Arts & Culture

The Desert of Forbidden Art

2010-09-03T16:44:52Z

The Desert of Forbidden Art reveals masterpieces of avant-garde Russian art and the difficult lives of their creators.

“The work of art is a scream of freedom,” said Christo, the Bulgarian-born American artist whose experience of growing up in a Communist country left a deep mark on his creations.

In Russian art, there have been many “screams of freedom,” especially during the repressive Stalin and Brezhnev years, when artists who didn’t paint in the accepted Social Realism style (think smiling factory workers and singing proletariat marching arm in arm) were shunned, sent to mental institutions and exiled to labor camps.

This shameful legacy is chronicled in a new documentary “The Desert of Forbidden Art,” currently making its way to film festivals around the world. In the film, directors Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev tell the story of one man who dedicated his life to hunting down works by forgotten Russian Avant-garde artists, amassing one of the largest collections in the world in the process.

The collector, Igor Savitsky, born into a bourgeois family shortly before the Russian revolution, went on to collect more than 44,000 artworks and open a museum, which today is the second largest collection of Russian avant-garde art in the world after the Russian State Art Museum in St. Petersburg.

“We wanted to awaken the curiosity of the collection…it really is a treasure trove for any art historian,” said Pope, who teaches at the University of Southern California School of Cinema. “But the film is also about the price of being a prophet for your culture, for which artists often are.”

The film features the works of formerly unknown artists such as Aleksander Volkov whose art now commands millions of dollars. But what is most astounding about Savitsky’s museum is that it was built in Karakalpakstan, a dusty autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, where most people still scratch out a living as cattle herders or farmers.

The remoteness of the location is precisely what made it possible for Savitsky to create a museum, which today draws visitors from around the world. Ironically, Savitsky was able to secure the support of a local Communist Party boss to receive government funds for his collection of what many considered “anti-Soviet” art.

The film, which has already gotten rave reviews, is based on interviews with Savitsky’s friends, artists’ relatives and extensive archival footage acquired from the Moscow State Archive. Both the access and what the filmmakers found there was astounding, they say.

“The government had all kinds of wonderful photographs and film that had never been opened,” said Pope, adding that archival material from the film would be donated to USC’s Institute for Modern Russian Culture.

Although a film about art, “Desert of Forbidden Art” is ultimately about the tragic history of Stalin’s reign over the Soviet Union, when all vestiges of pre-revolutionary Russia, such as churches, were destroyed and millions of people were killed for not toeing the Communist Party’s ideological line. The film tells the story of artists like Mikhail Kurzin, who fused Soviet training with the colors, history and traditions of the East, but whose works authorities deemed inappropriate. Kurzin, for example, was sentenced to 10 years in a Siberian labor camp for “anti-Soviet” statements.

Another artist profiled in the film is Yevgeny Lysenko, whose bewitching masterpiece “Fascism is Advancing” captured the mood of the times with a blue bull with eyes “like the barrel of a gun.” Despite his talent, Lysenko was sent to a mental institution and is not widely recognized in Russian art history.

Since the “discovery” of the museum, its masterpieces have attracted collectors from around the globe. But despite subsisting on threadbare funding, the museum’s director Marinika Babanazarova, whom Sativsky appointed on his deathbed, has refused to sell any pieces, convinced that doing so would spell the beginning of the end for the one-of-a-kind collection.

The masterpieces may have been saved from the long reach of the Soviet propaganda machine, but their future is still threatened, this time from Muslim extremists vying for power in the former Soviet republic and the anti-Russian sentiment that remains strong in the region.

“Unfortunately, due to political and economic conditions in Central Asia today, the Savitsky collection could cease to exist in its present form in any time,” Pope and Georgiev say. “We hope this film will function as an advocacy tool and a catalyst to protect this unique 20th century cultural institution.”

“The Desert of Forbidden Art” will be shown at film festivals in Martha’s Vineyard and Cambridge, Mass., San Francisco and Vancouver in the coming months. In 2011, it will be broadcast on PBS’s Lens program. For more information about the film, including upcoming screenings, visit www.desertofforbiddenart.com.

