language).

4. Bhand Paather

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Bhand Pather[/caption]

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The centuries old traditional theatre form of Kashmir, bhand pather is a unique combination of dance, music and acting. Satire, wit and parody are commonly used in this folk drama that incorporates local mythological legends and contemporary social commentary. Traditionally, the performances begin in the evening with a ritualistic dance called chhok. The play unfolds gradually after this and ends in the early hours of the morning. Interestingly,the performers or bhands dance to the tune of specific instruments like the mukam, swarnai, dhol and nagara.

You May Like: The Man Who is Reviving an Ancient Urdu Storytelling Form Using Sufism, Ramayana & More

5. Ankiya Naat Bhaona

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Ankiya Naat Bhaona[/caption]

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Bhaona is a presentation of the Ankiya Naat, a one-act play that has its roots in rural Assam. A creation of Srimanta Sankardeva (an Assamese saint-scholar), these plays were written in Brajavali, a unique Assamese-Maithili mixed language, and are primarily centered on Hindu diety, Krishna. The dialogues, costumes, ornaments, entry and foot movements of bhaona are unique and set this theatre form apart from others in India.

6. Tamasha

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Tamasha[/caption]

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A traditional folk theatre form of Maharashtra, tamasha flourished in the courts of Maratha rulers of the 18th and 19th centuries and attained its artistic peak during the reign of Baji Rao II . It has evolved from the folk forms such as gondhal, jagran and kirtan. Unlike other theatre forms, in tamasha, the female actress is the lead performer and the chief exponent of dance in the play. Classical music, the lightning fast footwork of the lavani dance, and vivid gestures of the performers gives this folk theatre a distinctive charachter.

7. Therukoothu

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Therukoothu[/caption]

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A unique form of rural entertainment in Tamil Nadu, therukoothu literally means street theatre. Some influence of classical Sanskrit drama on it is apparent. Performed in the open, mostly during temple festivals in villages, this theatre primarily draws from mythological stories and epics. The performance includes lively dances and songs sung in a high pitch by the male actors (even the female roles are played by males) who wear wide colorful costumes, sparkling shoulder plates, elaborate head-dresses and thick bright make-up.

8. Jatra

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Jatra[/caption]

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The jatra, also popular in Orissa and eastern Bihar, originated in Bengal in the 15th century as a result of the Bhakti movement - it was initially known as Krishna jatra due to Chaitanya's (spiritual founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism) influence. Over the years, the jatra repertoire swelled with love stories and socio-political themes. While initially this theatre was primarily musical, today, jatra performances consists mainly of action-packed dialogues with few songs.

9. Bhavai

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Bhavai[/caption]

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Bhavai is the traditional theatre form of the Kutch and Katiawar region of Gujarat. Subtle social criticism laced with humour is the speciality of this theatre that also uses instruments like the bhungal, pakhaawaj, rabaab, sarangi and manjeera. This folk theatre is as much a dramatic form of entertainment as it is a kind of ritual offering made to the Hindu goddess, Amba. The genesis of bhavai is traced back to a 14th century Brahmin priest, Asaita Thakar, who is believed to have written as many as 360 bhavai performances out of which only 60 survive today.

10. Dashavtaar

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Dashavatar[/caption]

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Dashavatar is a folk theatre form practiced by farmers of the Konkan coast, especially in the Sindhudurg district of of Maharashtra and the North Goa district of Goa. In dashavatar, the performers personify the ten incarnations of Vishnu, the Hindu God Vishnu of preservation and creativity - Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Varaha (boar), Narsimha (lion-man), Vaman (dwarf), Parashuram, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki. It is traditionally performed after midnight during the annual festival of the village deity. Apart from stylized make-up, the dashavatar performers also wear masks of wood and papier mache. The performance is accompanied by three musical instruments: a paddle harmonium, tabla and zanj (cymbals).

11. Karyala

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Karyala[/caption]

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A traditional folk theatre form of Himachal Pradesh, karyala is normally performed around the Dussehra festival, i.e. in October-November. With local variants all over Himachal Pradesh (banthada in Mandi, budechhu in Sirmaur and bhagtu in Kangra), karyala generally derives its theme from the daily life and concerns of the villagers. The open-air performance is prefaced by virtuoso drumming, uses minimal props and often incorporates dance and comic acts.

12. Ramman

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Ramman[/caption]

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Ramman is a ritual theatre that is a part of a religious festival in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. Every year in late April, the twin villages of Saloor-Dungra in the state of Uttarakhand (northern India) celebrate a religious festival in honour of the village deity, Bhumiyal Devta. An eponymous art form unique to these villages (it is neither replicated nor performed anywhere else in the country), ramman is made up of highly complex rituals that involve the recitation of a version of the epic Ramayana and various legends. This is also accompanied by the performance of local songs and masked dances.

Also Read: In This Tiny Karnataka Village, Farmers and Shopkeepers Debate over Shakespeare and Kalidas

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Plastic drums, paint cans, buckets, glass bottles and throw away junk – what do you get when you bring all this together? “Music!” say the rag picking children of Mumbai’s Dharavi slum. Every day, Mumbai sees - yet ignores - thousands of rag-pickers who go about collecting trash from beaches, railway platforms, and other public places. This huge mountain of trash is then brought to the slums, the unofficial recycling hubs of the city. The rag-pickers are doing Mumbai a huge service by collecting and segregating the city's waste. Vinod Shetty, a labour lawyer in Mumbai, started noticing how these rag pickers worked – they are the most unrepresented labour force of the city, their working conditions are harsh and dangerous, and there are no labour laws to protect them. Moved by what he observed, Vinod decided to work for the betterment of the rag-picker community, which is at least 1 lakh strong. He founded Acorn Foundation in 2005 towards this vision. Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia, is home to a majority of these rag-pickers. Noticeably, a large number of them are children. Vinod wanted to bring some educational and recreational element into the lives of these children who, otherwise, lead very tough lives. That’s how 'Dharavi Rocks' was born, a cheerful and heartening initiative that makes music out of the very junk the children collect.

The typical blue drums that Mumbaikars use to store water, paint cans, sticks, glass bottles, metal caps, and what not – the children transform this junk into musical instruments.

“The band brought together children who came in right from the streets. We have children who were drug addicts, who stole things, who ran away from their homes, etc. But deep within, they are simple fun-loving kids. We wanted Dharavi Rocks to become an educational platform for these children,” says Vinod. In a tiny room in the Dharavi slums, some of these children started practising. The spirited junk percussion sounds attracted more children who joined in. Soon, Dharavi Rocks became a band of 20-25 children in the age group of 8 to 18.

The children would finish their daily rounds of garbage collection, or work at construction sites, and come running to the shanty room to make music that is fun and upbeat.

They started learning together. They made their own musical instruments. Some of their innovations, like soft drink cans filled with rice grains, are very popular. As they drummed and clinked on the things they collected through the day, they also started stealing the hearts of Mumbaikars. Abhijit Jejurikar, a young musician, was thrilled with Vinod’s efforts and joined the gang to train the children. Soon, the band of bacha log started performing on stage (50 plus events to date). Musicians from across the country and from abroad took time out to mentor the children. You may also like: Meet the Ludhiana Advocate Who Runs a School for Ragpickers in a One-Room Slum Hutment Sheetal Rathore, a 15-year-old drummer with the band, says, “Dharavi Rocks has helped me build my self-confidence. Going on stage was a great experience. We met so many stars like Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Katrina Kaif – they were all so encouraging and nice to us. We learnt our music from all the musicians who did workshops with us. Teachers like Suneeta Rao and Abhijit sir taught us discipline and patience. We owe all this to Vinod sir and Acorn Foundation who believed in us poor kids from Dharavi and gave us a new life and fame. I am now confident of securing admission in college and continuing my higher studies in economics.” Vinod was insistent that the band would have a ‘floating team’. “As the children get older they take up jobs and leave the band, making way for the younger children. In this way we have been able to keep the children grounded in their fame and have been able to nurture the talent of more and more children.

"Through the band, the children have also become ambassadors who create awareness about recycling, reusing and better waste management in the city," says Vinod.

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Vinod Shetty with the children of Dharavi Rocks band[/caption] Apart from the recreation the band provides the children, this musical platform is also where they overcome inhibitions, learn leadership skills, and learn to work as a team. ACORN takes interest in supporting the children in academics and sports. Indeed, there is a tremendous amount of positivity that emanates from the notes of the junk that is drummed and strummed under this unique and heart-warming initiative. You can contact Dharavi Rocks at dharaviproject@gmail.com.

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This November, about 200 musicians from around the country will get together to spread love, music and communal harmony in Bikaner. And the Superintendent of Police will be there to support them. This is how! “I attended the Malwa Kabir Yatra in the years 2010 and 2011. And that inspired me to find out more about the folk and oral musical tradition in my hometown, Bikaner. I started researching and realised that the tradition is very much alive in and around the city. We have the culture of sacred gatherings called jagrans where people and musicians come together at night and take part in satsangs (company of true people) -- singing folk and Bhakti songs together,” says Gopal Chauhan, a music lover who later went on to organise the first Rajasthan Kabir Yatra in the year 2012.

Rajasthan Kabir Yatra is a travelling music festival celebrating the spirit of mystic poems and songs. A group of musicians travel in and around Bikaner and their aim is to spread the power of Bhakti and Sufi music and poetry.

"These yatras (journeys) are a critical celebration of the spirit of Kabir and other mystic voices through film screenings and live music concerts, bringing mass rural audiences together with folk singers, scholars, activists, artists, and students from urban India," says the Yatra website.

