Friendships renewed at launch of exhibition

I was in Mumbai last week for the opening of an exhibition that I had curated at the Taj Mumbai. I went to Mumbai after many years and actually liked the city for the first time. The Taj, of course, is one of the best hotels in the country and comparable to the best in the world and probably beating everything else hands down. The grandeur of the place, the view overlooking the Gateway of India and the sea dotted with boats is stuff that dreams are made of. In short, it is simply breathtaking for someone who has lived in a landlocked city for most of my life. Mumbai looked spruced up for a change. I loved the art deco buildings of south Mumbai and actually wanted to linger around to see them properly. I never thought I would ever be mouthing these words, let alone write them.

It is a very intimate gallery and allows you to linger and experience the works in a perfect setting. The show in fact triggered off a thought process about art openings in general and this opening in particular. First things first, this show — Eclectic Metaphors — turned out to be special for many reasons. For one, it explored the entire gamut of the creation of the art and its logical conclusion of presentation and sale. Gallery Pioneer, led by Praveen Upadhyaye and his associate Saurabh Jain, cut no corners and organised an art camp in Mukeshwar in Uttarakhand, where artists painted in the lap of nature, and those works were then made into signed and numbered serigraphs that were packaged as a beautiful collectable set where buyers could have a taste of all the works at an affordable price. The actual works were on display of course.

To come back to the opening, these are always special for us artists as they are the high point when all the tears and toil culminate in a reason to share, present and celebrate the works with the audience. At least in Delhi, artists and other audiences make it a point to visit the opening as far as possible for they understand the journey behind it. It is like a solidarity thing. I was delighted to see many artists from the group and others who were involved in the project had made it a point to come from as far as Hyderabad, Delhi and Pune to attend the opening, including Sanjay Ashtaputre and Amit Gupta among others.

Yet it is different from a performing art concert or recital — for, it is static unlike a live show that will always be different. As they say, raga, rasoi, pagri, kabhun na ek rang, meaning a song or raga, the same recipe or a turban tied or made by even the same person can never be the same.

And given peak hour traffic in Mumbai, it was wonderful to see many artists from the city who made the effort to attend, the delightfully witty sculptor Arzan Khambatta being one who kept us in splits at an art camp in Switzerland. Nikita Padora, who is part of the Nargis Dutt Foundation, working to support cancer-affected people, who I was in touch with when she had invited me to be part of their fundraiser, battled the traffic to come all the way. As did Vinay Singh, a hotshot shippy who is a dear friend I know I can call anytime of the day or night and he will be there. There are not many people about whom one can say this. The Taj Sea Lounge used to be a regular haunt of ours when we happened to be in Mumbai together, so it felt great to be there.

For me, this show will remain very special also for a few people from the television world who came for their affection for me — actor Satyajit Sharma who we saw as the growling Basant in Balika Badhu and as the hapless father in the Fair and Lovely ad trying to convince his daughter to marry. Meeting Satyajit after many years was such a pleasure, for he is unaffected and extremely down to earth and very affectionate. However, one image that I always carry of him in my mind is that of a pimply gangly youth at an extension workshop of the National School of Drama in Udipi years ago with B.V. Karanth, and not the handsome man he has been for many years now.

She caught my eye as the sensitive and supportive friend in Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin. Then as the matriarch of Sasural Simar Ka who wore the most exquisite kantha sarees, even though she was surrounded by blingy bahus. I followed both serials erratically for a bit. Then I saw her in a dance reality show dancing Odissi and only then did I take real notice of her — it is always classical dance for me. Then we connected on social media, for we seemed to like similar quotes. Then I remembered her in one of E Alkazi’s plays and recalled that I had used her picture in my book A Moment in Time with Legends of Indian Arts from a production in a chapter on Alkazi Sahib.

But more than all this, I just happened to see a picture of hers with Kikki, or Kiran Bhatia, who was an inseparable part of our Shri Ram Centre days in the 80s. Kikki continues to be the warm, affectionate and respectful person who was like family for he shared a wonderful relationship with my mother. I even bullied him to teach me how to ride a scooter. But to no avail! Life went on. Kikki moved to Mumbai to go into television production and we lost touch. But thanks to Facebook, I realised that sadda Kikki was married to saddi Jayati Bhatia. It was as if one had met them just the day before, even though I was meeting her for the first time. It felt so lovely to connect with this wonderful and warm couple. One can only feel grateful for having these very special moments that make the business of life and living meaningful.

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com