I met Suman Gupta for high tea in his well built home in Chhanni Himmat. He is a well known name for his works in the world of painters. We discuss Andrew Wyeth, an American realist painter, a favourite of his, over lots of Dogra savouries like ‘kalaries’, ‘kiyoor’ and ‘babroo’, lovingly cooked and continuously supplied by his better half.
Suman recalls how, against all odds, he made it a point to visit the studio of Andrew Wyeth, in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, when he was in the USA to display his works. To me, it shows his desire for immersing himself in the works of world art, and remain current in his chosen field. For him, it is a simple manifestation of his great love and respect for those painters whose works he admires.
We speak of the renowned painter Van Gogh. I tell him about the novel titled ‘The Moon and the Sixpence’ by Somerset Maugham. It is loosely woven around the life of French painter Paul Gauguin, a contemporary painter and a friend of Van Gogh ; they both lived and worked together for a while. I have read the book several times ; It is one of my favourite novels. I strongly recommended the novel to him.
Suman comes from a business family, which has not even a cursory interest in the arts or aesthetics. The family deals in edible oils. Somehow, Suman has no fancy for that business. After obtaining a degree in law, he realised he has a fancy for the world of art. He discovered he would like to paint. He tells me it is not often that he has spent an evening discussing art in Jammu. He urges me to come again soon.
He is a self-taught painter who has held solo exhibitions all over India and at some of the select art centres abroad. He is married to another law graduate who works with the potter’s wheel. Joy Gupta gets tremendous joy from her interactions with the clay.
She also holds teaching classes for those who wish to spin the potter’s wheel. Both, Joy and Suman, love to travel together in the hills and give each other the intellectual support they need.
For this column, I interacted with three more Jammuites, besides Suman Gupta. One is a sculptor, the second is an engineer and the third a short story writer. Here we go in the same order as described. A common element of dismay among them is : living in Jammu, they all feel suffocated at times. They all miss discourses, and discussions on art, culture and issues of relevance, which an educated society and a modern city should provide.
I recently met Ravinder Jamwal, a Dogra sculptor based in Jammu, the heart of Dograland. Nine out of ten sculptures that you see in Jammu and the areas around, are his works of art.
As you enter Jammu and Kashmir by road, at the entry point at Lakhanpur, you are welcomed by a huge statue of Maharaja Gulab Singh, the founding father of the Dogra dynasty.
In Jammu you face a mammoth sculpture of General Zorawar Singh riding his horse waving a sword in hand, near the Bahu Plaza. In close proximity to the famed Dogra general, we have a bust of Dhanwantari Mahey, a renowned revolutionary and close associate of Bhagat Singh, erected in a public park. All of them are the works executed by Ravinder Jamwal.
Ravinder prefers to live in his village, Birpur, some 20 kilometres away, on the outskirts of Jammu city. His studio is near his home. When he displayed his works at his studio recently, the Lieutenant Governor of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir came down to his studio to inaugurate it !
Ravinder had an inclination towards the arts right from his childhood. He joined the Institute of Music and Fine Arts, Jammu to hone his talent. Thereafter, he went to the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, for his master’s degree.
His wife Veena is an interesting lady who is the sarpanch of the village they live in. She has a very honest and direct approach to working for the betterment of the people she serves, and shies away from calling herself a politician of any colour.
We discussed the aesthetics of living in an urban village. He is happy to enjoy the serenity that helps him produce works of value. But, he feels stifled many times. There is no space for an intelligent discourse on art and aesthetics. He can’t even view the works of his contemporaries as these are never exhibited in the state. That, he thinks, is a great deterrent. He faces a tall and strong wall, every time he thinks of aesthetics.
Meet Amit Sharma, an aircraft maintenance engineer. He has worked with big guns like the Ambanis in Mumbai, taking care of the maintenance services for their aircraft. Presently, to search for a still better financial package, he opted to cross the seas. He now works for a company in Nigeria.
Amit lives alone in Nigeria. His progeny comprises of a son and a daughter who are looked after by his wife Shivani, when he is not in Jammu. Both the kids are school going, and are happy to stay with their mother in Jammu. Amit keeps coming in between. Both husband and wife are from urban Jammu areas. Shivani is a sharp young girl who runs a small setup for very young kids to keep herself occupied.
Amit plans to retire early and looks forward to a peaceful and young retired life. He has invested in properties in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in other parts of the country.
Will he like to settle in Jammu, his hometown, after the envisaged retirement ? ” I am not sure. In fact, I keep deliberating on this issue. Though living in Jammu will give me access to my own people, language and culture, I have my own reservations,” says Amit.