The second edition of the Yatra has been scheduled for November 11-16, 2016. About 200 musicians from across the country will travel for six days and the Yatra has a twist this year. It is being organised in partnership with Bikaner police – they will help take it to those villages that recently witnessed instances of communal violence, to spread the message of peace and bring people together.

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Gopal started this journey by archiving the work of many folk singers.

He founded Lokayan, a non-profit charitable society working for heritage conservation and the revival of folk arts, music, etc. Additionally, he started recording the music of folk performers, understanding their history and culture. During this time, he also came to know about the Kabir Project. It is an initiative to use music to bring together singers, scholars, activists, artists, illustrators, and students. The idea behind the project is to explore how the poetry of 15th century mystic poet Kabir intersects with ideas of cultural identity, secularism, nationalism, religion, and death today.

Finally, by collaborating with the people behind the Kabir Project, Gopal organised the first edition of the Yatra in February 2012.

“It was a nice experience. It was also a community-driven festival so we didn’t have any corporate sponsors. Everyone crowdfunded; the villagers were the hosts and the organisers too. It was a festival for the community and by the community,” says Gopal. But they fell short of funds in the following year and could not continue.

Gopal, however, continued to work with musicians – recording folk songs and uploading videos from the previous Yatra on YouTube.

It was here that the Superintendent of Police of Bikaner, Amandeep Singh, came across a video. “When I came to know about the Yatra, the idea interested me a lot and I got in touch with Gopal who said that people weren't coming forward to help organise it because of the lack of funds. We were both interested in it, so we decided to begin again. And this time, we were able to gather strong support and a good number of sponsors. We decided that the police will suggest some places that are in a state of radicalization after recent communal conflicts. There, we would try to have a dialogue with people and engage the youth. This will also give them something new to listen to and enjoy.”

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Amandeep, 38, is an MBBS by education. He has been posted to various places in the Rajasthan cadre over the years. He is interested in community-friendly policing and has been engaging with the community in different ways.

He organised a programme for the eradication of scoliosis in Karauli. He also worked with UNICEF and other organisations for child-friendly policing in Jaipur. This led to the launch a one-stop crisis management centre for children there. “The police are usually associated with taking reactionary action,” he says. “But if you are self-motivated and if there is a way to engage with society, I think you should do it. One gets a huge kick in doing more than the call of duty. This is my forte and giving back to the society gives me happiness,” he says.

The Yatra will begin on buses from Bikaner. Musicians will then travel to Shri Dungargarh, Moolwas, Shi Kolayat, and Rawwala villages. Gopal adds that the Yatra schedule is such that there will be space for participants and audiences to interact, ask questions, etc.

The days are dedicated to satsangs, followed by village excursions, and the performances will be showcased at night.

Currently, different NGOs are funding the Yatra and the group also has the support from the tourism department. “Our idea is to travel and show people that this tradition is alive. I am working for the people of Bikaner who should know about their culture and history,” sums up Gopal. Know more about the Yatra here. You can contact Gopal by writing to him at gopalbkn1@gmail.com

You may also like: How PCs Are Taking Folk Music from Rajasthan to a Global Audience

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A country with a long history of vivid storytellers and soulful illustrators, India is a nation that has always been keenly interested in visual storytelling. Many Indians have grown up reading classics like Amar Chitra Katha, Champak, Nandan and Tinkle and harbour a deep love for comic books, a literary genre with an interesting and alternative way of depicting the world. lawtoons_post_copy

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Thanks to the internet and the digital age, this love for comics has today become, perhaps, more relevant than it’s ever been before. While old-school comics are exploring contemporary themes and reinventing themselves to keep pace with modern devices and younger readers, new age graphic novels and Indian web-comics are also gradually coming into their own. In all, it's been a fascinating journey for an industry that continues to thrive, thanks to the efforts of creative people and the love shown to them by dedicated readers.

So, if you are a curious comic book fan who has been wondering how and when it all started, here is a story that traces the rise of comic books in India. Let's turn back the clock!

In 1947, noted Telugu movie producers, B. Nagi Reddy and Aluri Chakrapani, founded and published a children's magazine in a bid to help Indian kids learn more about the country's rich culture. Named Chandamama, the magazine published stories creatively adapted from mythological stories and epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Much loved for its unique style of storytelling, almost always bound by a common thread of moral values, the richly illustrated Chandamama is widely considered the harbinger of pictorial comic-style story books in India, even though it was not a quintessential comic book.

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Rare Chandamama editions from the year 1948[/caption]

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First published in 1947 in Telugu and Tamil, the magazine's Kannada and Hindi editions were published in 1949, the Marathi (as Chandoba) and Malayalam (as Ambili Ammavan) editions appeared in 1952, followed by Gujarati in 1954, English in 1955, Oriya (as Jahnamamu), Sindhi in 1956, Bengali in 1972, Punjabi in 1975, Assamese in 1976, Sinhala in 1978, Sanskrit in April 1984, and Santali in 2004. Back then, the only other comics available in India were a selection of imported digests and books like Tintin, Asterix and Obelix, Archie and Commando. An expensive buy for the average Indian, the reach of these comics was restricted only to the children of the wealthy. The change came in the mid-60s when a leading Indian newspaper publishing house, Times of India, launched Indrajal comics - the first serious effort directed towards the evolution of comic culture in India.

Well within the buying capacity of middle class Indian families, Indrajal comics made international comic heroes like Phantom, Mandrake, Buz Sawyer, Flash Gordon, and Rip Kirby household names in India.

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Indrajal Comics[/caption]

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By 1966, Indrajal was so popular that it was being published in vernacular languages, with the first regional comic being published in Bengali and eventually in Marathi, Hindi, Malayalam, Gujarati, and Tamil. Later, in 1976, the Indrajal comic series and Aabid Surti introduced one of India's earliest comic heroes, Bahadur, a hero who was not super-human but, rather, a quintessential son of the soil who fought the dreaded dacoits of Chambal, accompanied by his buxom karate-chopping belle, Bela. Around the same time, Pran Kumar Sharma, a young cartoonist working with a Delhi-based newspaper, started a comic strip Daabu that followed the adventures of a precocious teenage boy named Daabu and his mentor, Professor Adhikari. . Clicking immediately with the readers, the comic strip catapulted Pran to instant fame. The legendary cartoonist went on to create umpteen comic strips with the most popular ones being Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo, and Chacha Chaudhary.

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With their familiar middle-class backdrop and stories, Chacha Chaudhary comics found ardent fans, not only among children but also among the young adults who identified with the familiar setup of the 1970s and ’80s.

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Pran's Chacha Chaudhary[/caption]

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The immediate success of Indrajal Comics and Pran's comic strips gave a further boost to the blossoming Indian comic industry. In 1967, editor Anant Pai and publishing director H.G. Mirchandani of India Book House, launched Amar Chitra Katha. After ten poor-selling Hindi translations of western illustrated classics like Cinderella and Snow White, Pai finally released Krishna in 1969. It was published in English, not Hindi, as Pai knew that the market for such comic books was the rapidly growing English-speaking middle class of urban India. The first book in the Amar Chitra Katha series, Krishna, established the formula for the series by focusing its narrative on the dramatic tales of one hero (featured on the cover). [caption id="attachment_72550" align="aligncenter" width="500"] 91lyd66scml

Amar Chitra Katha's first Indian comic, 'Krishna'[/caption]

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Conceptualised by Pai, who also wrote the stories for most of them, this series infused India's rich treasure of folklore, mythical tales and legendary characters into comics. A welcome change for Indian readers, it was only a matter of time before Amar Chitra Katha became a household name in India. Today, more than 100 million copies have been sold worldwide and Amar Chitra Katha has become pretty much synonymous with the quintessential Indian comic book. Soon to follow Amar Chitra Katha’s lead was Diamond Comics from New Delhi. In 1978, they introduced India's very own superhero, Fauladi Singh. However, one of India's earliest comic superheroes, Batul the Great, was created during the 1960s by Narayan Debnath for the Bengali children's monthly magazine Shuktara. Interestingly, Narayan Debnath also holds the record for the longest-running comic by an individual artist for his Handa Bhonda series, which has been in circulation for 53 years! [caption id="attachment_72551" align="aligncenter" width="572"] main-qimg-7f2250fa1a57323225a7144b6e258e97-c

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Batul, the Great[/caption]

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In the late 1970s and the early 80s, many indigenous superhero comics were launched, with creators and publishers hoping to benefit from the success of the superhero genre in the West.

For a brief while, even Amitabh Bachchan was the face behind a superhero, Supremo, who wore a mask and fought crime accompanied by his pet dolphin and falcon in a series published by Star Comics, a subsidiary of India Book House.

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Amitabh Bachchan inspired the Supremo comics[/caption]

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However, the 80s also marked the launch of Tinkle, another massively successful comic series by 'Uncle' Pai (as Anant Pai was lovingly called by his young fans). A fortnightly comic magazine for school children, Tinkle's instantly likeable characters, like Suppandi, Shikari Shambu, and Tantri the Mantri, and their hilarious misadventures, were an immediate hit with Indian readers.

A fixture in India since its launch in 1980, Tinkle's unique mix of comics and articles on science, folktales, quizzes and contests has ensured that it receives thousands of letters a week from its large fan base across India.

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Tinkle[/caption]

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Another popular comic magazine in the 80s was Target, a trailblazer in the Indian comic industry for original and interesting artwork; the illustrations were executed by Manjula Padmanabhan, one of the India's earliest female comic authors The magazine's most endearing comic strip characters were Detective Moochwala, by cartoonists Ajit Ninan and Gardhab Das, and the singing donkey, by cartoonist brothers Neelabh and Jayanto.

