Reinventing the wheel, another Bangalore saga: extract from my book

 

 

 

(this sketch is the best tribute ever paid to me by anyone)

 

Let me start with a cliché, oft repeated by us. Indian  Railways (IR) has always been an unintended fountainhead of art and culture, reflecting the unique heritage and multi-cultural ethos of our country. Lily Pandeya & I said it in our previous book, ‘Art & Railways, a Bangalore Saga’.  We had started the Art movement, Safar, in the year 2011,  and looking at its success and appeal among Railway men and travelling public alike, chronicled the experiment in this coffee-table book. Later, we parted ways and I landed in Germany for  a stint in the Embassy of India, handling IR’s post-contractual works all over the world.  A relatively stress-free job but it involved extensive travelling. It helped me acquire a new perspective on Art in so many unusual and unlikely settings. A warehouse here, an eatery there, a shrine yonder.

 

I was back in  Bangalore after three years and odd months. But far way from  any exposure to public this time, in the Rail Wheel Factory. It is arguably one of the most automated and disciplined factories of IR, and that fascinated me. Even as I immersed myself in learning to work here and contribute early in my tenure, the prosaic colourless  work notwithstanding, a frequent flurry of extraordinary visuals in the factory kept  intriguing me. Can I give some purpose to  this likely short stint, before I move elsewhere, apart from  making more and more wheels? Something more lyrical and enduring? Can I find Art here? Can I help the workers here show Art to the world?

 

The procrastination and uncertainty continued till the day came when I was taking a walk in the factory with Dr. M.S.Murthy. What the redoubtable artist observed and what followed, over some months, quickly and with flourish, is the subject of this book.

 

I cannot sketch or paint.  I am not formally trained to appreciate Art. So  some of my close friends ask me if  this obsession with Art is an exercise in self aggrandizement. Far from it. I have understood, over time, that creating a work of art is not easy. Giving a form to your mind’s eye is an exacting demand. This is the challenge an artist accepts and goes about his work. Now, most artists seek and scout for inspiration from their surroundings, which affords them alternate prismatic views. And  an artwork is born which opens new vistas, a glimpse here and a glimpse there of things which you could never see before, even if they were always present just there! This makes the creation of an artwork so very exciting.

 

The feeling of creating , and therefore also viewing, something extraordinary from the mundane, is intoxicating beyond measure. This is the reason I pursue this madness. Once I find like-minded colleagues, like I did in the Bangalore division and now in the Rail Wheel factory, we go ahead. Come and join us in reinventing the wheel.

 

I wish to thank all the Art Club members for their extraordinary response, Mr. Ajay Singh, for rare photos of RWF and beyond, Mr. Peter Shanthaveera, as the bridge between all the artists and me, Ms Vijaya & Mr. Ragu Goud, for excellent all round support, Mr. Mohan Kumar, who is a great technical brain and is now an artist himself, Mr. K.Krishna, for being ever ready to try new things, M/s Shivaprakash & Umachandran, the photographers, Meera Madhusudan, for coordination, and of course, the mercurial, Mr. Arun Dawson, the graphic designer of the book, who lent order & beauty to my pedestrian prose.