"वहीं पाना चाहता हूँ / मैं अपने सवालों का जवाब / जहाँ लोग वर्षों से चुप हैं"
"निछावर कर दें हम सर्वस्व, हमारा प्यारा भारतवर्ष"- जयशंकर प्रसाद *BEJOD INDIA (Main page)* बेजोड़ इंडिया/ بیجوڑ انڈیا - A blog in English, हिन्दी, اردو and other Indian languages/ Devoted to Indian art, culture and literature keeping a distance from political or other disputes./Please don't send your content until requested by us. Use Contact Form on desktop version of this blog to contact us. /(Our link supported by Twitter & WhatsApp but not by Facebook)
Saturday, 31 August 2024
प्रसिद्ध हिन्दी कवि बोधिसत्व का काव्य पाठ, पटना में 30.8.2024 को सम्पन्न
Monday, 19 August 2024
"Mithila Art": a 360 degree review of Madhubani Painting - book released in New Delhi on 17.8.2024
"We drew mythology, you must draw the present"
Days are not far away when people will forget their mother-tongue but they will still remember their ethnic art and paintings. In such a scenario only such paintings will be able to take the role of flagbearer of the culture - a speaker Alok Kumar said this at the event.
Art is not just a matter of expression, it's a matter of existence. Without this you are just a zoological creature and not a human being. Throughout the world, folk arts have evolved and flourished as an integral part of the daily normal life of the inhabitants. They have carved out a niche for themselves by conserving their uniqueness in terms of style and technique. Through the ages, Mithila Art which is a more logical name of Madhubani Painting possesses the commendable features of inclusiveness as it has been adopted not just by the so-called elite Bhrabhmana and Kayasthas but also by the so-called ordinary castes like Dusadhs and others. The techniques and materials used in making of a Madhubani paintaing requires just flowers and other natural colours found easily in the nature. The motifs mainly consists of the nature, Hindu mythology and general life of the masses at large.
Prof. Prashant Das (IIMA) presented the welcome note to the audience and then requested the distinguished guests to come to the dais for the book release. This auspicious act was performed jointly by Chandra Mauli Karn (IFS), Arjun Naraya Choudhary (veteran writer), Cdr Kaushal Choudhary (Rtd.), Savitri Labh (artist), Prof. Prashant Das, Binita Mallik, Dr. Minu Agrawal and the publisher Nirmal Kr Karn from Adarsh Enterprises.
After the book-release, the renowned Maithili singer Sundaram Choudhary presented Ganesh Vandana and Bhagwati geet in his mesmerisingly mellifluous voice. He was accompanied by the tabala player Pratyush and a co-singer Pragya.
Surprisingly two of the three editors namely Minu Agarwal and Laura Zizka have had no past connection to Mithila painting in their life. Only Binita Mallik is the editor who has been born and brought up in Mithila culture.
Binita Mallik propagated that the best friend of a person is not a human but a skill. Every art has a particular language and grammar of expression. She has inherited the art from her ancestors and has put her paintings in several exhibitions. She is a well-known Madhubani painting artist in Delhi.
Minu Agarwal stated, art is something that connects people and we can celebrate the creativity best where it comes from. And the big mass of people who have gathered has some connection with Mithila culture. They have the ability to appreciate our book the most. She described further the nature of different chapters of the book and stressed particularly that the second and third chapter has cultural connection. In the middle of the book parallels have been drawn of Mithila art from some other art movements.
Chandra Mauli Karn (IFS) said it proudly that along with other presents he has presented Mithila art pieces to more than 100s of the foreign dignitaries and he did so because Mithila paintings deserve it. He recounted that some of the dignitaries in Africa said that the Mithila art has some striking similarity with tribal arts. He reminded that many initiatives have been taken from the Central Government to promote Mithila Art.
Alok Kumar drew attention of the people towards the sustainability of paintings. He said that in coming days when most of the people are getting dispersed away from their home villages unfortunately they are drifting away from the use of their language. Though there is a a danger of forgetting the mother tongue (which we must try to avoid at any cost) there is still a high probability that they will relate to their culture mainly through their paintings. So, the book on Mithila painting is a true service in the direction of conserving the culture.
Nirmal Kumar of Adarsh Enterprises is the publisher of the book. He said that this coffee table book will fill the long time gap on Mithila art. Not only the artists of the book but also an editor and the publisher are from Mithila.
Savitri Labh (Artist) described the significance of Kamaladah and Kobar in Mithila art. He also said that even though someone grows old he can make Mithila paintings and can keep themselves enthusiastic and creative.
Ashok Kr Coudhary from Sahitya Akademy also expressed his views on Mithila paintings and said that though he belongs to Odisa still is a big fan of Madhubani paintings.
The released book contains insightful articles and interviews with a view to give full perspective to the readers about the Madhubani aka Mithila Art. Prof. Prashant Das is the managing editor and Binita Mallik (artist and poet), Dr. Minu Agarwal (Prof. at CEPT, Ahmedabad) and Laura Zizka (Prof. at Laussane de Echole, Switzerland) are the editors.
