Author: Sangeeta Wadhwani_editorspicks11

IF YOU HAVE EVER WONDERED WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A JOURNALIST IN AN INDIA CHANGING AT A PACE SHE NEVER HAS BEFORE, CLICK ON THE YOUTUBE LINK BELOW!

Sangeeta Waddhwani has met and interviewed everyone from Bollywood SUPERSTARS Amitabh Bachchan, to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, to Hritik Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Sushmita Sen, Sridevi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Dimple Kapadia, Madhuri Dixit and more…

Also… FASHION ICONS Manish Malhotra, Tarun Tahiliani, Abu Jani, Sandeep Khosla, Wendell Rodricks, Sabyasachi, Anita Dongre, Nivedita Saboo, Shivan & Naresh, Pria Kataaria Puri… and that’s just fashion…

She’s also interviewed Royalty, Arts & Humanities Practitioners A.R. Rahman and Deepak Chopra, and Corporate Moguls like the Ambanis.
The full breadth of her work would be too long for Facebook (check out more in her books)!

How we met was a stunning tale of spiritual guidance from my spiritual guides (also in the interview), and this interview and really, “soul chit-chat” was MEANT to happen! Sangeeta gave her take on Spirituality, Synchronicities, Power Women, Patriarchy, Celebrity Journalism and Creativity in India.

Ladies and gentlemen this lady is a gem, who we need to preserve and take care of. I know I will.

Enjoy the interview.

Love
Zephyr

WHETHER YOU LIKE TO ADMIT IT OR NOT, HK’S CONCRETE JUNGLE ACQUIRES A SEDUCTIVE CHARM AS IT IS BEJEWELED WITH LIGHTS, CREATING A FUTURISTIC SKYLINE THAT ENAMOURED EVEN BATMAN! WITH A 24/7 BINGE CULTURE, A RICH COLONIAL LEGACY, WITH INFRASTRUCTURE THAT SUPPORTS HUMAN POTENTIAL EXPONENTIALLY…AND GLOBAL TRADE SHOWS…SANGEETA WADDHWANI REFLECTS ON HER RECONNECT WITH HER SHINING, BOISTEROUS BIRTH CITY

Once upon a time, there was a port city with an inherent power to generate great wealth. But ironically, it was not self-governed or independent. Strangely, as an offspring of British Imperialism, HK developed into a star of the Asian firmament…a shopper’s paradise, foodie’s paradise, trekker’s challenge – for her mountains compete with her skyscrapers… showing you the heights of possibility!

HK boasted 56.91 million tourists a year, in 2019, till the Pandemic struck. India attracted a high of 10.93 million in 2019…a country so rich in art, culture, sacred sites and immortal temples and monuments. We stand at one fifth of tourist footfalls with so much to offer!

HK: HISTORY’S PRODIGY CITY

Britain occupied the island of Hong Kong on 25 January 1841 and used it as a military staging point. China was defeated (thanks to the evil Opium Wars orchestrated by the Brits to balance their trade of Chinese tea. Britain used to buy tea with silver coins, which over time, made it expensive to import. So, they got the Chinese addicted to Opium and before you knew it, profited hugely from China’s purchase of Opium. Then, Britain waged a war on the opium addicted Chinese military forces. When China lost that war, the nation was forced to cede Hong Kong in the Treaty of Nanking signed on 29 August 1842. The island became a Crown Colony of the British Empire. What an unlikely Foundation for a mega city that today, has global business footfalls and every luxury brand in its posh mega malls!

WANTON MIEN, WANCHAI AND MY BIRTH

It was in the later years of the Vietnam wars that my father set up shop in Wanchai, (today an iconic district where the film The Life of Suzy Wong was largely shot, and also the area where we see the awe inspiring Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre. Wanchai was then a sort of pitstop for sailors to get suits stitched up, often in 24 hours…and so our business boomed. In fact, the legendary Harilela family learned tailoring from the Muslim tailors in HK, built up a mail order business, and purchased their first hotel from the fortunes generated by this humble venture. They also got exclusive contracts to gather essential supplies for soldiers from the British…owing to their reputation of being honest and well priced. In the 90s, it was a known fact that Sindhis generated over 10 percent of ALL trade revenues for HK.