A Season of Africa at the ROM

2010-09-02T20:57:13Z

New Acquisitions, exhibitions and stirring events this fall

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) celebrates a Season of Africa this fall, with a thought-provoking series of exhibitions and events inspired by African art and culture. Featured are two new exhibitions, El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa and Position as Desired/Exploring African Canadian Identity: Photographs from the Wedge Collection, both opening October 2, 2010. Later this fall, significant new African acquisitions to the ROM’s permanent collection will be unveiled. A full slate of related public events delves into the complex cultural, social and political issues of modern Africa. Themes ranging from contemporary arts to geo-political realities of the region will be explored through guest lectures, panel discussions and films.

Season of Africa Exhibitions
El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa
The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the ROM presents the world premiere career retrospective of Ghanaian visual artist El Anatsui. This exhibition is the artist’s first solo show in Canada and features 63 works in various media drawn from public and private collections internationally. Drawing on Ghanaian and Nigerian cultural references as well as global, local and personal histories, El Anatsui’s 40-year body of work comprises large shimmering metallic wall sculptures, for which he is best known, as well as paintings and sculptures in wood, ceramic and metal.

This retrospective has been organized by the Museum for African Art (MfAA), in New York, and will be one of the inaugural exhibitions in the MfAA’s new building, which opens in 2011. El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa will be on display in the Roloff Beny Gallery on Level 4 of the ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal from October 2, 2010 to January 2, 2011.

Walls and Barriers
In association with the El Anatsui exhibition, the ICC is pleased to present Walls and Barriers: A Collaborative Project, an innovative education project by diverse youth from secondary schools and community agencies across the Greater Toronto Area. Unprecedented in its scale and conception, it involved more than 500 young artists and teachers who created a public art installation inspired by and in response to the work of El Anatsui. Walls and Barriers will be on display in Canada Court at the ROM from September 25 until October 23, 2010.

Position as Desired
The ROM, in association with Toronto’s Wedge Gallery, announces Position as Desired/Exploring African Canadian Identity: Photographs from the Wedge Collection, a selection of historical and contemporary photographic works documenting the experiences of African Canadians. The exhibition will be on display from Saturday, October 2, 2010 to Sunday, March 27, 2011 in the Wilson Canadian Heritage Exhibition Room of the ROM’s Sigmund Samuel Gallery of Canada.

New African Acquisitions
Contemporary African artist El Anatsui was commissioned by the ROM to create an original metallic wall hanging for the Museum’s permanent collection, which will be unveiled in the Shreyas and Mina Ajmera Gallery of Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific (Level 3, Michael Lee-Chin Crystal) around the time of the opening of the exhibition El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa. In addition, several important and never-before-seen objects recently acquired for the African collection will be installed in this gallery in November and December. More information will be released soon.

*Public Events
Fresh Perspectives – Curatorial Tours of El Anatsui
Select Sundays at 2:00 pm. FREE with ROM admission
Roloff Beny Gallery
Public tours of El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa led by prominent guests including:
Oct. 10 Julie Crooks, filmmaker and independent curator of African Art
Oct. 24 Rosemary Sadlier, President of Ontario Black History Society
Nov. 7 Kenneth Montague, Director of Wedge Curatorial Projects
Nov. 21 Sarah Quinton, Curatorial Director of Textiles Museum of Canada
Dec. 5 Peter Toh, Artistic Director of Afrofest

Film: Nollywood Cinema
Monday, October 18, 7pm
Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre
Screening of Canadian documentary film Nollywood Babylon on the bustling emergent Nigerian film industry, followed by a Q&A. Special guests to be announced soon.
Co-presented by ROM’s Young Patrons’ Circle.

Film: Fold, Crumple, Crush: The Art of El Anatsui
Wednesday, November 24, 7pm
Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre
Documentary film on the art and life of El Anatsui, followed by Q&A with director Susan Vogel.

Talk: Is China good for Africa?
Wednesday, December 1, 7pm
Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre
Panel discussion on the highly debated question of China’s new role on the African continent, with award-winning journalist Doug Saunders, The Globe and Mail’s European Bureau Chief, and John Schram, Senior Fellow with the Queen’s Centre for International Relations, and former Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Sierra Leone, Togo, Liberia, and former ambassador to Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Angola. Other panelists to be confirmed soon.

