Venue, Gulmohar Theatre at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. India
Organised by KK Kohli of 'Impresario Asia' New Delhi.
Venue, Museum & Art Gallery, Chandgiarh. India
Organised by Diwan Manna, Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi.
After nearly 40 years, someone from my country felt it necessary
to invite me share some of my thoughts with you. I have not come
here with a list of my achievements that I was invited to take
part in an exhibition along with Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth,
or I am listed among the famous people from Shropshire along with
Charles Darwin and Clive of India.
These achievements are momentary and have no intrinsic value,
except boost to one’s ego; but one’s experiences,
when one is not part of the maddening noise of crowded caravan,
that brings bring you face to face with humbling realization and
with eternal truths. These truths can make you realize we are
nothing more than a tiny particle in the enormity of ever expanding
universe.
I have come here to share with you these realizations initiated
by my chosen existence on the edges that can be extremely humbling
or extremely exhilarating. That is based upon one approach or
point of view based upon your cultural background and spiritual
upbringing.
Let me be more specific, I am sharing here with you a concept
that first put forward in a long article for an English magazine
in 1989.
Let’s imagine that whole of the humanity is traveling in
huge caravan moving forward few steps everyday as the daily cycle
of earth’s rotation, conveniently measured by the manmade
clock. Each traveler in the caravan is proudly carrying on his
her shoulders burden of their worldly possessions. Different travelers
have chosen different roles of leading, organizing daily supply
of existence, entertaining, bartering their skills and possessions.
There are, in this caravan, some thinkers, commentators, artists
and other makers of useful and useless objects, playing their
roles to keep the chaotic life in the caravan to a managed level
of orderliness.
Since the caravan is so large and spread over huge area covering
almost whole of the planet Earth; so it was natural that caravan
grew into different groups, tribes those share a specific location
of this vast but small planet; as a result established their own
social rules. Each tribe/group has also established a system of
indoctrination/education to make sure its own social rules are
inculcated into the next generation. Each tribe is proud of their
own set of rules, would like that not only members of their tribe
adhere to these rule, rather spread it further.
In this situation, everyone in the caravan has created their
own role and space, work hard to maintain his/her status in the
caravan, Most of the travelers take their role very seriously
that helps to maintain their position and pride, would be very
upset rather suicidal for any of them loose their place in the
caravan. This pride and position has been mostly built upon the
amount of material wealth has acquired in their journey.
This all happens in spite of the fact and realization that this
journey of the caravan is endless and each one of us travel a
certain distance only before leaving the caravan.
Now imagine a lone traveler dares to leave the caravan and his/her
place in the caravan, dreams of looking at the caravan from outside
from a vantage point, where one could see the whole of caravan,
to visualize / intuit where the caravan is coming from and where
it is heading to. I call this person an artist.
Now this artist to share his/her vision/realization may use poetry,
music, painting, sculpture.
MORE LATER
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