HK AS A MODEL SMART CITY FOR US

Hong Kong today, may lack the contemplative, spiritual vibe of a Mumbai, but at a worldly level, thanks to its bulletspeed psychology, it offers you days packed with infinite choices. In Mumbai, an excursion out of the city grid would eat so many hours of commuting, that it would take up a full day. In HK, we had the capacity to visit a serene, larger than life Buddha at Lantao, an island far away from the main city, and return to keep many other appointments through the day.

So imagine one minute you are a tourist, floating above a lush carpet of foliage and water bodies enroute to a Buddha…having a very cinemascopic experience thanks to the translucent glass bottom of your Crystal Cable car! We climbed to the top of the hill, offered our prayers and headed back down, rested for a bit and kept our appointments…all on time thanks to the world’s finest Mass Transit Railway.

THE SERENE BUDDHA OF LANTAO

WHERE TIME IS MONEY

The value for TIME is ‘central” ..(no pun intended about the Central shopping lanes)….to life in HK. It is literally spelled out on iconic, digitally lit sky scrapers …which present themselves as sleek canvases playing out the zeitgeist. Come Xmas time… the harbour skyscrapers offer you light displays filled with Xmas visual motifs!

…Do see the video below, captured from an evening cruise on Aqua Luna

When I compare this to the three hour journey I had visiting a friend last evening, , leaving South Mumbai for Bandra…I realised why we tend to meet friends here sparingly through the work week. You are literally caught like a spider in a daunting and unmoving web of traffic. In three hours I could have consumed a whole movie! Or flown to Dubai…

Wish we could fast track the new highways and the Metro…life will be far more conducive to staying in touch with people…minus fatigue and frustration.

Truly HK has moved so well with the times that forget the nomenclature of colony…it is a maximum city that grew beyond both what the imperial administrators AND the current HK SAR (Hong Kong Specisl Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China) status ever envisaged.

Yes when you land and see the shipping ports laden with containers yet to be shipped, you do feel sad. There is a marked Post Pandemic recession in mainland China with property prices crashing even in that jewel of a city our politicias seek to recreate – Shanghai.

While I was on my flight talking to Marwari jewellers taking part in the global Gems and Jewellery fair in HK…one of them told me he had lived in Shanghai for a few years and developed such fondness for the mainland city, that he felt sympathy for the economic crisis there!

Clearly business is business, no matter what the geo-political situation between India and China. We all know how betrayed PM Modi felt with Chinese troops continuing to grab Indian land around our Line of Control border. According to google searches. 2,000 sq km of Indian land has ceded to China since June 2020. And of course the Tibetans were forced to surrender to Chinese troops, while His Holiness the Dalai Lama propagates Buddhist values in exile in Dharamshala.

TWINKLE, TWINKLE, HONG KONG!

HK is really a blueprint for us as we build Modi’s proposed Smart Cities. She is Asia’s OG Smart City, because of her efficient administrators, anti corruption stance, hard working citizens and excellent infrastructure.

To be fair, we in Mumbai and India have the brightest range of conversations and truly democratic discourse. This is our truest USP over the Asian dragons. (And of course the notion that we are the 5th largest economy in the world, with the most prolific film industries offering blockbuster global hit songs and truly global spiritual figureheads)

I was also quite taken aback that cash transactions still dominate in HK….my Indian Forex card was a no go at the Jewellery expo! And they were not into G Pay either! Quel horror…when here in India we have so many digital wallets..from your grocer to your auto rickshaw guys…everybody has that precious UPI scan code suvidha:)

INDIAN SOUL AND HK HARDSELL

While I was thrilled to attend the Jewellery exhibition and meet and experience chats with jewellers from Turkey, Thailand, Japan, China, the US and the UK, the agenda felt commercial at its core. Only a Turkish man took me by surprise saying, “I am not married yet…just in case!” He had beautiful mythical gods and Goddesses engraved in chunky gold cocktail rings. And a diamond that once belonged to an Indian maharaja!