Talk: Three Continents: Roundtable on Contemporary African Art
Wednesday, December 8, 7pm
Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre
Panel discussion by three of today’s most high profile scholars on contemporary African art:Elizabeth Harney, Professor of contemporary African art, University of Toronto; Chika Okeke-Agulu, Professor of classical and contemporary African art, Princeton University; Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art, director of the Venice Biennale in 2007.
Co-presented by ROM’s Young Patrons’ Circle.

*Please note that program details are subject to change.

The Eternal Cycle

2010-08-31T01:45:53Z

Twin baby brothers,
cocooned comfortless
inside the womb
of their mother . . .
Protested one, to the other
“Hey! Stop kicking!”
“Stop shouting,” came the retort
“I feel that it’s now time
for the big change!
We will soon be out in flight
to see the light
and the face of our dear mother!”
“Hah! What imagination!”
Scoffed the first.
“Flight? Light? Mother? What else?
What more can there be
than this hospitable haven?
We are safe and sound here
and so well cared for!
Stop your daydreaming
and get back to sleep!

On the day of the next full moon
were born the twins, minutes apart,
screaming with anger and fear,
confronted by the unexpected change . . .
Once born, we do learn to accept
and try very hard to cope and adjust
to continuing cycles of pleasure and pain
and the changes in our transient lives.
However, when the time does arrive at last
for our eternal spirit to depart
discarding the cloak of this worn out body
why do we find it so difficult?
to realise, understand and accept
that it is again the age-old story
of history, repeating itself?
June 1997

Creation

2010-08-23T23:56:40Z

With persistence I centred once again amidst
contemplation, deep into the realm of visualization
and meditation, perplexed by the eternal
unanswerable questions and the rumination
on the mysteries of life, creation
and the veiled obscure purpose of life . . .
Who am I? From where did I come?
Why am I really here now?
And whither do I go from here?
Why is it so difficult for me, to passively accept
the answers of earlier prophets, saints and seers?
Surely this marvel of the spirit, mind,
psyche, intellect, emotions and the body
has not been created to only eat, drink, make
merry, beget offspring, amass wealth wisdom,
name, fame, power, and then fade, wither and die?

As a seeker, I delved into various faiths and
religions known and unknown as best as I could.
Instinct confirms the presence of God
like the pervasive power of the unseen wind.
Manmade religions, surging rivers seeking to merge
into the common sea of bliss, The Divine,
that One Omnipotent Power That is God,
identified and adored in various traditional forms
and by numerous names to suit the need
of each and every individual seeker. . .

Siva, Allah, Jesus, Mary, Su, Sukiyo Mahikari,
Menorah, Zeus, Zoroaster, Sufi, Guru Nanak,
Mahavira, Odin, Inti, Ra, Krishna, Rama, Kabir,
Shamash, Buddah, Aten, Ramakrishna, Yogananda,
Vivekananda, Sri Vasudeva, Maharaji, Yogi
Satyam, Amirthananthamayi, Sathya Sai Baba
But beloved God Almighty, One and Only!
How great, how great Thou art my Lord!
How great are Thy power and Thy glory!
There is no single face, body or mind like another,
Never a similar story, stone, sprout or summer.
No identical thought, action or even laughter.
To create this massive mosaic of such glorious
diversity, command it, reign uncontested
and supreme, how great Thou art!
My Lord, How great Thou art!
and how very little we understand
of Thy inscrutable ways!
With these thoughts pervading my mind,
I fell fast asleep and dreamed . . .

Divine handiwork the Universe watched with awed
reverence, as the timeless Lord Siva, Hindu king
of the heavens, cobras adorned, holy ash and tiger
skin clad, with the crescent moon and the river
Ganges flowing forth from his matted locks, atop
worlds highest Himalayan peak icebound
Mount Everest, the abode of the immortal Devas,
Kailash, sat in meditation long silent and still,
drinking from the cup of self to His fill . . .