The artists whose contents have been covered in this book include Godavari Dutta, Bimla Dutta, Krishna Kumar Kashyap, Smriti Shree, Sarita Das, Binita Mallik, Ranju Das, Rajani Thakur, Archana Raj. Shreya Sarda from Design Flyover has designed the whole book. The book has been divided in nine chapters as the following-
1. Mithila Art: A survey of what we already know
2. A visual survey of Mithila Paintings
3. The International reception of Mithila paintings in the 1970s A countercultural kairos?
4.Transforming the bride: Gauri Puja in early 20th century Madhubani Paintings
5.Madhubani Paintings reviewed with modern lenses
6. Is the Mithila Painting losing its sanctity because of its excessive access?
7. Godavari Dutta:"The art came as a ray of hope in the otherwise gloomy life"
8. Bimla Dutta: " We drew mythology, you must draw the present"
9. Krishna Kumar Kashyap: "There is no distinction between education and art"
Those who were present at the event included Adhir Mallik, Pranav Priyadarshi, Ravi Shankar, Dr. Arvind Das, Suresh Kr., Ashish Niraj, Uday Shankar, Kumud Das, Radha Raman, Vijay Kr., Ravindra Kr, Sarita, Vidya, Dr. Narendra, Satyam, Rachna, A. Karn, Mamta, Jyoti, Dr. Dhwani and many more.
At the end of the event, Hemant Das Him presented the vote of thanks to the organisers and audience of the event.
Send your feedback- hemantdas2001@gmail.com / editorbejodindia@gmail.com



Saturday, 3 August 2024
'Laddu'- Hindi play staged in Andheri (Mumbai) on 28.7.2024
When each spouse is a doubting Thomas
Tuesday, 23 July 2024
हेमन्त 'हिम' की अठारह गज़लें (Eighteen poems composed by Hemant 'Him') (संस्करण-1)
लीजिए आपके लिए प्रस्तुत है हेमन्त 'हिम' की कुछ ताजातरीन हिन्दी गज़लें जो मई से जुलाई 2024 के बीच रची गईं हैं. आपकी प्रतिक्रया हेतु कवि का ईमेल आईडी नीचे दिया गया है -
| फोटोग्राफर - पीके, स्थान - स्विट्ज़रलैंड, वर्ष- 2014 |
Friday, 19 July 2024
"All the best"- Marathi play staged in Vashi (Navi Mumbai) on 14.7.2024
The ultimate Agency problem
( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए - यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 53 देखिए )
This play is a miniature of social dynamic of today's world. Everyone has some sort of shortcoming for which he has to take help of another for achieving the purpose. The other person has in turn his own shortcoming and he is similarly taking recourse to someone else for achieving his objective. Simultaneously there is an interplay of clashing interests which is typically called agency problem. Agency problem means the person who takes along your work is more interested in his own interest than that of his client.
There are dashing three friends each suffering from a physical handicap. One is deaf, another is dumb and the third one is blind. They three cooperate each other in every work. They all fall in love with the same girl. And the whole play weaves the detailed comedy of how they communicate their love message to the beloved with the help of another one who is himself interested in marrying the same girl. See, how it looks like.
It so happened that when the deaf boy proposed to the girl the girl replied something but the deaf boy could not hear it so he explored another means to convey. He now wants to see the reaction of the girl visually how she reacts over it. So he records his message in a tape recorder with the help of his dumb friend. But in it after the introductory prelude just at the moment his love proposal begins, his dumb friend starts making noise loudly to black out the love message of his contender. And you could imagine how the girl would have reacted after listening to this spoiled message on the tape recorder. But as the deaf is unable to hear he is wondering why his beloved did not like his love proposal.
Similarly when the dumb wanted to convey his love message to the girl the deaf friend was readily available to help. So, the scene moved on like this. The dumb guy is conveying his love poem in his sign language which is being translated in sound by the deaf friend. But at the nick of hour when the vital part of love proposal comes he changes the words adversely and blotches his efforts.
The whole play is a series of innumerous such comic instances threaded together neatly in the form of a coherent story. In the climax the girl choses a handicap chap to marry but who is the fortunate one? This is to be seen in the theatre hall.
On each and every move of this play you are bound to burst in laughter. The noticeable point is that you are not laughing at someone's disability but on his special ability of outpacing others of the same category. Cancellation of one's special ability is made through another one's special ability and this way the playwright cleverly succeeds in avoiding moral dilemma of the audience whether he should laugh or not.
It must have been very challenging for the actors to deliver the genuine gestures of the specially abled persons but they aced their challenges. The deaf man was more vivid with his plump physique and facial expression. The blind man was so dashing notwithstanding his visual impairment and the dumb one gave his true gestures of his own class. The cynosure and darling of all the three heroes was a pretty lass character who lived up with the adequate grace and youthful mannerism. The director has kept every sequence very taut avoiding any sort of flab.
Mayuresh Pem, Vikash Patil, Manmeet Pem and Richa Agnihotri were the actors in the show. Writer and Director of the play is Devendra Pem.
The faces of the relaxed audience were saying that they got their piece of the pie. A totally different genre of comedy!
Review by- Hemant Das ' Him'
Send your feedback to - hemantdas2001@gmail.com / editorbejodindia@gmail.com


















