And one loved the gentle flamboyance of the Thai jewellers, with elaborate multi-stone settings. But again it was all about trade! What truly felt like a jewellers museum experience was the Vintage and Antiquities Pavillion. This was where the jewels of the world’s RICH AND FAMOUS were on display. Having written many features on the diamond eaters of yore, (Wallace Simpson of Great Britain and Sita Devi oF Baroda for example), I was yearning to listen to Stories of provenance around creations by Cartier, Van Cleef &Arpels, Bvlgari, Boucheron, etc. Sadly a lot of the merchants there were reluctant to mention previous owners and anecdotes! One noticed that New York merchants would only entertain Indian queries where they knew a family member to be LOADED!

THE GRAND CONCLUSION

So the storyteller in me will always have an umbilical attachment to India…ironic because I wasn’t born here! But if you ask me, HK is a multiplier space…you may be poor in democratic discourse, but you revel in being a Material Girl…and of course, I loved the warmth and sentiment of being around my fellow Sindhis! And a big shout out to my thoughtful sister, Meena Chainrai, who made sure we had the finest of experiences!

#hkdiaries #lantau #chowmien #asiantiger

JUST WHEN IT SEEMED THE MOVIES WERE DYING (SAVE FOR THEIR DIGITAL PRESENCE, MUSIC RIGHTS), AND WE THOUGHT EVEN A RANVEER-ALIA STARRER MAY TANK AT THE OLD WORLD CHARMED BOX OFFICE…WE HAVE A WINNER! SANGEETA WADDHWANI OFFERS A QUICK OVERVIEW ON WHY ROCKY AUR RANI KI PREM KAHANI BROKE A LOT OF ‘DHARMIC’ STEREOTYPES

Somehow a Dharma Productions caper always has some key ingredients that never go off the rails: The lavish joint family living in even more lavish mansions, the stylishly turned out cast, and of course the pan Indian archetypes. The Lord Of All Things Archaic and Dharmically Correct…The Patriarch.

The OG cinematic Patriarch, of course, was Amrish Puri as Simran’s eggy-eyed father…in the iconic Yash Chopra produced Dil Waale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge…saying (after causing much anguish to all and sundry)…in a pivotal scene…“Jaa Simran…jee le apni zindagi!“

Well how many Simrans in real life then proceeded to hope and pray that they would escape the clutches of a Patriarchy…go on a lovely European holiday, meet their Prince Charming and enter into equitable marriages founded on friendship rather than business mergers and killer dowries and bank breaking weddings?

Alas that was the Great Simran Dream…and a whole host of mothers at that time actually named their daughters Simran! There’s practically a mini-nation of Simrans out there, who are mothers themselves now!

THE CATACLYSMIC SCENE WHERE A FATHER TELLS HIS DAUGHTER TO FOLLOW HER HEART AND GO LIVE HER OWN LIFE!

Yes of course, that dildaar and devastatingly patriarchal film, DDLJ, set the metrics for various archetypes. So iconic were the style statements, that the garish green satin sharara worn by Simran aka Kajol, had sheikhas and Indian society girls placing orders with designer Manish Malhotra. The same ensemble was suspended as a museum worthy sight at the India In Fsshion exhibition at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre. That is the power of a story well set in its own era. Speaking the language of widely accepted socio-cultural norms.

Let us fast forward to our socio-cultural milieu today, and Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, the latest emo-romance from the Dharma stable. Relating is a ‘fling, just a thing’ for a modern Indian working woman. She has agency over heart and hearth, and is not averse to open-ended couplings. In fact it is Rocky Randhawa… a caricature of a new moneyed ‘PUPPY’ (Punjabi Yuppie) dressed head to toe in Gucci, who insists on the sacrality of marriage, but who is so unlettered he actually (and super comically) uses tapora phrases – ‘This Side Rocky Randhawa’ …to “SNOOJ! SNOOJ yaar’…when a dance class in his future in-laws courtyard wakes him up and he thinks it’s his phone!

The kitschy drama of Rocky’s character is so easily embodied by Ranveer Singh”s naturally tapora oriented, Gucci addicted personality! Like Karan Johar, Ranveer too shops Gucci online and the two exchange notes constantly, “sliding into each other’s DMs”, according to what the Dharma founder shared with me for HELLO! last December!