He cites two reasons. The first concern that bothers him is lack of reliable healthcare in the state. ” Quality of healthcare is one issue and lack of healthcare facilities is another. On both counts, Jammu fares poor. One does not know if he will survive an eventual heart attack. I learn there are no ventilators available in Jammu except at the Government Medical College and Hospital,” Amit shares his concerns.
Another important concern of his is the lack of intellectual communications platforms in Jammu : I have been around different parts of India and abroad. I would like to interact with my fellow citizens on issues of social, political and cultural importance, besides sharing physical aspects of life.
All the three, Amit, Ravinder and Suman find that there is a lack of awareness among the people of Jammu. The people also breed a strange kind of disinterest in the arts and literature, current affairs and political upheavals happening around them, as also the burning civic issues that affect their day-to-day life.
Let us meet a well known writer from Jammu, Khalid Husain, and learn his views about living in Jammu.
In the year 2021, Khalid Husain became the first writer of Punjabi language in Jammu and Kashmir to win a Sahitya Akademi Award. The Award brought him expected recognition and literary status. The Punjabi department in the University of Jammu prescribed his award winning book of short stories, Soolaan Da Salan ( Curry of Thorns ), in the syllabus of their postgraduate students.
But, this very department does not deem it fit to invite the writer for a felicitation and an eventual interaction with the students. Interestingly, the department of Urdu in the same University invited the author for a felicitation. Both the departments are one floor apart in the same building ! Till date, he is the only writer of Punjabi language in Jammu and Kashmir who has been given a Sahitya Akademi Award for his writings. Why should such disparaging behaviour be seen in the educated upper crust of our society ?
” People don’t read. Reading habits in Jammu have drastically gone down over the past three to four decades. That is the reason why literary standards too are nothing to talk about. Good reading habits are necessary to understand finer points of good literature. A writer who is a good reader will usually score over the one who does not read or who reads little”, opines Khalid.
I agree with Khalid. Elevated reading habits take us to the higher echelons of intellect. They improve our understanding of great literature from across the world. It also breeds in us a desire to speak to fellow readers and share our own knowledge and, thereby, improve upon our own understanding of good literature. This brings us to the folds of intellectual discourse and interactions. That is what we need for our mental and spiritual growth.
If Khalid Husain is recognised in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Lahore, it is simply because people there are familiar with his writings. People in Jammu and Kashmir are not. Reading breeds familiarity with the finer and innermost points of human nature.
With each passing year, more and more books are published in Jammu. I think these writers spend more time in writing and publishing than honing their art of writing through serious reading and exchange of ideas. They are producing quantity, not quality.
There are no platforms for intellectual interactions in Jammu. The literary bodies in the city mostly hold book release ceremonies.
You may add certain number of poetic soirees and a few mandatory events like Hindi Divas and death anniversaries of authors we neglected when they were alive.
We all know that our Dograland is world famous for Basohli art and painting. This distinct and distinguished school of Pahari miniature painting flourished in the independent hill state of Basohli during the late 17th and the 18th centuries. It is world renowned for its bold vitality of colour and line. Impressions and examples of this style of art are found throughout this Dogra region.
Can you imagine there are practically no art societies or art galleries in Jammu, an area which is world renowned for Dogra art ! A valid comparison can be made with the city of Ahmedabad, which houses at least a dozen of major art societies and galleries who hold exhibitions and neaningful programmes on art, almost every week. Both the cities boast of almost similar numbers of population.
When I wrote about Thinkers’ Club in this column recently, at least eight well educated persons contacted me and expressed a fervent desire to join the next discourse and interaction. These eight represent 800 others who did not write and reach me. But, then, our friend Johnny William, the convener of the Club, has yet to take the call. I wonder if something worthwhile is in the offing ?
Dear readers, let us face the fact that we have become insensitive to the world around us. We all are huddled within ourselves only. What matters to us is : I, me, myself. We suspect that thinking may bring us trouble, it may even cause pain and disturbance – it invariably does. So, we cut ourselves off from the world around us. Does that solve the problem ? No, it does not. It cannot. We are an integral part of the world around us and can’t live in isolation. We should not. We are humans and thinking is a great human faculty. We must use it judiciously.
I end with a couplet that comes to my mind without the name of its poet :
Behissi Shart Hai Jeene Ke Liye,
Aur Hum Ko Ehsas Ki Bimari Hai
( Insensitivity is the touchstone of living /
And, alas ! I suffer from a feeling heart ! )
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