At last, Thriyambaha opened His three eyes
and beheld the outcome of his intense
concentration. “Oh! What a shame!
Is this all? This is but a ball of barren soil!
The planet earth! Of what use can this be?”
With great disappointment and utter dismay
Abinath flung that orb out into the void
of the cosmos and silently watched,
as the world revolved and rotated away.
At the flash of a sudden insight, Sambasiva
Beckoned His better half, Umadevi.
“Behold the Bhuloka, that smooth sphere twirling
afar? Go forth! See what you can do with it!”
Goddess Parvathy, full of power and grace,
Stepped on the sterile earth, spinning in space.
Energetically Kali toiled, digging hill and dale,
plateau and plain, waterfall and mountain.
The salty sea, spring, stream, river, desert, oasis
and fountain. Deftly Durga sculptured the face of
the earth with superb skill, and joined her Lord
in the eternal, ceaseless cosmic dance with mirth.

Resplendent Lakshmi on the red lotus, bestower
of wealth, was the red clad Goddess, Nadarajah
sent next. With one sweep of Her bounteous hand
Sri Devi made the whole wide world fertile
with grain, tree, flower, seed, fruit, yam and creeper
vegetable, cotton, cocoa, coffee, tea and rubber
dawn, dusk, noon, sunset and the evening shower
Thirumagal did pierce deep into the bowels of the
earth, and buried all the rare multi-fold treasures.
copper, iron, slate, granite, gold and silver
the nine precious gems and diamonds aglitter.

Surprised, elated and excited with this quick
progress, Neelakanda next despatched the Goddess
of wisdom. White clad and serene on the white
lotus, Devi Saraswathy. With the first twang of
Sarathe’s vina string the silence ceased, and in
melody, the world did sing with music and sound.
‘Om’intoned the wind! Thunder clapped.
‘Pitter patter’sang the rain! Brooks rippled merrily
and waves roared! Next, with artistic brush
and multihued paint, fragrant flowers, the rainbow,
black rock and brown sod, shades of green
to the creepers, ferns, leaves and the grass.
The sea and sky blue, with clouds as white as glass
Kalaimagal gifted colour and sound to every
possible thing!

Utterly pleased with this excellent artistic tapestry
of the talented consorts of the Hindu Trinity,
the facets of the Supreme, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva
Mahadeva took time, exploited His skill and power
and created the first form of life, the amoeba.
At once the amoeba systematically split in two
and the pair simply floated away with never
a look behind. Then pair by pair Paramasiva
did continue to create the myriads of each and every
varied form of life. Mite, fish, insect, bird, animal,
reptile and watched with mounting impatience
as they all hurried away, busy as ever
in their eternal quest for food, pleasure and power.

Utterly disillusioned Maheswara exclaimed,
‘As my last effort, I will coerce my utmost power
and create the human beings, man and woman
in my image, with my divine spark within as their
conscience and bless them with the sixth sense!’
Lo and behold! The first Adam and Eve,
the inimitable wondrous miracle of creation
stood before the splendorous Sivasambo.
They looked around and up at Haran’ benevolent
face and instinctively knew how to win Sathasiva’s
grace. Down they prostrated at His lotus feet
with thanks, love, worship, praise and adoration.

Gratified and glad, the great God Gangatharan
Blessed them, “As long as you both strive to live
with Truth, Love, Peace, Righteousness and
Non-violence, and ensure that the three facets
of humanity, The Body, Mind and the Spirit
are nurtured in balanced growth, Health, Wealth,
Harmony and Happiness will be yours!
Go forth with joy, into this wide wonderful world!
Procreate your descendants, march forward in
honest endeavour toward the aim of
Self Actualisation, and reach the true goal of life,
Self Realisation. Henceforth Brahma will be in
charge of creation! Avatars of Vishnu will take
human birth, time and time again to nurture
the growth of righteousness on earth.”

The first couple, Adam and Eve were amazed!
At the magnificent world around them, they gazed.
It was beautiful and busy, bustling with harmony
and joy. Happy and content, away they went with
peace and started the ceaseless cycle of human life.
However, little by little things began to change and
go awry. The ego and the insatiable desires of their
fickle mind, instigated the humans to ignore and
neglect the spirit and pamper only their body
and every whim of the restless mind and emotions.
Seeking selfish pleasure, money, material
possessions and power became the one and only
goal of life of every single human being.
Sin multiplied, righteousness declined, evil
prospered and now we are daily confronted with the
result as the negative holocaust of envy, malice,
anger, hatred, crime, robbery, rape, revenge, murder
and war, that roam unfettered, hand in hand inside
every single individual human heart.
It is said, ‘though it may not be now clear to thee,
the world is unfolding as it should.’ But is it really?
It is indeed frightening, to see this lack of truth,
unconditional love, right conduct, empathy and
two-way communication in all manners of human
relationships and the futile misery of endless war
and destruction, that unfortunately plague and
torment our globe today. If we can only become
aware, accept, change, rectify our mistakes
and ensure that the spirit, mind and the body are
nurtured simultaneously from childhood, to grow
and blossom together in balanced harmony,
will not that be the first step to make certain
that even at this stage, all the misery besetting
human life and relationships will vanish and
peace and joy on earth will prevail again?