Also Read: Tinkle Comics’ Newest Superhero Is a 13-Year-Old Girl from Mizoram

The next great leap forward came in 1986 when Raj Comics was launched in 1986. Indian comic book buffs in the late 80s grew with either the snake-shooting Nagraj, or the calm and composed science dude Parmanu, or the hot-headed, gun wielding Doga, as their childhood companions. For a brief while, Raj Comics enjoyed phenomenal popularity, selling thousands of copies each month, but sadly, this waned with the arrival of satellite TV, much to the dismay of their loyal fans. [caption id="attachment_72558" align="aligncenter" width="750"] indiatv8ca6fc_nagraj-dhruva-doga

Raj Comics' superheroes (From Left): Commander Dhruv, Nagraj and Doga[/caption]

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The 90s also saw the shutters closing on Indrajal comics in 1991. This lull in the Indian comic industry lasted until 1998, when Gotham Comics was founded, which licensed many popular Marvel and DC Comics titles for local distribution. In 2004, the Indian version of Spider-Man was created by Gotham Comics in collaboration with Marvel Comics; in this book, a young boy named Pavitr Prabhakar is given the powers of a spider by a yogi. Interestingly, the year 1994 saw the release of what can be considered one of India’s earliest graphic novels - River of Stories, written and illustrated by Orijit Sen. However, it was in 2006 that the Indian comic renaissance began in earnest. Gotham Comics metamorphosed into Virgin Comics and helmed by Gautam Chopra and Sharad Devarajan, started publishing powerful comics infused with Indian mythology and history (much like the manga series in Japanese culture). These comics use myth in the same manner as their American counterparts DC and Marvel do: as a backdrop to modern superhero stories. Their compelling comic series include Devi, The Sadhu, Project: Kalki , Blade of the Warrior: Kshatriya, and the Ramayan 3392 AD, a retelling of the Ramayana in a futuristic setting, where advances in technology explain the strange settings and the powers of the heroes. [caption id="attachment_72560" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] untitled-design-6

Virgin Comics[/caption]

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In 2009, Shreyas Srinivas and Suhas Sundar founded Level 10 Comics, which experimented with unique genres like zombie thrillers; their notable titles include The Rabhas Incident, Manga-Batu Gaiden, Daksh and Odayan. In 2011, another interesting comic series was created by Vivek Goel and Vijayendra Mohanty, and released by Holy Cow Entertainment - Ravanayan, a retelling of Ramayan with Ravana as a protagonist. The same year, Abhijeet Kini and Adhiraj Singh released Uud Bilaw Manus- a comic about a Bhojpuri-speaking hero, and in 2012, Kini released Angry Maushi, a comic that revolves around fighting the evil and corrupt for social and political justice. In another important leap for the Indian comic book industry, in 2012, Chopra and Devarajan of Virgin Comics set up Graphic India, a character entertainment company focused on creating leading characters, comics and stories inspired by Indian themes and issues endemic to contemporary India.

The first of their superheroes was Chakra the Invincible, created by Stan Lee (the comic book legend whose creations include X-Men, the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man).

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Chakra, The Invincible[/caption]

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The year 2013 also saw Abhishek Singh's graphic novel, Krishna - The Journey Within, becoming the first ever Indian work to be published by the internationally renowned Image Comics. Recently, web comics have also become very popular in India. Helmed by talented youngsters who are keen to highlight the current ills of Indian society, these web-comics have the kind of humour that makes its point without offending people. For instance, the Crocodile in Water, Tiger on Land web comic has been covering socio-political-economic issues for the past five years, while the Sanitary Panel gives a humorous feminist take on life.

A unique web comic, the Royal Existentials comic, uses Mughal miniature paintings to brilliant incorporate discussions on caste, feminism and even international events!

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Royal Existentials[/caption]

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For the past few years, comic books have created and illustrated stories that evoke hope and courage in their readers. With the advent of inspiring characters like Super Singh (an Elvis-loving, Taliban-fighting superagent) and Priya (a modern-day female superhero who is also a rape survivor) of Priya's Shakti, it seems that Indian children will finally have a new breed of inspiring comic book heroes to emulate.

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In the quiet village of Bhaini Sahib in the Ludhiana district of Punjab, it is not uncommon to hear the tunes of classical music emanating from every home. This unique village has an astonishing secret: for the past 100 years, every child raised in the village of Bhaini Sahib has been taught the fundamentals of Indian classical music.

At a time when interest in formal education in classical music is declining, this peaceful Punjabi village is setting an inspirational example for the entire country.

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Bhaini Sahib[/caption]

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In Bhaini Sahib, music has always been an integral part of the villagers' lives. Regardless of whether they work as farmers, bankers, shopkeepers or homemakers, they can rattle off names of ragas as well as classical music maestros without batting an eyelid. Every day, after completing their school homework and sports practice, the children of Bhaini Sahib grab their instruments and run to the music room where Balwant Singh Namdhari is waiting to teach them. The accomplished vocalist doesn't just teach them to sing or play instruments, he also teaches them how music corresponds to the rhythmic cycles of the universe, why certain ragas are only sung at dusk or dawn and how peacocks dancing in the rain have inspired music for generations. The classical music taught at Bhaini Sahib stands as a genre apart with its distinctly devotional nature. Embodying the nuances of Indian classical music, this music and its instruments (sarinda, tauz, dilruba, jodi pakhawaj and rabaab) have always been the forte of Namdharis, a Sikh sect that believes that the lineage of the living Gurus continued after the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh. A community which believes that music makes you a better person, Namdharis established their spiritual base in Bhaini Sahib back in the 19th century. The tiny village was selected for its historical significance; many Sikhs were martyred at Bhaini Sahib during the Indian struggle for independence.

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Nearly a century ago,the Namdhari spiritual leader, Satguru Pratap Singh, started the tradition of teaching classical music to the children of the village. A strong believer in the power of music to transform the soul, the leader had famously said,

"I want the fragrance of music to touch every child."

When he died in 1959, his son Satguru Jagjit Singh took up the responsibility of ensuring that this beautiful tradition continued. Himself an accomplished singer and dilruba player, Satguru Jagjit Singh had inherited his father's passion for music. Under his able guidance, Bhaini Sahib gradually developed into a village that treasured and nurtured classical music and age-old traditional musical instruments. Satguru Jagjit Singh also built ties with the great music maestros of India so that they could teach the children of Bhaini Sahib. He took one of the village children, Kirpal Singh, along with him when he visited the legendary shehnai player, Bismillah Khan. Their devotion to music won over the initially grumpy maestro who agreed to teach Kirpal Singh the art of playing the taar-shehnai. The taar shehnai is a unique string instrument whose conical mouthpiece produces a sound just like the shehnai.

After his training, Kirpal Singh returned to his village to become a banker but also to teach the art to the children of the village. Having honed his skill over the years, Kirpal Singh is today one of the top taar-shehnai players in the world.

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Violinist Adrián Varela with Taar Shehnai player Kirpal Singh[/caption]

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Similarly, Satguru Jagjit Singh also persuaded tabla master Kishan Maharaj to teach the instrument to another village kid, Sukhwinder Singh.

Today, Sukhwinder Singh is a prominent exponent of tabla and the jodi-pakhawaj (an ancient classical drum). He also teaches the art of playing these instruments to children.

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Jodi Pakhwaj maestro, Sukhwinder Singh[/caption]

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Several other students from the village, like renowned rabab player Harjinder Singh, and dilruba player Devinder Singh, have also been making waves in the national and international music scene. Harbhajan Singh, a sitar player and vocalist from Bhaini Sahib, who trained under Amjad Ali Khan, has taught at least three generations of children in the village as well as abroad. While his efforts were primarily directed towards ensuring the musical education of Bhaini Sahib's children, Satguru Jagjit Singh never hesitated in helping promising students from other parts of the country. For example, in 1973, he happened to hear the talented siblings, Rajan and Sajan Mishra, sing in Delhi. Impressed with their music, he offered to support them if they would leave their company job and pursue music full-time. In an interview to Times of India, Rajan Mishra, one of India's most beloved vocalists, said,

"I gave my resignation the very next day. We keep going back to Bhaini Sahib, to teach and perform."

For years, Bhaini Sahib's potent musical environment has brought musical masters to the village. Sitar maestro Vilayat Khan used to regularly visit the village while Shivkumar Sharma still gets his santoors made at this village. Legendary tabla players, Ustad Allah Rakha and Pandit Yogesh Samsi, have also spent many days in Bhaini Sahib. Their close ties with the village has ensured that talented children get a chance to learn with the masters. There is even a hostel in Mumbai that is available free of cost to any child who wishes to come and learn at the academies of these masters. Many of them are also pursuing their post graduation and doctorates in music at the Punjab University in Chandigarh. Inspired by their spiritual leader, the elders of Bhaini Sahib have never stopped encouraging the young people to pursue music along with their formal education. The tradition continues with the children of almost all of the village's 500 families learning classical singing and some or the other musical instrument. This loop has not just paid great musical dividends, it has also fostered a culture of learning and excellence; Bhaini Sahib has also produced many sports stars, including Sardar Singh, the captain of the Indian hockey team. In Bhaini Sahib, music is not just an art, it's a way of life. This unique village, where mornings awaken to the magical sounds of singing birds and children, is definitely a must-visit for all music and culture enthusiasts.