Well, we can see how mismatched Rocky and Rani are in terms of her far more old moneyed sophistication. The bhadralok of her family place a far greater value on literacy and Rani’s biggest moment on the job is stripping a politician of sexual hypocrisy as a TV news anchor. All these milestones stand at total variance with Randhawa”s blasphemous colloquialisms and his multicoloured Gucci ensembles. But there is a hearty connection that grows out of their ‘fling, just a thing’ which leads to a series of face offs and face ons between the Bong beauty and the West Dilli Boy….but still, finally, they admit that in India, it is the families who are the ‘backseat drivers’ of every love story, which kind of makes this part of the extended DDLJ franchise.

So in a brilliant mis-en-scene, we arrive at a proposed experiment that totally makes sense in a far more equitable era. Rocky has to move in with Rani’s family for three weeks, and Rani has to move in with Rocky’s. The nuclear detonator had been switched on!

To me, this is Karan Johar”s true genius. Somehow he takes a deep dive into the complex fabric of generation gaps, mindset gaps and the need to nudge and question the many sacred cows and bulls in the room. The Unquestioned Old World is suddenly the new glass house Alia”s character finds herself in…and sometimes when you throw stones at a glass house from Within, it is far more effective than from your own glass balcony.

That is what made the film in some ways like that Hrishikesh Mukerjee classic Khoobsoorat, where Rekha as a bachelor girl visiting her sister, eventually challenges the toxic matriarch, the classic mother-in-law who rebukes Rekhas’s every attempt to win her over after Rekha falls in love with one of the eligible sons of the family.

Eventually a crisis that requires a sharp mind, sees Rekha save the day as she summons a doctor in the nick of time to save the life of the family Patriarch. Her winning lines? She tells the doctor that being busy with surgeries and visiting patients may mean more money…but saving lives is what a doctor’s life is meant to do! Suddenly, Rekha’s education, confidence and modern ideas, her pro-freedom and pro-creativity stance, earn her enough brownie points to make her acceptable to the family. Case closed. But what a highly watchable, super hit film, which was super acceptable to the masses and classes.

Back we go to Rani, unleashed in a home where the elder Patriarch is already a weak figure, with Alzeimhers disease, given to sher- o-shayyers and weeping over a lost soulmate.

Rani is sharp enough to see that Dhanalaxmi, the matriarch, Rocky’s grandma, with her superhit boondi laddoo business, is an actual bawse lady who has never flinched in her ambition…very much like boss ladies of her own time. It is Dhanalaxmi (aka Jaya Bachchan, The Angry Old Woman of Indian cinema)..who raises her son Tijori (!) to become a toxic Patriarch. Poor Tijori is never allowed to spend tender moments with his wheelchair ridden ailing father, (played by Dharmendra who is actually ailing in real life). Tijori grows up unwittingly a cardboard chauvinist, expecting totally one sided services from his wife, who dare not dream of expressing her musical talent in the public domain, as wives must be dharmically correct doormats. Trust Rani to strip away and challenge this status quo, like the stripping away of a Draupadi saree..except Rani’s unraveling of the power structure is a necessary disruptor towards Gender Equity.

What the audience, and Rocky, find horrific, is when Tijori is physically assaulted by Rani in public, when he insults her family. Yet I personally feel like that while the rigid Amrish Puri character ‘permits” his daughter Simran to ‘ja, jeele apni zindagi,” a girl of Alia”s generation will whack sense into a toxic man no matter what his age or family stature. Because sometimes, you need strong antibodies against old viruses that are obstructing evolutionary tides.

In Rani’s own family, full of intellectuals who speak a Kolkata-style defunct Queen’s Angrezi – all the more hilarious when juxtapositioned with Rocky”s tapora-isms. We see a Patriarch, Chandan Chatterjee (played with great finesse ny Tota Roy Chaudhary), who loves to dance. Now remember Karan Johar too, loves to dance and has a unique style of doing his thumkas minus jhumkas. It is hardly surprising when K Jo creates a male character who teaches Kathak to young students in his compound, and a resounding and loveable meterosexual like Ranveer steps in and up to the challenge of mastering some Kathak. But the scene where Rani’s father performs to Devdas”s Dhola Re with Rocky, who is born from the Chauvinist Randhawa Genes, at a Durga pandal, moves one deeply. It is almost a violent challenge to bend the gender cages of the ages and liberate the human spirit, be it born in a male OR female body!