My Lord! My Lord! My Beloved Lord!
Please make it easier for every one of us to
realise that the goal of life is indeed attaining
Heaven. However this Heaven is not an exalted
abode overflowing with the nectar of ambrosia,
bliss and immortality. Heaven is really an
awareness of the enlightened state of the human
mind, brimming with true selfless Love
without the ego of the me and the mine.
God and Heaven are Really Within Us
and Within the Reach of Every One of Us!
My Lord! Please help us one and all
to introvert, look within ourselves,
watch our minds and start the trek
toward this state of mind, that is Heaven.
Thank you my Lord, for so abundantly
blessing us, with this rare opportunity
of human birth. Please do help, guide
and lead us on to the victorious end
of every single pilgrim’s way.
1995

Adoration

2010-08-17T00:08:34Z

Sprouting bud and pirouetting birdsong
Herald the dawn of yet another spring.
My brimming heart with adoration does sing
the glory of God! My creator! My king!
Thanks my Lord, for giving me the strength
to forge forward, battling against every obstacle
with the attitude to accept both pleasure and pain.
I realize that events in life happen with a purpose
and as the great Archer, who bends me as a bow
You have already destined it, and made me aware
that the more I bend, the further will fly my arrow. . .
My Lord! I no longer have a name or form for You.
But when I introvert, and try to touch my core
At long last I’ve come to realize, that your spark
is not only within me, but in everyone else too!
I sense Your benevolent presence,
in every single thing that exists in Your creation,
Both inside and outside! I too am a component
Of the inimitable Omnipresent Whole that is You!
You are the eternal Light reigning supreme!
You guided me into Sukyo Mahikari in 1992.
Your radiant flame now grants light in abundance
Directing my path as an instrument to radiate True Light
Dispelling darkness, while life continues to unfold around me.
Praise and adoration to You My Lord!
Your healing hand has removed the sting
of disability that severe osteoporosis would bring!
Swift with song, my spirit soars on a silvery wing
Savouring the melodious bells of Your blessing
That yet another new home in Canada will ring.

Affirmation

2010-08-09T00:16:44Z

Though Hindu by birth, as a spiritual seeker,
I delved into several faiths and religions.
Instinct confirms the presence of God
like the pervasive power of the unseen wind.
Manmade religions, surging rivers seeking
to merge into the common sea of bliss,
The Divine, that One Omnipotent Power
that is God who so skillfully orchestrates
this vast kaleidoscope of the whole cosmos
with such precision and glorious grandeur.

I realize that I too am a tiny part
of that Whole. I have no name or form
for my creator now and believe
that when in tune, God's power and grace
always envelops helps and guides me.

However, I cannot understand why my people languishing in camps in
Sri Lanka along with others worldwide,
continue to be oppressed by the heartless Powers?
Even if it is karma, surely there
should be some peace with justice!
Where is God? How can
He/She permit such atrocities?

I know some atheists who are most caring
and lead exemplery lives.
At times this makes me ponder whether
I am just blindly following the flock with my belief
in the existence of the Power that is God!

But when I retrospect and scan my life,
memory pictures flash forth,
vivid as ever in my minds eye . . .
From age 26 to 46, twenty years of Venus rule
in my horoscope did elevate, bestowing my family
a better life on Demodera Group,
the 3000 acre largest tea estate in Sri Lanka.

My daughter married well, our sons went abroad
one by one, my burdens were eased
and material me, miraculously
gained free access to books
quite unexpectedly in the seventies,
to nurture my spirituality which led
to the first of my nine Puttaparthi pilgrimages
when we were quite broke!

On another trip, I lost
my handbag with all essentials,
help arrived from every corner,
restoring my confidence and faith in God.

However, I could not still my mind to meditate
though I tried so hard, but in 1983
started my trek with the mantra of Mahesh Yogi's
TM meditation. I who loved meat
and fish became a total vegetarian,
broke all rules and tasted different
methods of meditation.
As I progressed, I received all what
I needed and could always feel
God's guiding hand on my shoulder.

I almost died and was
unconscious three days
in Colombo Accident Intensive Care
with swollen head,
arm and eight ribs fractured
and a collapsed lung,
when a minivan knocked me down
at a crossing in 1991, but I did arise
with all my faculties intact!

From 1992 in Canada,
I grasped opportunities,
broadened my vistas and am grateful
to be what I am today.
Though I am five inches shorter
with severe osteoporosis,
a crooked spine with both shoulders
and wrists fractured, I have minimal pain,
my mind is sharp and I still manage
to cope pretty well at seventysix!

I am ashamed of my floundering fickle faith
and this reluctance to accept life
as it unfolds around me
that from time to time, I seem
to need this affirmation
that the You do exist
and reign supreme my dear God!

Want

2010-08-02T19:19:58Z

In retrospect, I realize that
almost every wish of mine
in life has mostly come true.
In arid Jaffna, when I was nine
how thrilled I was to pick up
a tiny pink carnation bud
from the discards of flowers
received for the College Prize-giving.
It was fulfilled, this want of mine
decades later, when I cultivated
my own carnations on estates
in the tea carpeted verdant hills
for sale to expensive Colombo florists.

In Grade Five, I map-marked
North-America's great lakes
never realizing that I will live
near lake Ontario now.
I admired many English and Tamil writers.
and in my old age, I am
a bi-lingual published writer.

The famous honey-laden Kurinji flower
blooms only once every twelve years.
It blossomed in 1970 in Agrapatna hills,
the bees built hives all over our balcony
and workers jungle trekked to collect honey.
I always regretted that I never got down
the rare Kurinji flowers for me to see them.
As I write these lines, I just googled
and Internet reveals the bell-shaped blue Kurinji
in all its glory, satiating that want of mine too

Our life does unfurl according to our thoughts
and our heartfelt wishes usually materialise.
However, some things do remain inexplicable.
It is indeed tough to change the norms
of our Sri Lankan lifestyle inbred in my veins!
I find that I am yet rather reluctant to confess
that I want to heal the cracks in close relationships
and hope I will succeed before my departure.

I really want to know the truth and answers
for the eternal unanswered qustions of the
mystery and real purpose of our life on earth.

I do also want to know why my Tamil community
that lost thousands of innocent civilians
plus a whole generation of our youth
these three decades in the ethnic conflict
continues to still suffer so much
even after the war is over, persecuted
ruthlessly as displaced refugees
in their own land and imprisoned
without trial in crowded camps
by the despotic State of Sri Lanka,
without even a glance from World Leaders.

During this multicultural week in Toronto
global media blares loud about the need
to close zoos and set captive animals free!
What about this urgent need to set free
the human captives languishing so long
without freedom in State camps of Sri Lanka?

Confession

2010-07-26T14:38:26Z

Words usually flow from me with ease
when I write, but here I am now
at a complete loss about what to confess . . .

My Messiah Complex bristles and is up in arms!
“Confession? What sin have I committed
to admit it, feel guilty and confess?
You know how transparent I am.
and are the same inside and outside”!
However, I am aware that I have a shadow.
and do fervently deny my blind-spots
ignoring them, though I know they are there.
It is tough to own up and admit mistakes.
as it is so much easier to point a finger
at another, forgetting that the other
four fingers are pointing at you!
Is this what I am trying to do?

Some outsiders appreciate me,
but my immediate family,
especially my husband, is very critical.
I did confess in the Introduction to my book
that, “though we are as different as two poles,
my husband and I have managed to cope
these last sixty years”, but relented
when a friend made me change it to
'despite differences' so that is that!
Sometimes self-doubt engulfs me
when my children too find fault with me
though I did the best I could for all of them.
Understanding dawns when I realize
that I need to be their handy scapegoat
for all their woes, so I accept that role too.

Yes, I confess that I have always accepted
the ups and downs of my allotted life,
and am aware of my limitations.
I may have made genuine mistakes
but I have no regrets in life
as I have always tried to do
the very best I can in all my endeavors
and I am at peace with myself,
and I feel the guiding hand
of that great Omnipotent Power
that is God on my shoulder.

Things happen to me time and time again
like how the pleasant teacher I asked for help
walked with me far out of her way
to carry my bags and escort me
to The Tamil Conference May 15, 2010
although she was late for work, confirming
that God's help is always there for me.
I may stumble and wander
but I have faith that He will not let me fall
as I am in tune with Him
and I feel His strength perennial
filling me up with grace
and my vessel overflows with gratitude . . .

Poem: Accident!

2010-07-23T15:45:45Z

Twas a 1991 full moon 'Poya' holday iin Colombo!
Late for lunch, I hurried across at the crossing
and that is all I remember. . .

I regained consciousness after three days!
The mini-van driver who knocked me down
had admitted me to Accident Services
with swollen head, a collapsed lung,
an arm and eight fractured ribs
and nobody thought I would survive. . .
However, here I am in Canada,
with all my faculties intact
and though my aged flesh is now weaker,
my mind and spirit are as vibrant as ever

If Karma, that law of cause and effect is true,
maybe I must have made many a mistake
for me to break both shoulders and wrists
in different falls, plus get scoliosis too
to curve my spine to become five inches
shorter with severe osteoporosis.
Else I muse, though I am devoid of pain
how is it that I evolved to become
such an accident prone person?

However, from another angle
my experiences also denote the fact
that there are no co-incidences
or accidents in life. Just think!
How can creation continue
and life unfold as it does,
unless it is meticulously predestined
by an Omnipotent, Omnipresent Power
that so skillfully weaves this mysterious
multifaceted tapestry of the vast cosmos
with such splendour and precision?

After starting to explore my inner self
I learnt to accept my allotted ups and downs
and paved my own unique path to reach
my potential to the best of my ability.
Sure I made many accidental mistakes,
but my inside and outside match,
fear has flown away and I am grateful
that I grasped all opportunities
that came my way and am truly happy
and proud to be what I am today.

I do fully realize that it is no accident
that I am here where I am today,
even reading this to you all, basking
in your rapt attention - giving and receiving
love and understanding from every relationship
so that I can absorb what I have to learn
before proceeding on my pilgrimage of life.

Shyam Benegal on his love for art

2010-07-19T15:00:30Z

Veteran director Shyam Benegal's choice of subjects for his films reveals a deep love for history and biographies, but lesser known is the filmmaker's interest in art and paintings. "I like art and among other works I still have a small painting of the head of Christ that was gifted to me by

Anjolie a long time ago along with works by other artists," Benegal told PTI on the sidelines of a function held here recently to mark painter Anjolie Ela Menon's 70th birthday.
Apart from directing films based on historical events or biographies such as Zubeida, Junoon, Bose: The Forgotten Hero, Bharat Ek Khoj, and Mahatma Gandhi, the director has also done a lot of work on art history.

However, Benegal seems to wear a different hat when he is not directing.

"The manner of perception changes when you look at art. When you are directing a film you are going through the perception of a filmmaker, which is different when you are looking at art," says the director who has given Indian cinema Ankur, Nishant and Manthan among others.

Benegal who lived in Mumbai and dabbled in painting before turning to full time filmmaking says, "When I was in Mumbai it was an interesting time with a rich congregation of artists. There was Husain, Gaitonde and all of them. Also, Alkezi with his theatre and Ravi Shankar with his music school."

M F Husain and Gaitonde were part of the Progressive Art Movement of the 1950's and Ebrahim Alkazi went on to become the founder director of the National School of Drama. Sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar had come to Mumbai and joined the Indian People's Theatre Association.

In their midst, Benegal says he lived and worked admiring the artists, painting with them a bit and writing poetry.

"Whatever we could afford we bought. I have some works that were gifted to me by the artists," says the veteran director who possesses works by a "couple of contemporary artists.

Meanwhile, even as his international film based on the life of Indian spy in the second world war -Noor Inayat Khan-has been currently put on the back burner, the old director is busy on his next project which he says is "a new contemporary film."

The ace director quotes American writer and Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway while refusing to reveal details of the upcoming film.

"Just like Hemingway said, you lose it if you talk about it."