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As Sumeru is the best among mountains, Garuda among the birds, king amongst men, so is the art of painting among arts. - Chitrasutram (43-38, 39)

When multiple thoughts throng the mind regarding the way ahead, there is an innate desire in the heart to take resort in silence. And for such a silence to be blissful, many people yearn to seek refuge in art -- for art is pure, divine, and blissful.

After a formal registration at South Central Zone Cultural Centre (SCZCC), I am escorted to a hall that has turned into a huge ensemble of artists from various states of India. SCZCC is an autonomous institution working under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture, and is located at Civil Lines, Nagpur. With an array of choices that make it an extremely difficult proposition, I take a lot of time in deciding which art form I want to learn. What else can you expect from a connoisseur of art especially when art forms such as Warli from Maharashtra, Phadchitra from Odisha, Pichwai Painting from Rajasthan, Mysore Gold Painting, and Mughal Art among others are bent upon luring their admirers? I finally chose to go with Madhubani painting of Bihar; something that I have always wanted to learn, probably because of the regional connects. I come from Bhagalpur.

Sheela didi and Usha didi warmly greet me. I am their pupil for the next 10 days.

Though absorbed in painting the Sita-Swayamvara episode from Ramayana, they are quick enough in their tutelage. I am asked to draw a border. Borders in Madhubani Painting can be very exquisite; though I consider Madhubani the simplest of all the art forms known to me. The reason being -- it does not demand expertise from your end. An amateur can turn into a professional overnight! Proportion has no role to play here, but geometry is essential. “Every figure has a border,” says Sheela didi as her freehand strokes create a parallel double around the figures of Ram and Sita. The origin of this art is shrouded in antiquity. According to some beliefs it was King Janaka who commissioned artists in Mithila to sketch the wedding scene of his daughter Sita. But the real credit of its discovery goes to an Englishman, William G. Archer, who came across these paintings in 1934 during earthquake relief operations. This unique art was till then unknown to the outside world because Madhubani was a secluded province. A quick chat with Usha Devi is enough to tell me that she belongs to an accomplished family of Madhubani painters. Her mother, Shanti Devi, is a National Awardee and has travelled extensively, promoting the art both in India and abroad. Seated cross-legged on the floor is another student who I accidently chance upon. She is busy filling her hand-made paper with motifs and traditional patterns. “Didi has asked me to fill the page with leaves and flowers. No part of the sheet should remain empty,” she remarks.

Almost every painting has the background of a forest. After all, that is what Madhubani actually means -- “a forest of honey”.

Legend has it that Gods and Goddess once roamed in these forests. Artists in communion with the practices of their forefathers thus depict mythology in its pristine form. Krishna-Leela, Kaliya Mardan, Gopika Sang Raas are some of their all-time favourite themes. However, Usha didi has a different taste. Bidaai or leave-taking is the most important subject for her. It is the palanquin carrying the bride that makes her so excited as the palanquin has to be given a royal look. “The kohbar ghar is where I paint such scenes,” says Usha didi, referring to the auspicious central room of her house. Almost all the homes in Madhubani house an artist. Almost every house has walls adorned with their work. Today, Sheela didi is going to teach how to prepare mugs, lamp-shades and jars out of papier-mache. They shall be painted in the Madhubani style once they dry up. I notice something unique about this art form -- the practice of darkening outlines with black even before colouring the figures. My hunger to know more about colours is satiated when I am told that traditional paintings are made using organic colours alone. The role of pencil, pen and sketch pen is performed by the all-rounder bamboo sticks that are dipped into jars containing a mixture of soot and water. “There is an interesting recipe to prepare primary colours” says Sheela didi. As my tutor is busy recalling the names of plants, I am amazed to discover that colours are home-made and gathered from nature -- yellow from the roots of turmeric, brown from the bark of the Peepal tree, red from the crushed leaves of teak and sometimes Kusum petals. Other colours are prepared by squeezing or boiling vegetables and berries.

Grinding stones and soil also yield beautiful shades.

Tussar silk saris with a Madhubani print in the backdrop are popular among their domestic buyers. Usha didi has brought her work for display in the hope of earning some profit. “Pichchle saal jab Bombay gaye thein to loss ho gaya (We encountered losses on our previous such visit to Mumbai),” she says sadly. One interesting fact about Madhubani art is that women in these paintings take up the centre stage here while men are in the background. Madhubani has continued to be an art form preserved mostly by women who have emerged as successful bread winners for their families with their talent to paint! These include renowned names like Ganga Devi, Sita Devi and Mahasundari Devi – all icons of Mithila Art. With each passing day, I make certain improvements in my paintings. I am done with almost ten paintings in the Gondhna style now. Gondhna makes little use of colours and is mostly a work of muted hues. Sheela didi and Pinki didi prefer bright colours considering the economic aspect. Gondhna doesn’t sell much but a Madhubani painter will always find solace in it because it involves intricate hand work and hard work.

That is the reason why you get to see an amalgamation of both the styles today.

Another noteworthy fact about this art is the gradual shift from the genre of mythology to current societal problems. Evocative photo essays by female painters of the younger generation incorporate issues like eve-teasing. Women today depict issues concerning empowerment and peace. Once my classes end, I promise my tutors to keep the artist alive in me by preserving the heritage of Madhubani. And true to that promise, I continue to paint Madhubani paintings whenever I get time. Hope you liked my paintings. Featured image credits: By Sumanjha1991 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons, By Divya Vibha Sharma (Flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons, Flickr

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The image of Goddess Durga astride a tiger can often be found in homes, offices, shops and temples across India because she is synonymous with feminine power. But this image is being used, perhaps for the first time ever, to highlight the plight of rape victims, survivors of acid attacks, and other women who’ve been affected by gender based violence.

Priya’s Shakti, an immensely popular comic book series featuring the first female Indian superhero and rape victim, uses the image of the ‘goddess astride a tiger’ to show a woman conquering her fears.

Ram Devineni, Paromita Vohra and Dan Goldman created the series in an attempt to raise awareness and initiate conversations about survivors of violent attacks. Ram, who is based in New York, was in Delhi when the horrific gang rape of Nirbhaya took place on a bus in 2012. This incident received unprecedented media coverage due to the large number of protests happening in response to the government’s indifference towards gender based violence. Ram was involved in these protests too and, one day, he approached a police officer for his opinion on what happened in the bus. According to Ram,

“The officer’s response was ‘no good girl walks home at night,’ implying that she probably deserved it or at least provoked the attack. I knew then that the problem of sexual violence in India was not a legal issue; rather it was a cultural problem. A cultural shift had to happen, especially towards the role of women in modern society. Deep-rooted patriarchal views needed to be challenged.”

Around the same time, Ram started researching Hindu mythology. He observed that when disciples got into trouble, they would call upon their favourite gods for help. He says,

“I began formulating a new mythological tale where a mortal woman and rape survivor, named Priya, seeks help from Goddess Parvati, only after she had nowhere else to turn. Parvati manifests herself in Priya. Although Lord Shiva and other gods do get involved, eventually it is up to Priya to challenge people’s perceptions. I wanted to create a new Indian superhero, a rape survivor who can, through the power of persuasion, motivate people to change.”

Subsequently, he started travelling around India and Southeast Asia to approach poets, philosophers, activists, and sociologists working on issues related to gender-based violence. After conversing with several rape survivors, he realized how difficult it was for them to seek justice and how much their lives were constantly under threat after they reported the crime. He says,

“Their family, local community, and even the police discouraged them from pursuing criminal action against their attackers. The burden of shame was placed on the victim and not on the perpetrators. This created a level of impunity among men to commit more rapes.”

Ram knew he had to use a format that was easily understood by audiences across the world. He cites numerous Amar Chitra Katha comic books as his inspiration to create the Priya series because he feels they were so influential that they “entered the collective consciousness of contemporary Indian culture.” He adds,

“Often, I first learned about Hindu mythology through comic books...Now, comic books have entered the commercial mainstream. Every summer, Hollywood releases big budget blockbuster films based on comic book characters, to enormous box office returns. Comic book characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have become modern mythological icons, and other comic books stories, such as Art Spiegelman’s ‘Maus’, address important historical events. We are using existing constructs that are familiar to everyone in India, but presenting them in a fresh and original way.”

But the Priya series is unique in the way it uses modern technology to create a completely immersive experience for the reader. Ram says he always wanted to create an interactive component in the comic book and he was inspired by Michelangelo’s art in the Sistine Chapel to do so. He says,

“Each fresco panel told a distinct story, and together they illuminated a great and divine experience. I wanted to go deeper into each painting but was limited by the periphery of my senses. That’s when the idea of using augmented reality technology came to me as a way to experience the real world without being removed from it. Augmented reality is a major part of our comic book, and by scanning the comic book with the augmented reality app Blippar, you can view animation, real-life stories, and other interactive elements that pop out of the pages.”

Paromoita Vohra, a feminist writer and filmmaker, who is also the founder of Agents of Ishq (a sex positive website), advised Ram and Dan Goldman on Priya’s Shakti. Ram was so impressed with her insight into deep rooted prejudices and how they shape our reactions to certain types of crimes that he decided to get her on board as the writer for the second book – Priya’s Mirror. The first book turned out to be immensely successful – it was honoured by UN Women as a “gender equality champion” and saw up to 5,00,000 downloads. Following this, the team released Priya’s Mirror, which was funded by the World Bank’s WEvolve initiative. WEvolve aims at changing "attitudes and behaviours that lead to gender inequities, including gender violence."

