Colourful hues bring alive Darjeeling amid political unrest

Mumbai: As the Gorkhaland agitation in Darjeeling cast a shadow on the picturesque hill town, an artist sat by his window and romanced with the mountains to capture and bring alive its ethereal beauty on canvas.

He picked up his brushes and created a bevy of colours of Darjeeling in its myriad forms.

When life came to a standstill in the 104 days of the protests in the tourist paradise, artist Chandranath Das decided it was time to ward off the dullness and what better than putting his expressions out in his paintings.

Thus was born ‘Darjeeling, my Muse’, a collection of a cascade of colours on canvas and paper, depicting the prayer flags, seasonal changes of nature and the yaks in the Queen of the Hills.

Currently showcasing his works his Mumbai, Das feels it an opportune moment to attract visitors to Darjeeling after the political unrest and he is doing his bit for it.

The vibrancy in ‘Prayer of the Road’, ‘Solitude’, ‘Prachku river’, ‘Rhododendron’, ‘Returning’, he feels, will definitely bring back the tourists to Darjeeling, which has been “both a lover and muse” for him.

The impressionist theme of the ‘Kanchenjunga seen from Darjeeling’, the ‘Monsoon at Darjeeling’ or the ‘Green Beauty’ portraying an effervescent woman tea plucker amid the green leaves is an ode to the place, and sensitising the people about the charm of the town which suffered a lot in the last few months, he says.

“My aim is that tourism should pick up in Darjeeling. People should visit Darjeeling, where tea and tourism are the main industries, and enjoy its beauty,” says Das.

The motions and different actions of yak in four of his works are the outcome of the anger that he and others felt as the place got impacted because of the agitation.

The mood among the tea pluckers prior to the agitation and after it is subtly exhibited in two works.

Amid the nature and its beauty, Das has not forgotten to remember the divine, as a colourful sketch of Lord Ganesh symbolises that all hurdles may be overcome to bring the place back to normalcy.

The works on display, done mostly in oil and acrylic on canvas and water colours on paper, also feature Mount Everest, which is heavily inscribed in the imagination of the people of Darjeeling.

Das said he will be happy if his paintings help draw the attention of people towards this town in the Himalayan foothills.

According to Das, who has a Master and Research degree (AMA) in Cultural Heritage & Restoration from UK and Italy, his paintings were exhibited at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, National Library and Max Muller Bhawan in Kolkata and Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling.