It is not easy to create a signature style for yourself when your mind is full of the imprints of Art Maestroes. But Jaya Baheti with her free flow of brush has done that.
Realism is too stark a nudity for an aesthetic eye to complete its search for beauty and truth even if the same are ‘created’. The membranes of a creative palette transgress into stony entities hurting the very eye that watches it with heightened intensity. A diaphanous touch of rustic streaks awakens the surreal in the real. Artist Jaya Baheti’s oeuvres seem to be radiating with the same. The rustic landscapes coalesce with brush strokes that give them almost an abstract feel. Juxtaposed to this softness are her geometric opuses of human figures with too-large heads. 
Beginner’s strokes
Born in Pune Jaya is a Hyderabadi now, her marriage has brought her to the Char Minar City. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pune. “I began with my solo show at Chitari Art Gallery and it was an astounding success amongst the Art connoisseurs. So many art lovers came to the exhibition.” It was her father’s friend artist Murli Lahoti who influenced her a lot during her growing years.Inspirations and influences
Art seems to have known the address of her home. A young Jaya would see her mother do everything in an artistic way. She would be enthralled to watch her arranging plates on the dining table and fresh flowers in beautiful patterns. “Even the food that she would serve would be decorated artistically with an array of colourful vegetables and sprigs of herbs,” says the artist. “I am a free soul. I let this freedom flow on my canvas,” informs Jaya. No wonder she has a vast mélange of genres that keep finding ways into her brush strokes be it with acrylics, water-colours, mixed media, ceramics, glass, charcoal, ink or wood. Her artistic mood moulds these into an aesthetic object.
In one of her paintings titled ‘Moon Bath’ she put a silver coin as the moon in the sky that gleams against the dark contours of secrets. She has curated many art exhibitions across the country and her art exhibitions have been held in many other countries.On Art in a market hit by recession
A luxury item that any Richie Rich of the metropolis considers an objet d’art to be in times when the economic recession is gaping at all markets. Art aficianadoes keep adding in their collection only the colossal names. Other buyers maintain reticence while trying to keep the strings of their purses tight. Jaya has quite a different take on this, “In Hyderabad, you see an art event happening every day. Art galleries are coming up. Hyderabad is a good market. Buyers and rains come all of a sudden so why be despondent in predictions?” Arty affairs
Her strokes pick a drop of water and make rivulets flow surrounding which grow verdant forests – rain soaked. And the vision gets trapped in the greenscape that swirls as strokes of abstract elements blending with finesse in what is present and hidden from the eye. That’s how come her exhibitions have travelled to Art Mosaic Gallery, Singapore; Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi; Bombay Art Society, Bombay; Taj Deccan, Hyderabad and in many other renowned art galleries of the country. Her upcoming shows are to be held in Germany, New York and London.
Jagran Cityplus remembers Lance Naik Mohammed Firoz Khan a martyr who sacrificed his life fighting against Pakistani troops at LoC in Jammu & Kashmir October last year.
A soldier, miles away posted at LoC was packing up to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha with his family at Hyderabad. There was a smile on his face that he packed in his luggage with the toys for his little children. The luggage did reach his home, but the smile was smothered. Toys were shattered. Lance Naik Mohammad Firoz Khan was killed as Pakistani troops opened fire in Poonch district at Mendhar sub-sector. His last words, “Jai, Hind!” seemed to resonate again and again in the Nawab Sahab Kunta graveyard, old city Hyderabad, where he was buried with full military honours. Country roads
The 35 year old soldier, Firoz was a resident of Hyderabad old city, Nawab Sahab Kunta. His father Mohammad Jafar Khan, too, was in Indian Army and wanted his son to serve the country. “Even when we would play in the ground, my brother would always mention his dreams of joining the army. He would be our leader in any game,” reminisces his younger brother Mohammad Alauddin Khan with teary eyes. And a leader indeed he was. He was with 18 Madras Regiment for twelve years serving in the battalion 38 Rashtriya Rifles. His first posting was in Ooty. He was posted at Kargil from 2005-2007. “From the army posts he would call us regularly and talk to each member of the family,” adds Alauddin in a low voice.
His mother Razia Begum fondly touches the memento that her son received while he was sent on UN Mission of Congo from 2010-2011. She gives a crushed smile, “My son has made all of us proud. He would always say that he will make it big one day while serving the army.” Labour Minister Danam Nagender, Mayor Majid Hussain, YSR Congress party president Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, BJP leaders G. Kishan Reddy and Bandaru Dattatreya and other political party leaders had come to pay their respects to the martyred soldier when his body was brought to Hyderabad on October 17, 2013 for the funeral.The last moments
Firoz had visited his family on Eid-ul-Fitr the last year in August. He had been given leave for Eid-ul-Azha but as soon as he heard of the firings on Indian Army posts in Poonch, where he was posted, he did not care about his leaves and went ahead to join his compatriots saying, “I can celebrate Eid later, but have to teach the enemy a lesson!” He went to the firing spot and fired back gallantly at the Pakistani troops. He was hit by a mortar splinter. Before dying, the last words that he uttered were, “Jai, Hind!” His three children Afsheen aged 5, Ashraf aged 3 and 10 month old Naaz were waiting for him come and celebrate the festival with them. Little did they know that their father was a shaheed now. They looked on innocently as hundreds of people took part in the funeral procession of the martyr and gathered at the graveyard for the burial rites. His wife Nasreen Fatima is still in a state of shock, her hands still bearing very faint traces of henna. Highest honour for Firoz
The soldier’s house wears a sad gloomy look with his mementos kept amidst blue paper flowers. Soon they will be humbled to have Param Vir Chakra to be kept on the highest shelf of the showcase in the living room. “We have been informed by Army officials that Firoz bhai will be awarded Param Vir Chakra,” informs his brother Alauddin. The family will go to New Delhi on Independence Day to receive the highest military award for gallantry. Firoz is dead, but his deeds of martyrdom will live for an eternity.
How well do we know our city? Anant Maringanti, one of the founders of Hyderabad Urban Lab(HUL) speaks to Cityplus to let us know how we can find the answer to that question.
You must have come across chemistry labs, but have you ever heard of an urban lab? Meet Anant Maringanti, one of the founders of Hyderabad Urban Lab (HUL). A lab with the aim to help urbanites understand their own world and bring a change to it. Anant is an economics geographer who, after his stay abroad, came back to his roots, his city and is letting others see it from a different perspective.Right to know one’s own city
It was in the year 1956 that a French philosopher brought the concept of the right to know one’s own city. United Nations has also been closely involved with it over the years. The fundamental idea is to produce knowledge about the city in a local text and to understand how urbanization is shaping up internal and external lives of urbanites. Anant elaborates, “Cities are topographies that do not belong to a particular person. They are developed over ages undergoing many changes that eventually shape them up. They are entities. We are yet to find out how cities function as entities. Ours is an idea to explore this more.”Bholakpur, for instance
Much like factories, cities too produce their own waste. And every city has its own places filtering the waste of a city much like kidneys do for a body. For Hyderabad, Bholakpur works as its kidneys. The 150 year old area is known as the leather tannery of the city amidst verdant crop fields. “People came from villages to settle down there and then around it, a city transformed. Now, at Bholakpur people live who deal with the scrap that the city produces – these people actually have made the city livable and clean. Areas like Bholakpur do not feature much in town planning. In 2009 when drinking water was mixed up with sewerage water, the area was labeled as the hub of maladies. Nobody bothered to find out whose fault it was and why it happened. It is an important area that puts commodities back to life post consumption; this is what needs to be recognized when cities are planned,” says Anant. Hyderabad Urban Lab began its research work on Bholakpur the last year to locate Bholakpur and places of the same sort on the global and political economy by giving its people a platform to tell their tales.Meta Data
The data related to a city is rarely transparent. There is always a mismatch between two government bodies thanks to their own ‘risk and benefit’ factors. The accurate data can help save many a denizen during natural calamities or man-made disasters. Not only this, it will help people understand their city in a much better way. They can connect with one another as and when required. Anant signs off saying, “We are trying to accumulate accurate government public data. This will be very useful in the communication between public and government. We have begun to collect data and data samples from various sources. We teach students GIS and ask them to collect data for us.”
In a conversation with Jagran Cityplus, the well-known poet, art curator and cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote talks about Indian poetry, his translation work on Lal Děd and more.
There is no easy way to answer the great Indian question, ‘Where do you come from?’ especially when you belong to an ethnic micro minority. But Ranjit Hoskote the celebrated contemporary English language poet, art curator and cultural theorist busts the interrogation mark through his work that liquefies the cross cultural identities to culminate onto what sub-continent has not cast its glance at.
It was not for nothing that celebrated Kashmiri American poet Agha Shahid Ali had said of him, “Hoskote wants to discover language, as one would a new chemical in a laboratory experiment. This sense of linguistic play, usually missing from sub-continental poetry in English, is abundant in Hoskote’s work.” In a conversation with Cityplus, Hoskote talks about Indian poetry, his translation work on Lal Děd and more.On various ‘isms’
An art curator that Hoskote is, any ‘ism’ for him begins as liberation and ends up being a cage. ‘isms’ are not movements, but moments in Art. “Once these ‘isms’ mark a major breakthrough in terms of artistic practices, the nature of aesthetic experience, and how the line between life and art is blurred, the artist moves on to a new level of resolution. His sense of practice is transformed, but if he fossilizes that into a set of rules, then he is betraying himself. It is sad if someone remains a surrealist for his whole life.” On this the poet adds, “Isms create definitions of what belongs to the Self and what is against the Self. They become basis for antagonism. The minute you identify with that belief you are constrained and what is outside your Self appears hostile and strange. In political terms ‘isms’ are lethal, dangerous!”Are artists or poets loners?
Anyone who is an artist knows the mystery of the world. “A good artist may be socially or personally alienated, but he is never alienated from his art. As an artist you recognize there is no unitary Self. Self, within itself, contains many other Selfs. It is hybrid and rooted in many places experiences, various cultural impulses and confluences. You develop a way of looking at the world in a different sense infused with curiosity and empathy. You do not create art to put down what you already know,” avers the poet and art curator.On Tagore’s centenary of winning the Nobel
“It is very difficult to understand on what basis the Nobel Prize Committee makes its choices. Reasons why they chose whom are very obscure. Often, it has to do with their sense of a writer’s dealing with major political or cultural crisis. There are a number of Indian writers who could easily claim to be worthy of winning a Nobel. Nevertheless, back home we have prestigious Sahitya Akademi.” The question, however, still oscillates from 1913 to 2013 with the air hanging still.
On Lal Děd
It is not often that a reader savours a work of translation as a pristine and independent entity in itself quite juxtaposed to the European styles. That is how ‘I, Lalla’ came into being. It took Hoskote twenty years to translate the vākhs of the 14th century Kashmiri mystic Lal Děd, Lalleshwari, Lalla and Lal Arifa as she is called. Hoskote gets nostalgic, “This mystic figure is very significant to me, deeply personal. It was a desire to connect with my original roots. Translating it was a challenge for me. I am a diasporic Kashmiri. It took over my soul. Every poem is annotative as there is Sufi, Tantric and Saivite usage. Hers was a poetry that cut across all divisions carrying heritage of Kashmir.”
Sridala Swami is a rising star in the circles of Indian poetry. Her other interests such as photography, film making culminate as other opuses of her poetic sensibilities.
It is not often that somebody puts his / her fingers in many pies and takes the cake home. But Sridala Swami wears many hats with élan. She is a poet, photographer, short story writer and documentary film-maker. Swami has recently returned from prestigious Iowa University after a three month Writer-in-Residence program.Tryst with writing
Sridala began writing poems when she was in her early twenties. And what William Wordsworth had said, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.” Sridala has an ambivalent take on the Bard’s views. She says, “An image or a whiff of perfume is enough to transport me to a different world from where I get my poems. I do not set out for a journey to find out a poem, it comes to me on its own.”
While she reverberates what Wordsworth had said her other views are juxtaposed. She elaborates, “We have overused nature as our inspiration. That suited Romanticism well, now we are in a Post Modern era; the images are as diverse as a spoon or the clitter clatter of a keyboard.” And it is interesting to explore her poetic sensibilities through her first poetry book ‘A Reluctant Survivor’ published in 2007 by Sahitya Akademi. It was short-listed for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award in 2008.The brevity of lines contains themes as diverse as riots and maladies. She has penned four books for children as well. Her next book is a poetry volume entitled ‘Escape Artist’.Her other facets
Swami is also a film editor from FTII. She has edited a number of short movies, documentaries and commercials. Her keen eye for details brought her closer to photography. That is how come her solo photography exhibition ‘Posting the Light; Dispatches from Hamburg’ held at Kalakrti Art Gallery, Hyderabad brought her accolades. She has just come back to Hyderabad from Iowa University where she was Writer-in-Residence at the International Writing Program. She says beams with joy, “It was a wonderful experience meeting other fellow writers from different countries.”On Indian poetry
Many publishers claim that there are no readers of poetry. Sridala lambasts this notion saying, “If that were the case we would not be having so many enthralling poetry-aficionado-pulling poetry sessions at so many grand Literary Fests that are organised all over the country. Prakriti organises South India’s big festival related to poetry only.” She laments that in India its people do not know different periods of poetry unlike those of Britain. It is because the poets of different languages do not come and join hands on one single platform. “Poets, in India, need clarity of vision and unison,” she reminisces her favourite poets - Agha Shahid Ali, Nissim Ezekiel, Rainer Maria Rilke, Nâzım Hikmet and Anne Carson. She signs off, “These poets are so close to my heart. They make me want to learn poetry all over again.”
“Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life.” Said William Hazlitt. Surya Rao makes this true as he is going to make verses hang in the air of Hyderabad this winter.What if four Irish Nobel Laureates in literature come to your street in the mellow sunshine of January, 2014? You will want this ‘daydream’ to continue. And why not? Meet the man, who is all set to transmute Hyderabad into a mini Ireland. He is GSP Rao, the Festival Director of Hyderabad International Literary Festival and Founding Editor of Muse India, a non-profit literary web journal. An engineer by profession, Rao is an equally seasoned poet per se.Cumulating literature with technology
The Romantic poet John Keats was a qualified medical practitioner and so was the Russian writer Anton Chekov. And in today’s age there are bureaucrats and engineers who make literature rich with their varied exposure. For Rao, too, poetry and technology were two poles – separate from each other. But his poetic pollination made the two amalgamate into one. “I was interested in literature from my college days. My background in technology always wanted me to conjoin the two. That is how Muse India was born.”From Dalit to Danish LiteratureRao is the technical architect for Muse India. The e-journal focuses on Indian writing in English from the country and overseas. The budding young writers and the renowned ones share a common platform. The poetry of protest finds its way in the journal’s posts. One gets to see the moving works of Gogu Shyamala and others. “The poetry of protest has a very strong voice. And so is the Diasporic literature. For example, a writer like Tabish Khair, who has made Denmark his home, talks about rootlessness. But his work now gives a flavour of Danish literature. This blend completes the Indian Diaspora. An honest writer brings this cross-cultural element in his writings.”The Festival of Literature
Surya Rao along with other members of Muse India started Hyderabad’s first International Literary Festival in 2010. Wordsmiths from India and abroad flock to Hyderabad, and celebrate this Lit Fest. Every year a ‘Guest Nation’ is featured. That is why Irish stalwarts like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw and W B Yeats are going to take the breath of Hyderabadis away. “The Lit Fest will be celebrated at Road No. 8, Banjara Hills at different venues,” beams Rao talking about transforming this street into a ‘Literary Street’. There will be street theatres, book stalls and musical performances on the street. “We have invited the Ambassador of Ireland to India Feilim McLaughlin for the inauguration,” Informs the poet, flipping through the pages of his planner.With a Vision
All arts bloom from literature. Rao solidifies this take by exemplifying the magnum opuses of maestroes like Raphael and Rembrandt. “Their art works are related to Greek mythology. The words they read flowed on their canvas. It was poetry in dots and colours. Why just painting? Drama and cinematography is based purely on what wordsmiths create. Web journals preserve everything as digitalized. The reach to global audience has become wider.”
With three books that range from a collection of poetry, collection of short stories and biography of King Krishna Dev Rai of Vijay Nagar, Rao enjoys his penchant for different literary forms. For now his energy is focussed to make the streets of Banjara Hills a literary kaleidoscope as HLF gets ready to be unveiled.
What does a person do when history calls to him from the corners of the city? He becomes a mystic of History and uncovers tales from the regal ruins for posterity to read. Meet Sajjad Shahid, a heritage activist of Hyderabad and an aficionado of Art and Poetry par excellence. “If you as yet fail to comprehend, you will be annihilated O’ countrymen!Your very mention will be erased from the chronicles of the world,” croons Sajjad Shahid on the condition of dilapidating heritage buildings.
Born in a noble family of Hyderabad Sufis, Shahid had his origins firmly rooted in the Deccan soil. Sufi literature left indelible imprints on his mind, more so because his father was researching on ancient Sufis of Deccan – especially Bijapur. And the voice of History would call to Shahid from the book his father wrote. The bridge to ancient past made him fall in love with ruins of architecture. “We would go to dargahs at least once a year. Seeing the dilapidated condition of beautiful old dargahs made me sad! What troubled me more was how the relics of history were being changed in the name of maintenance,” laments the heritage activist.A lover of history
His interest changed into passion. A civil engineer in construction that he is by profession his technical background opened up the macrocosmic world of ancient architecture to him. In 1995 he joined INTACH, Hyderabad Chapter. He had to document the details of Dutch monuments at Bheemunipatnam. He is the Co-Convener of INTACH and the Secretary of Centre for Deccan Studies. And then, came his tryst with the architecture of Hyderabad namely Golconda Fort and tomb of Maha Laqa Bai Chanda, the famous courtesan and lyrical poet of Nizam’s era. “We conserved the 200 year old mausoleum at Chanda Bagh, Moula Ali. As part of the restoration-exhibition we put on display her portraits and volumes of her poetry,” avers Shahid. The work was undertaken under a grant from the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. An American scholar Dr. Scott Kugle worked on an English anthology of Chanda’s poetry. Governments Apathy
What bothers Shahid the most is the apathy of government towards conservation of heritage monuments. There are more than 5,000 tombs in India that are not being taken care of. And the irony is that Government of India has released only Rs 100 crores for all the monuments of India. “This much amount is required for the conservation of Qutub Shahi alone,” he wonders. He is the crusader for conservation of old monuments of Hyderabad. Be it Naya Qila, Moazzam Jahi Market, Khusro Manzil or Koti Residency. Disappointed with the lackadaisical approach of Government, Shahid suggests, “Much like Britain National Trust we require to form a Public Trust for Conservation in India. The funds that the Trust will receive will go for the conservation of the heritage monuments. Officially the conservation should be transferred to the Trust from the Government. Then we will see concrete actions.” With this vision he hopes to preserve the slices of history scattered all around Hyderabad.