Priya’s Mirror traces the story of the protagonist, who joins forces with a group of acid attack survivors to fight against the demon-king Ahankar (ego).

The idea of using acid attack survivors to propagate messages of body positivity and confidence, struck Ram when he met Sonia and Laxmi, two acid attack survivors at their Stop Acid Attacks office.

He says, “What I discovered after talking with them is that they faced the same cultural stigmas and reactions from society that rape survivors had to endure. How society treated them intensified the problem and their recovery. How they were treated by their family, neighbours and society determined what they did next. Often, they were treated like the villains and the blame was put on them. Our comic book focuses on this and tries to change people’s perceptions of these heroic women.”

[embedvideo id="5Onj3hAimP8" website="youtube"] One of the most interesting tropes used in Priya’s Mirror is the ‘Mirror of Love.’ Priya holds the mirror up to the acid attack survivors and tells them that there is more to them than scars that were inflicted upon them by bitter men.

In the book Priya says, “Why should we hide our wounds? And why should we hide because of our wounds, sisters? Someone reduced you to only your face. But you are other things too. Look into this mirror and you will see.”

[embedvideo id="_RDpOzmzne0" website="youtube"] Ram recently flew to India to attend the Mumbai Comic-Con, where he and Dan Goldman, the artist, spoke about Priya’s Mirror. Since Priya’s Shakti is the second book in a five-part series, what can we expect from the next book? Ram says, “The next chapter, ‘Priya and the Lost Girls’, is about sex trafficking. We are working with Apne Aap Women Worldwide (a grassroots movement to end sex trafficking) to develop the story. Dan Goldman and I were in Kolkata a few days ago and interviewed exploited women in the red light areas. The story will be co-written with Emmy award winner and advocate and founder of Apne Aap – Ruchira Gupta. The research is funded by the Jerome Foundation and we hope to release it in a year.” Read Priya's Mirror, here.

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Chau is a tribal dance in Bengal that has achieved the status of a classical dance, thanks to foresight of its passionate artistes. It is that time of the year when winter has not yet started its nipping. The excitement of Durga Puja is in the cool air and villagers have gathered around the pandal for a performance that has been two weeks in the making. It starts with a bang, literally. The first artiste that enters is the character of Ganesha, his moves in sync with the drum beats. Others join him, to the accompaniment of traditional percussions and pipes, their energetic movements faster than the eye can follow. But the dramatic, unmoving feral mask-faces imprint themselves on the viewer's mind.

This is the 800-year-old dance, drama and acrobatics of Chau. The performance with the sophisticated masks is the Purulia variation of Chau. The elaborate masks distinguish the Purulia Chau from other forms of the dance performed in Odisha and Jharkand.

[caption id="attachment_72880" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Chaou, Milaap Fellowship

Mask makers in Purulia.[/caption]

Image Courtesy: Saumalya Ghosh

Like the dance form, the masks are created by artisan families. Traditionally made of terracotta, they are today made of a mixture of mud, sand and paper. The masks are painted and adorned, depending on the character they portray. Today, Chau mainly depicts various stories from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas. Ajit Chandra Mahato, a 45-year-old postgraduate in Bengali, works as a high school teacher in a local government school in the small village of Kharjhuri, Purulia. Chau has been a part of his family for the last 70 years. He even runs a NGO that supports Purulia Chau dancers. His father, Durjodhan Mahato was an eminent Chau performer who started around 30 groups in Purulia and performed in 1,800 shows in his lifetime.

Thanks to the work of artistes like Durjodhan, in the last 20 years, Chau has been recognised as a classical Indian dance form.

[caption id="attachment_72881" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Performers practicing before the show (Image by Saumalya Ghosh)

Performers practicing before the show[/caption]

Image Courtesy: Saumalya Ghosh

But in all the 70 years, Mahato says, there has never been a full-time performer. All artistes can dedicate themselves to the art only part-time, but this has never stopped them. All performers in Ajit's troupe hold full-time jobs and they make sure to together every day to practise. "Chau requires a years of discipline and training. It is a dance which involves a range of body movements. We practise in my house after work every evening," he says.

"In my childhood, there was hardly any recognition given to Chau. Determined to find a way out, Chau performers started other businesses to financially sustain the dance. Education was encouraged, so we could learn with time. Today, we can celebrate keeping the dance alive, through thick and thin," he explains.

It was this ability to grow, Ajit suggests, that helped the dance form gather the support that it has. Even politicians are taking note of the transformative potential of the dance. “The state government is now very supportive of Chau groups. We are asked to create social awareness programs through Chau, in various districts of Bengal,” he says.

For the dancers, state support has meant double the number of performances, a monthly pension and a union of performers.

[caption id="attachment_72885" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Purulia Chou practised by the countryside (Image by Saumalya Ghosh)

Purulia Chou practised by the countryside.[/caption]

Image Courtesy: Saumalya Ghosh

“Earlier, we performed for only four months during festivals. Now we do festivals as well as state-sponsored awareness dances for over eight months,” Ajit says. The dance itself has synthesised modern elements. The traditional drums and flute are today accompanied by guitars and pianos. Before strictly a male dance, women have also started performing in the last five years. "We have learnt from the mainstream and tried to use it as much possible. Earlier, we didn't have speakers, so the performers needed to be very loud. But now, we arrange for speakers in all our performances. They vibrate the air with the narrations and let us focus on movement," he said.

The transformation of Chau, moulded by education and global influences, has given a new energy and vibrance to the dance in Purulia.

[caption id="attachment_72886" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Purulia Chaou performed near the Durga Pandal (Image by Saumalya Ghosh)

Purulia Chau performed near the Durga Pandal (Image by Saumalya Ghosh)[/caption] Want to cover inspiring stories of change and make a substantial difference in the social sphere? Then click here to join the Milaap Fellowship Program.

About the author: Mouli Chatterjee is a Fellow with Milaap, working with Milaap’s partners and borrowers, bringing back true stories of change, hope, and resilience from Bengal.

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From magicians to snake charmers, from sculptors to artists, the Katputhli Colony in New Delhi is home to countless artists and art forms. Did you know, that the world's largest community of street performers exists in India? The Kathputli Colony in Delhi is home to more than 3,500 street performers. This magical secret even got special mention in Salman Rushdie's 1981 book, 'Midnight's Children.'

Although the colony has faced immense pressure from land developers, it has come together to stand strong against all odds, and, thanks to the collective efforts of all involved, is working hard to save not just the colony, but the community as well as its different art forms.

In this #DelhiHeroes video, Puran Bhat talks about the magicians, snake charmers, jugglers and puppeteers that live with him at the Kathputli colony. The street performers of this fascinating neighbourhood are fighting against all odds, preserving their talent and their beautiful spirit, and continuing to contribute to Delhi’s vibrancy.

We urge you to visit the colony and learn more about the wonderful talent hidden in this Delhi neighbourhood. Go for a walk in these magical streets, interview the people, write about them, photograph them and spread the love that our city has to offer.

[embedvideo id="2qfnxbnpnO0" website="youtube"] Watch other #DelhiHeroes in action here, and learn more about the "Delhi, I Love You" movement here.

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Three college graduates are helping hundreds across the country live their dreams of becoming photographers. Armed with their cameras, passion, and hard work, they are telling budding photographers why it is worth taking a shot. IIT Roorkee alumnus, Divya Agrawal, was in her second year when she joined a photography club at college. She had been pursuing photography as a hobby till then and wanted to spend more time developing her skills. In the same year, she became acquainted on Facebook with Anubhav Das, a first year engineering student at BITS Pilani.

On realising they had similar interests they contacted each other and started sharing their work.

With time, the duo started exchanging ideas about how they could bring more students and passionate photographers onto one platform to help them excel in their work and improve techniques. In 2014, when Divya was in her fourth year, they decided to collaborate to bring together the photography clubs of 14 Indian universities for one project. “We called it the India Unseen project. Participants included students from colleges like IIT, NIT, IIM, etc. We wanted students to work with the theme of unseen India and capture pictures of their localities, showcasing how they perceive the country,” says Divya.

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This project, for which the organisers didn’t even meet once, brought together 1,200 photographers who came up with 30,000 pictures. It was the first and largest collaboration of this kind in the field of photography in India and the Limca Book of Records recognised it.

Divya and Anubhav then decided to launch AIE photography, a company that would provide photography solutions to people across India at affordable rates.

But they wanted to register the company only after they had graduated from college. Until then, they used social media platforms to create a network of freelance photographers. After graduating in 2014, Divya took up a civil engineering job in Delhi as there were two more years left for Anubhav to finish college. “I soon realized that it’s only photography that interests me. I moved to Mumbai, worked at a few more places, and finally joined a start-up as the head photographer,” she says.

They registered AIE photography in May 2016, along with Jaideep Singh Jhala, another student from Anubhav’s college.

The company provides photography services across 30 Indian cities, while giving opportunities to photographers from all over the country – students, freelancers, and those who wish to make full-time careers out of photography. At any given point in time they have 50-60 photographers on board, all from different fields, working for them as independent contractors. The entire company has been bootstrapped by the three co-founders.

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Ask Divya about the impact their work is creating and she gives the example of herself and her friends: “I had done a civil engineering job. And then found a way to make a career out of my passion. Many of my friends are working in different fields but those who are interested in photography are willing to work with us over the weekends. We have a strong college base and we often hear from students that photography projects for them are not about the money but about their love for this work. This is when it hits us that this work is about passion. We realize that we are on the right path. I have gone through the confusion and I know how these people feel doing something they love.”

Over the years, AIE has worked with over 350 photographers and Divya feels it is important for enthusiasts to give their talent one chance at least.

“It takes hard work. There are endless numbers of photographers working in the industry. It is like acting; the chances are slim that you will make it big. But if you don’t try, you will surely not make it big. And regretting five years later will not help anyone,” she emphasizes.

This Diwali, the team is working on lighting up the lives of those who do not get a chance to celebrate with their families – people for whom the festival means extra work.

This includes traffic police officers, truck drivers, watchmen, police officers, etc. AIE plans to take their pictures and inspire people to spend some time with them and appreciate their efforts.

Additionally, they will also take photos of those who are unable to celebrate because of poverty – orphans, homeless people, street-dwellers, etc., and will talk about different issues like mental health, noiseless Diwali for dogs, and more.

"We, at AIE, try to bring common stories to life in the best way we know how – through our photographs. This project is an attempt to bring goodwill back to the festival of lights and to ask the community to go beyond simply lighting lamps to lighting up the lives of people around them,” says Divya. Know more about their campaign here. Contact AIE photography here.

You may also like: Meet the Dreamcatcher: A Photographer Who Connected 365 People with Their Dreams in One Year!

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Van Gogh is easily one of the most reputed artists in the post-impressionist movement, which took root in France in the early 1920s. But the story of his tragic death is more popular than some of Van Gogh’s most iconic paintings.

This story is going to be immortalised in the world's first feature-length painted animation film called Loving Vincent, to be produced by Oscar-winning British producer Hugh Welchman.

[embedvideo id="47h6pQ6StCk" website="youtube"]

A 34-year-old software engineer turned artist from Bhopal is one of 107 artists painting 62,000 frames on over a 1,000 canvases for the film. Shuchi Muley has managed to perfect the art of painting like Van Gogh ever since she was selected from among more than a thousand applicants for the job.

When The Better India spoke to her about her journey from amateur artist to professional, she said, “I started painting as a kid just like everyone else, but became a professional artist only in 2012. I used to work as a software engineer in San Francisco in the US. In order to develop a hobby I decided to attend art classes on weekends. I joined Sadie Valeri Atelier in San Francisco and started learning the Flemish technique of indirect painting. The more I learnt the more I wanted to pursue it full time. What started as a part time thing slowly became my passion. In 2014, I decided to quit my job and learn painting full-time.”

The film is a labour of love for everyone involved, especially the artists, because they have to painstakingly capture every minor detail in their paintings. The entire film was filmed with the actors before it was handed over to the artists.

The first frame was painted on canvas as a full painting, the artists painted over this again and again until the last frame of that shot. Animators worked on making the film fluid with the help of live-action images. Loving Vincent is made up of 853 shots and the team made 853 paintings, 42 of which are already up for sale on the film’s website. When asked if she would identify with being called as a post-impressionist artist, Shuchi said, “I am a representational artist and knew nothing about impressionism before visiting Van Gogh's museum in Amsterdam. That's when I became more interested in his paintings and style. I love his confident brushstrokes and his choice of colours to show subtleties. I am still searching for my style of painting and am currently learning as much as I can.” And how did Shuchi manage to land a job that would make her name go down in history books? She said, “When I saw the trailer for Loving Vincent, the idea sounded incredible! So I started contacting everyone I could find connected with the movie and sent them my portfolio. After one month of constant follow-ups, I got an invite for a three-day test in Poland. During the test, we had to learn not only Van Gogh's brushstrokes but also the animation software used by the team. After three rigorous days of testing, I got through. Then came the 16 days of training, which were just like the test, only longer and more difficult.”

One second of the film takes up to twelve paintings and Shuchi's favourite painting is called Wheatfields with Crows. “It can take a week, or more than three months or even longer to paint one scene,” she added.

Shuchi is back in India now after her stint in Poland. She said, “ I just came back to India and am looking forward to sharing my knowledge with other artists. My plan is to hold some workshops and demos.” You can follow Shuchi’s art on Facebook, here. [embedvideo id="eOtwJL4iV8s" website="youtube"]

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When the stone walls of Pune’s historic monument Shaniwarwada transformed into a gigantic canvas for the colourful artistic expression of the Berlin-based video-mapping artist Philipp Geist, Puneites were left awe-struck at the magic of light and colours unfolding in front of their eyes.

This Diwali, along with the traditional lamps, lanterns and firecrackers, the city of Pune witnessed an out of this world celebration of light.

The beloved monument of the city was adorned with numerous light installations in the show designed by Geist. Arranged to celebrate the spirit of Diwali, the show made use of several historical as well as traditional symbols like lamps, elephants, flowers, and even graffiti in Devnagari. There was live music arrangement by DJ Ma Faiza, accompanied by Sandeep Vasishta on flute and saxophone. The project was a part of an initiative by the Goethe-Institut Max Mueller Bhavan and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC); the aim was to create awareness among people to look at public spaces as lively cultural spaces. Video-mapping, also known as projection mapping, is a technology used to turn objects into a display surface for video projection. Geist has earlier worked on similar projects in Iran, Bangladesh and Brazil. The artist, who had done a show in New Delhi in 2011 at the Lotus Temple, visited India for the second time for the Pune show. Here’s a glimpse of the show for those who couldn't witness it themselves. Shaniwawada

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An intricate tapestry of music and visual art is what makes Naya more than just a village in West Bengal's Paschim Midnapore district. A quaint little village, Naya is home to around 250 patuas or chitrakaars, a unique community of folk artistes who are painters, lyricists, singers and performers all rolled into one. These traditional painter singers specialize in the ancient folk art of pata chitra, a type of narrative scroll painting. [caption id="attachment_73853" align="aligncenter" width="852"] patachitra-patua-naya5

Naya village[/caption]

Photo Source

The Patua community of West Bengal has practiced the ancient craft of patachitra since the 13th Century. The traditional painters would wander from village to village, entertaining and educating village folks. They would unroll each hand-painted scroll, frame by frame, and sing pater gaan or narrative songs that they had composed themselves. Their diverse repertoire included mythological stories and tribal folklore as well as social messages and narrations on contemporary events. In return for their performance, the villagers would remunerate the hardworking artists with rice, vegetables and coins. [caption id="attachment_73854" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] SONY DSC

A Patachitra[/caption]

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Over time, however, interest in this art form faded out. To ensure that their art form remained relevant in the contemporary world, the patuas adapted their skills and themes to changing times. As a part of this effort. a group of innovative patuas established a patachitra village at Naya. Slowly, their efforts to revive their artistic heritage started paying off. Today, after a period of decline, the patachitra art is flourishing again in the village, with village youngsters taking up the traditional art form as a passion and profession. A pata is created by painting on a canvas made by stitching together multiple sheets of commercial poster paper. In earlier days, jute fibre canvas was used. Plant-based colours and lamp black (a pigment made from soot) are mixed in coconut shells with the sap of the bel tree (wood apple), which acts as a binder. After finishing, a thin cotton cloth is glued to the back of the painting to provide longevity. Next, the completed scrolls are kept in the sun to dry. The patuas also paint wooden souvenirs, decorative hangings and mud walls with striking natural colours. [caption id="attachment_73856" align="aligncenter" width="1500"] whole-scroll_web

A Patachitra scroll[/caption]

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Presently, the patuas of Naya make rectangular and square-shaped paintings of different sizes - only a few of them still make the traditional 20 feet long scrolls. In addition to stories from folklore, mythology and epics, the artists have started choosing their themes from contemporary events such as the 9/11 attacks, the French Revolution, the life of Mother Teresa, and the devastating tsunami of 2004. Social messages like conservation of trees, female infanticide, child trafficking and AIDS awareness also figure in their paintings. In addition to the scrolls, the patuas also paint single-panel images of traditional subjects, such as a cat eating a lobster or fish, tigers, rows of cows or white owls. A few of them still sing their self-composed songs, but only on demand. The patachitra art tradition was customarily passed down from father to son, but today many patua women have also taken up the craft, guided by Dukhushyam Chitrakar (a highly respected senior painter). Led by her, these women have not only established themselves as excellent artists, but also as leaders within the community. [caption id="attachment_73855" align="aligncenter" width="1500"] laughing-swarna_web

Swarna Chitrakaar, a patua artist of Naya[/caption]

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Under an initiative 'Art for Livelihood', these women are spearheading local development. The patuas now paint on a diverse range of medium including cloth, clay and ceramic. With the support of the NGO banglanatak dot com, the patuas have also founded a painter's co-operative, CHITRATARU, that has helped their work find new markets and audiences. Thanks o this initiative, patas from Naya have found a place in renowned art galleries across the world. Many patuas from the village have won the President’s Award too. They have also participated in exhibitions, cultural exchange programs and festivals in USA, Germany, Australia, France, Britain, Sweden, and China, as well as all over India. With their work winning widespread acclaim, Naya is now regularly visited by art collectors and enthusiasts from all over the world.

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Since 2010, CHITRATARU has also been organizing an annual three-day festival 'Pot Maya' to celebrate the success of the local artists in reviving their heritage. Held in November every year, the festival showcases modern paintings as well as scrolls dating back hundreds of years. [caption id="attachment_73857" align="aligncenter" width="863"] patachitra-patua-naya4

A display at the Pot Maya festival[/caption]

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The villagers paint the mud walls of their houses with colourful patachitra motifs and hangs scrolls on ropes in the courtyards. They also spruce up the surroundings and adorn the entire village in flowers before readying their homes for the visitors’ stay - with no hotel in the village, the patuas house the visitors in their own homes and in tents. With the onset of the festival, the quiet hamlet is transformed into a vibrant cultural hub where visitors can learn about the craft of patachitra. Several workshops are held, stories are told, and different types of pata artwork is displayed for sale. Musical and dance performances by eminent artists start in the evening and go on well into the night. Demonstrations on natural colour extraction from sources such as marigold, indigo, teak leaves, saffron, and turmeric are also held. Watching a patua singing gently in harmony with the soft colours and delicate imagery of his work, as oil lamps create a magical play of light and shadow over the canvas, is a spellbinding experience. If you are an art enthusiast, make time to the visit this unique village for a mix of traditional art and music in a beautiful rural setting. This year, the Pot Maya festival will be held between from 11th to 13th November at the Naya village, which is a three hour drive from Kolkata.

Contact Number of Gurupada Chitrakaar, a National Award winning patua from Naya : 0947559979

Also Read: This Mysterious Himachal Village Was a Meeting Point for Famous Artists, Potters and Actors

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Photographer Waswo X Waswo and artist Rajesh Soni talk to The Better India about A Studio in Rajasthan – a hand coloured series of black and white photographs that pay homage to traditional Indian portrait studios from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1993, Waswo X. Waswo, a photographer from the US, decided to embark on a round-the-world trip. After blowing his cash in New Zealand, he arrived in New Delhi without even a guidebook to give him directions. He says, “The only thing I knew was that I did not want to see the Taj Mahal. I wanted do something uncommon. A rickshaw-wallah captured me and took me to a travel agent who sold me a ten-day holiday in Udaipur. It was my first experience of India outside of Delhi. I loved Udaipur then and, after many years of travelling India to see the rest of the country, I love Udaipur now. It still remains my favourite place. Today it feels like home.”

It felt so much like home in fact that Waswo stayed behind in India for sixteen years! He eventually built himself a house, as well as two studios, in Udaipur.

“For the first few years I travelled as a tourist and did some street photography with an old Rolleiflex camera. But I did not just want to photograph in India but also to exhibit in India. That was important to me, because I felt too many photographers had used India purely as subject matter. So in 2003, I began to showcase my first series, India Poems, through Alliance Française. To my surprise, I received both extreme acclaim and extreme criticism from both viewers and the press. I was either seen as a very talented artist or as a kind of evil orientalist. Photowallah (an exhibition) sort of begins with those reactions. I took my photography off the street and into the studio. I thought by doing so I would remove the misinterpretation that I was factually ‘documenting’ Indian society,” he recollects. On October 8, Photowallah opened at Exhibit 320 in New Delhi and introduced three series - A Studio in Rajasthan, Gauri Dancers and New Myths.

The series pays homage to the early 20th century studio photography tradition, but the black and white photographs have been (perhaps for the first time in Indian contemporary photography) highlighted with colour paints by Udaipur based artist Rajesh Soni.

[caption id="attachment_74127" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] ww11pw21_feathers-for-sale-lj-2008

Waswo X. Waswo (with Rajesh Soni); Feathers for Sale; Hand-coloured black and white digital print; 2008 Courtesy Tasveer[/caption] Waswo says he sought the help of his assistant Ganpat to find models for the series. The photographer also did not hesitate to contact people he knew around Udaipur to pose for his photos: his barber, a chai-wallah from his favourite chai shop or the daughter of a friend. According to him, “Sometimes we’d just meet really interesting people on the street and ask them if they’d like to model. So, in some ways, what I do is still some sort of ‘street photography’, but all the models now get paid. The studio eventually shifted to the village of Varda outside of Udaipur, so of course most of our models now come from the village itself.”

The models are photographed against a painted linen backdrop and the digitally printed black and white photographs are handed over to Rajesh Soni.

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Waswo X. Waswo (with Rajesh Soni); The Flower Seller ; Hand-coloured black and white digital print; 2015 Courtesy Tasveer[/caption]

Rajesh belongs to a family of artists; his grandfather Prabhu Lal Soni was a photographer and hand colouring artist for the Mewar court.

The manual application of paints over old black and white photographs was a common practice before colour prints evolved. Hand colouring heightened the realism of the photographs and highlighted details vividly. Was Rajesh influenced by his grandfather? He says, “Actually, I’ve never seen my grandfather. My father always wanted to be an artist but ended up being a photojournalist to make ends meet. When he took me to the City Palace in Udaipur and showed me my grandfather’s painting, he told me I must uphold the legacy.” [caption id="attachment_74131" align="alignnone" width="805"] ww11pw09_another-follower-of-shiva-lj-2007

ww11pw09_another-follower-of-shiva-lj-2007

Waswo X. Waswo (with Rajesh Soni); Another Follower of Shiva; Hand-coloured black and white digital print; 2007 Courtesy Tasveer[/caption] Rajesh started practising painting various landmarks and heritage buildings around Udaipur; he says his style was influenced by Raja Ravi Varma’s realistic portraits. Rajesh adds, “I met Waswo in 2002 and he asked me if I’d be interested in collaborating with him as a photo-colourist around 2007. He took the pictures and I gave them colour. With the series A Studio in Rajasthan, I’m reinventing old photo colouring techniques. Traditionally, photographs were painted over using oil paints and the intention was to trick people into believing that they were not photographs but paintings. I decided to use watercolours in this series because I didn’t want the paint to hide the photos but enhance them.” [caption id="attachment_74128" align="alignnone" width="798"] ww11pw51_night-prowl-lj-2008

Waswo X. Waswo (with Rajesh Soni); Night Prowl; Hand-coloured black and white digital print; 2008 Courtesy Tasveer[/caption] When the artist-photographer duo displayed A Studio in Rajasthan in Bangkok, the people attending the exhibition falsely accused them of using printed photographs. “That’s when we decided to put up a video of me painting the photos whenever the series is on display,” Rajesh chuckles. [caption id="attachment_74129" align="alignnone" width="1200"] ww11pw48_new-myths-second-incarnation-the-first-lj-2011

ww11pw48_new-myths-second-incarnation-the-first-lj-2011

Waswo X. Waswo (with Rajesh Soni); New Myths Second Incarnation, the First; Hand-coloured black and white digital print; 2011 Courtesy Tasveer[/caption] A Studio in Rajasthan features all kinds of people – from sweepers to blacksmiths to cross-dressers. When asked if he would classify this series as ethnographic photography, Waswo says, “I don’t consider my photographs ethnographic, in fact I think of them as quite the opposite. Old style, British era ethnographic photography was hardly an exercise in portraiture. The so-called ‘natives’ were often forced to pose, not paid, and hardly ever looked natural, much less happy. It was a silly attempt at quasi-scientific study. Still, if we look at it objectively, some of that work is still of great value, as it documented people, the clothes they wore and the tools they used – these have long disappeared. So, like it or not, these photos have become a part of our shared visual record. Our (Rajesh and Waswo’s) work responds to both the positives and negatives in history. There is an element of homage to the aesthetics of some of the best vintage ethnographic work, but there is also a tongue-in-cheek mocking of its scientific pretensions. We like to capture personality in our images. I like to think the people who pose for us reveal something of themselves as individuals rather than ‘types’. Often, we elevate common labourers into sumptuous surroundings that give their portraits a sense of status that they normally do not enjoy, or, conversely, we have well-known personalities in the art world pose as villagers. The intent of all this is to make viewers question what they are seeing.” The show in Delhi ended on the 14th October and it now travels to Gandhinagar, Bangalore and Bombay. Tasveer will also present a selection of photographs at Paris Photo in November. To know more visit their website. To look at more of Waswo's work, click here.

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Instagram is one of the largest photo sharing platforms on the internet. It has more than five million users logging in everyday to share anything and everything from pictures of their first meal of the day to photographs clicked at a protest rally. In the decades before Instagram, photojournalists would travel to war-torn areas or remote beautiful locations with cameras, reels and other equipment. These days, many use smartphone cameras, which come with photo-publishing apps. These allow photojournalists to not only share their pictures instantly but to also display their artistic side. Here is a list of Indian photojournalists on Instagram, who have built quite a following with their stunningly composed photographs:

1.Dayanita Singh

Dayanita has authored twelve books on photography in her 45-year-long career. She is popular in art circles for her “portable museums.” A portable museum is made up of 40 photographs and is hung from a panel. Her photographs explore various themes – from industrial machinery to the life of her friend, the eunuch Mona Ahmed. Her Instagram is dotted with monochrome photographs, and pictures of vintage books and finely detailed sculptures. https://www.instagram.com/p/BLgWyxqhiWw/?taken-by=dayanitasingh https://www.instagram.com/p/BK7gt-WBf64/?taken-by=dayanitasingh You can follow her, here.

2. Arati Kumar Rao

Arati Kumar Rao’s appetite for storytelling began when she started reading monthly issues of National Geographic magazine as a child. Decades later, Arati is an established environmentalist who writes about and photographs indigenous populations living in vulnerable ecosystems. Her project on Tumblr, called River Diaries:Brahmaputra, is a study of one of the most important river systems in the world. She also contributes to Peepli.org, a news website, which publishes articles that “delve deep into the unreported, under-reported, themes that public discourse currently abdicates.” https://www.instagram.com/p/BKzXU4IANi2/?taken-by=aratikumarrao https://www.instagram.com/p/BJCQBhZgpzA/?taken-by=aratikumarrao You can follow her, here.

3. Ravi Choudhary

A B.Sc. agriculture graduate from a small town called Muzzafarnagar, Ravi Choudhary has been published in the Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and The Daily Mail. Currently employed by Hindustan Times, this prolific photographer has more than 34k followers on Instagram. His Instagram features everything from a young Tibetan monk playing with a toy gun to a double-exposure shot of Mark Zuckerberg during his trip to India. Follow him to be regularly updated with incredible images accompanied by evocative captions. https://www.instagram.com/p/BMMQHcJhb6U/?taken-by=choudharyravi https://www.instagram.com/p/BHpg0dThNvg/?taken-by=choudharyravi You can follow him, here.

4. Chandan Khanna

When Chandan Khanna is not working on an assignment for Agence France-Presse, he whips out his phone camera and indulges in some “street reportage,” as he calls it. He procured a diploma in photography from Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication in New Delhi, where he studied different technical aspects of the art form. But he learnt the ethics of photojournalism while covering various newsworthy events in the city. His most recent series is a photo story called Bidi, which traces the hidden lives of child labourers employed illegally to produce Indian handmade cigarettes. From his Instagram, it is quite apparent that Chandan is unapologetic in the way he uses photos to point out the hypocrisy of the modern consumerist society. https://www.instagram.com/p/BIAPzLRDDL3/?taken-by=khannachandan https://www.instagram.com/p/BFE6olgBNly/?taken-by=khannachandan You can follow him, here.

5. Anushree Fadnavis

Anushree works as a photojournalist for a Mumbai based news agency called Indus Images. Her current project, Train Diaries, has the attention of more than 93,000 people because it is attempting to do something very unique. Anushree photographs the women she meets on Mumbai’s local trains every day, and shares their pictures as well as poignant stories with her followers on social media. https://www.instagram.com/p/BML3912hIED/?taken-by=anushree_fadnavis https://www.instagram.com/p/BH9suGUjJyo/?taken-by=anushree_fadnavis You can follow her, here.

6. Subrata Biswas

Subrata Biswas has one of the most amazing collections of contemporary black and white pictures on Instagram; they evoke a sense of nostalgia and drama. He is extremely adept at clicking portraits that show his subjects in a vulnerable light. Subrata frames his subjects (usually unsuspecting villagers) in an intimate and humane manner. This makes the problems they face – such as the drought crisis in Maharashtra – so much more personal. His works have been published in The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Better Photography, etc. https://www.instagram.com/p/BLbWDT7jRQe/?taken-by=subratabsws https://www.instagram.com/p/BKs1dCwDRF0/?taken-by=subratabsws You can follow him, here.

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For artists across the world, hashtag #inktober means creativity, exploration, expression, as well as experimentation. The Inktober initiative, started by American illustrator Jake Parker in 2009, has become a worldwide phenomenon where hobbyists, students and amateur as well as professional artists take upon themselves the challenge that urges them to expand their creative boundaries. The rules are fairly simple. Make a drawing in ink, post it online and hashtag it #inktober and #inktober2016. And so, a vast online archive of art is born every October, with every artist bringing in his or her own flavour to the different themes. "I created Inktober in 2009 as a challenge to improve my inking skills and develop positive drawing habits. It has since grown into a worldwide endeavour with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year," says Parker on the official Inktober website. [caption id="attachment_74247" align="aligncenter" width="500"] e83547699c867820-2016promptlistsm

For those who need a little headstart, there is an everyday prompt list![/caption] Many in India have been taking up the Inktober challenge and posting amazing content online with the hashtag #inktoberindia. A single glance at the plethora of illustrations born out of Inktober and one sees that there's everything there: numerous styles, different approaches, varying mediums, and several subjects! An avid participant in Inktober 2016, Mayura Datar, a National Institute of Design (NID) alumna who is an animator by profession, says, "I really wanted to make something unique and native to me. For the whole of October I looked around with great interest, noticing details, thinking of different concepts/frames/emotions. Enjoyed every bit of the self-learning process." There are thousands of artists out there like Mayura, who looked, observed, innovated and put their ideas on paper this Inktober. From Twitter to Instagram to Tumblr, Facebook to Imgur, Inktober was everywhere. Here are a a few brilliant Inktober illustrations posted by Indian artists.

#inktober2016 Day 27- creepy Posted by Mayura Datar on Monday, October 31, 2016

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLOwWZOAeVx/?taken-by=rheamuthane https://www.instagram.com/p/BL1rppClrkn/?taken-by=culturecrow https://www.instagram.com/p/BL3gzadAaOw/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BLLU0pSgjX_/?taken-by=anirban_ghosh https://www.instagram.com/p/BL3-gD-Be8I/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BL36BIvDlpC/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BLyyImrDRZ5/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BL_zEixhxM-/?taken-by=vinvinsituation https://www.instagram.com/p/BLoNtHug2QN/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BLxoXY3B6m_/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BLyyurkDjZn/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BMJF60JhYqF/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BL6hc81AlXm/?taken-by=palllaviii There's more out there. Simply type #Inktoberindia in your search engine and keep exploring!

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A colourful room in a slum, where women and children come to work together, forget all their problems, and create art – that’s Dharavi Art Room for you. Set up by an art graduate way back in 2005, it is a place where dreams are shaped daily. “I come from a single parent background and my family faced financial difficulties when I was growing up. Creating things, drawing, colouring – I remember how these activities made me happy. Art helped me share something with others, make friends, and communicate,” says 35-year-old Himanshu S., founder of Dharavi Art Room, who uses art to empower children and women living in Dharavi, one of the largest slums in Asia.

Himanshu, an artist and a graduate of Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai, started teaching art around 15 years ago.

As a college student, he would volunteer at a school where he and his friends introduced kids to art. Together, they would draw, paint on walls, take pictures, make music, and do many other creative activities. Himanshu noticed how these activities excited the kids and realized he wanted to continue working as an art teacher. After working with various communities and NGOs, he decided to launch his own project in Dharavi. He had visited the area often to visit a friend and he became acquainted with the residents there. But Himanshu was dissatisfied that Dharavi was only portrayed in films and art by people living outside the slum. He wanted the children of the area to express themselves through art and show the world what Dharavi meant to them, what life in the slum looked like, the things that made them happy, and the problems they faced.

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Leaving a promising artistic career behind, Himanshu dedicated himself to this project and Dharavi Art Room was born in 2005.

“Art became the easiest medium for him to connect with children. It was the one thing that helped him heal and feel good about the world. And he thought that since kids in this neighbourhood live under so much stress as well, art can heal them too,” says 27-year-old Aqui Thami, who started working with Himanshu full-time in 2012, and is currently also finishing her doctoral degree in social work at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Earlier, Himanshu would conduct classes for the children in public areas like the community playground, the temple, or a bus depot. He recently rented a small room in Shiv Shakti Nagar from a woman whose kids come for the classes too.

Himanshu mainly conducts classes on drawing, painting, and photography for children and youth between the ages of 5 and 22, and also for women of all ages. Initially, the kids just draw or paint whatever they want. As they advance in the programme, they learn to narrate stories through their drawings. Next, they begin to portray their own lives in Dharavi, what they see and experience there. They are also introduced to other art forms like photography, music, film-making, and crafts. Eventually, the students choose one art form and pursue that. Some of the interesting projects taken up by Himanshu and his team include: ‘Ladieswallahs’, a photography workshop for women; ‘Muralswallahs’, a project for children to beautify their neighbourhood by painting walls and making small repairs; and ‘Musicwallahs,’ an initiative to bring music to the lives of the children.

Aqui conducts all music workshops and the NGO occasionally invites outside experts.

The children and women’s works are exhibited at different venues from time to time. Himanshu and Aqui also take the children on picnics and trips to malls, museums and other places of cultural importance. While Dharavi parents were hesitant to embrace the art room concept initially, they have seen the difference art can make in their children’s lives. “We look at art as a way for these children to understand their own lives and those of their neighbours and cope with the problems they face. We want them to find solutions themselves,” says Aqui, adding that communal disharmony is one of the many problems prevalent in Dharavi and the art room helps children deal with that too.

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Children from diverse backgrounds come together, make friends, learn about different religions, and slowly shed their reservations about mixing with peers from different backgrounds.

Art has become a huge source of empowerment for the women too. “These women haven’t experienced friendship, in the sense that they never went to school, and even if they did, they dropped out quite early and never made life-long friends. Then they became busy with housework and taking care of their kids. They never went outside of their homes to do something they felt good about,” says Aqui. While the work is satisfying, Aqui confesses that raising funds has always been difficult. “Both of us (Himanshu and I) are always asking for money,” she laughs, adding that friends, family members and some crowdfunding campaigns have helped finance them.

They registered Dharavi Art Room as an NGO in 2015.

Last year, Dharavi Art Room worked with 1,200 kids and 60 women, and over the years, Himanshu has worked with about 6,000 children. They also work in partnership with schools and other organizations in and around Dharavi. The impact of Dharavi Art Room is visible in the lives of the women and children in both small and large ways.

For example, a woman who had never been to school or had a job earlier, successfully found a job after the Ladieswallahs photography workshop.

Many parents also point out that their kids are more inclined towards attending school now. Himanshu says that one of the biggest achievements of the art room is that the children return to the classes every day, even though there is no attendance system. Sooraj, who started coming to the art room when he was very young, is in Class 12 now. At one of the exhibitions of their work, a woman was so impressed by his photography skills that she purchased a DSLR camera for him.

He now photographs parties and weddings in the community, which helps him earn some money to continue his education.

“Art has this inherent quality of healing and making people feel good. Anyone can feel good when they start using colours and start making things themselves,” sums up Aqui. Know more about the art room here.

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