So here is my verdict. Relationships often insist that we confront our inner darkness and our inner light. Not just our own, but the values and defacto notions we carry of our entire tribe. And gender fluidity is definitely going to takeover modern life with many more meterosexual lovers and husbands bringing tiffin late into the night to their working wives’ offices, when she is doing graveyard shifts…like we see Rocky doing for Rani.

This is one Dharma caper that adds new layers of question marks to what India considers to be dharmically correct. The matriarch is shown her true ugliness…She accuses Rani of being a career oriented modern girl who would never put family first. when Rani says their levels of ambition are the same. However, Rani proves her wrong after living in her house, and holding up a mirror…declaring that as a mother figure she does NOT necessarily put family first, as her choices have actually suppressed her own daughter and daughter-in-law’s happiness.

There was a lot said between the lines in Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani….a clash of eras, generations, North India vs Bengal, Patriarchy vs the Rising Matriarchy…and yes, delicious chemistry between Alia and Ranveer…paisa vasool with all the new vasools being explored!

PS: Interesting to note, the movie was surprisingly evocative on the questions of Matriarchy vs Patriarchy…like Barbie the other viral summer hit. Remember when Ken cries about being forever dismissed and powerless around Barbie and her perpetual girls nights…well here when Alia dismisses marriage with Ranveer because he is so uncouth, he lashes out, “So you used me for my body!!!!” Why not Rocky..after all it’s gym honed, double waxed AND certified Covid free!!!

@ranveerofficial @karanjohar @dharmaproductions #rockyaurranikipremkahani @aliabhatt #Rocky #rani #bollywoodhit #whatjhumka?

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VALENTINE’S DAY OFTEN OFFERS US AN IDEAL BLUEPRINT FOR A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP WHICH SOMEHOW LASTS ALL OF A DAY. READ ON ABOUT THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF SUSTAINING THE V-DAY SENTIMENTS THROUGHOUT THE DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS AND YEARS… SANGEETA WADDHWANI TAKES YOU THROUGH AN ANCIENT CONCEPT FROM TANTRA, WHICH COULD SERVE US SO WELL IN A TIME OF INSTANT GRATIFICIATION, QUICK FIX AND SHALLOW CONNECTIONS

Years ago, I met a wise artist in India who told me that the Indian gods Shiv-Shakti, enjoyed the ultimate connection between equals. Unlike today’s instant gratification hook ups, which commoditise both man and woman…  Their divine love engaged all the seven chakras – from the sexual root chakra to the sacral crown chakra. They were compatible and nurtured each other across all energy vortexes – mental, physical, intellectual and spiritual. That, should be the benchmark for our coupling, as well!

‘TOGETHER FOREVERS’ ARE BUILT ONE DAY AT A TIME

Let’s face it. In a time of hook-ups, divorce battles and equally empowered men and women, many old wives tales about ‘together forever’ are fit for the archives. Initially, one felt like the ground had fallen beneath one’s feet, to see marriages in such disarray. But one famous mind – and his famous words – made me take a much more holistic view of what is actually a positive shift. The great poet, lyricist, screen writer from India – Javed Akhtar – replied to my question, ‘Do you feel disturbed about the state of marriage today and the high rate of divorces?’ (Ironically, the question was asked for a Valentine’s Day article). And he summed it all up by saying, “No, not at all disturbed. In fact I am very happy to see this! Because, there is maximum stability between a master and slave, less stability between a boss and employee, and least stability between equals!” 

RESPECT for one another stands on top of the happy relating charts, even above the mush of love. You really cannot separate the respect component if you claim to ‘love’ someone, it is why you are with them in the first place! With the passage of time, very often, couples forget to show this deep respect, as they take each other for granted. Somewhere work climbs to the top of the charts. Sometimes it the children you have together who overrule your mate. Always get this respect right, it is the oxygen for the flame of love to keep burning brightly.

Now doesn’t that just make one celebrate, rather than mourn, the falling away of connections that don’t serve the highest good of each person? The Seven Chakra connection should be our ideal, with equality as a firm foundation. Here’s a look at an ideal map of values, if you seek together forever, or at least a ‘together for this lifetime!’

TRUST each other. How ‘safe’ are you to commit to? Do you flaunt friends of the opposite sex constantly, online and offline? In times of multiple connectivity with apps like WhatsApp, with social media messaging, over and above work colleagues and friends – true fidelity is becoming harder and harder to define. The fling culture is also a distraction. An awesome twosome can crumble when even a crumb of mistrust comes in… so frame your boundaries as a couple. What are you both comfortable with? Are you into a 60s style open equation, where flings go? Do you want phones off on Sundays, where you are ‘exclusively’ with your mate? Nobody says you have to follow convention. But do right by your own rules!

COUNT TO 10 when angry or distraught. This may be something your grandmother told you as a child – but it is always relevant and useful. Anger can destroy one’s own equanimity and in its blinding momentum, break down very precious ties. Watch the Pamela Anderson documentary on Netflix to see how one episode of fury and physical abuse from her soulmate Tommy Lee, led to the breakdown of a dream relationship and scattered a happy family into fragments.  Tommy broke her hand which was holding their baby and openly said he should be top priority. He missed being the rockstar of the house. What a sad way to destroy a beautiful elopement which they entered into after knowing each other for just 96 hours! 

TRANSPARENCY. Address any bubbling issues with utmost transparency. This aligns with another golden rule, never go to bed angry or unhappy about something between the two of you. Not being honest and communicative is in a way, allowing things to gather rust and dust till the cracks become too deep to reverse. Not healthy at all.

LADIES, BE LOYAL. It is not ‘feminist’ to cheat on your partner, while expecting his utmost loyalty. This is a bizarre new train of thought one has seen on reality TV shows in India, and is also reflected in ‘the new matriarchy’ dawning on us. Around the world, we see how women rising to power has them often emulating the worst ‘cheating’ patterns of a more patriarchal world. It is also important to watch for emotional ‘violence’ if you are a woman… putting your partner on guilt trips and other manipulation of his feelings will lead to emotional exhaustion for both of you at the end of the day. Please be mindful.

EXPRESSIONS of love. Keep them coming. You could buy him a watch he has had his eye on, but ‘sacrificed’ his desire to prioritise your needs. If you’re a man, even a simple phone call from work daily, say at teatime, to see how she is doing, can keep her heart singing and feeling secure. And of course, flowers and perfumes are par for the course… not just on Valentine’s Day, but every now and then!

GETAWAYS from the routine. One can’t emphasise this enough. Nothing causes a lull in relationships more than a tenacious routine filled with predictability. Of course we can’t all hop on a private charter and visit the Maldives thrice a year, but a little surprise vacay now and then can definitely rekindle romance. Or even just a well orchestrated night out – a ‘date’ night – with your chosen soulmate.

COMPLIMENTS! Pay those damned compliments – and with sincerity! It is heartbreaking to see a woman do her best with her wardrobe, beauty and fitness routines, to please her partner, and have him not even take the time to notice and remark on the same. On the other hand, be sure that if you are being flattering simply as a cover (and thinking of a cute colleague while complimenting your partner ) she will sniff it out faster than a police dog sniffs contraband at the airport! Value your life partner and her efforts to keep you happy.

REWARDS for exceptional home-making skills. Whether it is a husband who is keeping the home fires in ship shape while you work, or you who multi-tasks across domestic portfolios – remember, this is one area of work that comes with no raises, no public applause, no automatic perks. So if you are inviting your boss to dinner and your partner is working hard to ensure a glitch-less home and a seven course dinner, reward him or her in whatever way you see fit! And even there is no special occasion, and you are both living in a well kept haven – a reward every now and then goes a long way in motivating your partner.

EXPRESS GRATITUDE. Even if you’re lousy with the surprise getaways and flowers, and often forget a birthday or anniversary…. You can balance it out with an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude is like fuel to a dying fire. It is profoundly healing. Have you just stepped back from your relationship, and been grateful for it? If you need to be reminded to be thankful, you are already taking it for granted! Think of a world full of angst-ridden divorcees, the deeply scarred singles and commitment phobes – and you will find abundant reason to feel grateful for your special bond. Happy Sustained Valentine’s Day!

EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT THE MYRIAD CAPABILITIES OF CHAT GPT-3! ARE WE LOOKING AT AI KILLING EVEN MORE JOBS? SANGEETA WADDHWANI GETS ‘CHATBOTING’ WITH A HOST OF POTENTIALLY IMPACTED PEOPLE TO PRESENT SCENARIOS FROM A TECH ENABLED WORLD WHICH MAY – FRIGHTENINGLY – REPLACE ALL THINGS HUMAN!

Some five or six years ago, one remembers a coffee catch up with a brilliant lawyer friend, Yadu Bhargawan who heard me mourning the commercial demise of print media and he gamely confessed, “Sangeeta AI is going to take over your job, take over my job (he owned his own eponymous law firm)…I am getting into tech! That is one way to stay ahead of the disruption and keep growing.”

True enough…he left Mumbai to set up a tech company in Bangalore, and is now operating offices in Dubai and London. As a former print media journalist, I am, trying to grow new wings in a world saturated with AI, Google apps, social media, and an all digital landscape in general.

CHAT BOTS VS HUMAN BLOGS

I get goosebumps when I look at what the latest AI baby offers…GPT-3 chatbot can blog on any topic, comprehend human speech, voice or text, respond to it, recognise conversations’ contexts, generate predictions, recognise the most important words in sentences, summarise large texts, write essays and translate texts. How many jobs just flew over the cuckoo’s nest?

We read in the book, The Rise of the Robots, that jobs will increasingly go to Robots…an estimated 20 million by 2030! The book cited examples like China’s 24/7 factories, which found robots more suited to humans in every way. Robots did double the work output, required no downtime for sleep, no need for food or salaries. They were great for the bottomline and top line!

A ‘TECH’TONIC NEW WORLD

Everyday a new sky falls and a new horizon dawns…breaking us down as minds, challenging us to do more, be more, holding hands with an AI infused Universe. The video embedded here was just an ordinary clip shot on the phone by a staffer at the Wendell Rodricks store…but the AI boost enabled on Insta Reels, has made it video art!

THE TECH CASSANDRAS

However, the Cassandra Syndrome is already countering this new ‘takeover’ threat. Viraj Mehta, a dear friend who worked for over two decades at Cipla, and is now an independent pharma researcher and writer, warns, “CHAT GPT is now putting together medical papers that are totally fabricated and erroneous. This is dangerous…just like Fake News can be disastrous. Papers written by AI don’t come from a deep understanding of the dangers of misinformation.”

MY BLOG VS AN AI BLOG

I put that theory to the test. Recently I had attended the Jaipur Lit Fest, and wanted to see how my highly personalised take on it on this blogsite compared to what CHAT GPT would write. So I fed the input, ‘Blog about JLF 2023.:’ What emerged were all the principal details..covering the What, When, Where, How and a bit more…but lo…The blog had terribly misleading details..the wrong dates to begin with… (the festival is over but the GTP blog says JLF is from Feb 8 to 12, 2023)! It also mentioned writers who were not present in 2023…like Jhumpa Lahiri and Malala Yousafzai! It says the keynote address was by Noble Prize winner Economist Amartya Sen….but this year’s keynote address was by recipient of thhe Noble Prize for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah! So I feel both relief and far less redundant seeing this is a very early stage and unreliable chatbot/content resource. Certainly useful for other purposes…but not blogging for sure… and certainly not research papers in pharmaceuticals!

AI REPLACING ARTISTS?

I was just walking around Mumbai’s iconic Jehangir Art Gallery during the Kalaghods Festival yesterday and saw a host of cutting edge works on the theme of THE AJANTA PROJECT by students. (Do see some of the images below!)

However in the introduction to the show there was a fear expressed collectively by the contest curators about the ‘invasion’ of AI in the Arts. Still, the mood in that introduction text was hopeful…that human creativity will reign far Supreme. Again I put this to the test, by going to Shutterstock AI image generator and inputing ‘Ajanta Caves’ just to see what would appear. The images had everything from a tribal man from the Amazon to strange looking teddy bears. So I think artists too can rest assured that they are still better arbiters of creativity in the arts…and AI can play an important role with enhancing an artist’s vision.

ONE MORE AI ART EXPERIMENT!

Being an avid painter of Indian Gods and Goddesses, I could not resist ONE MORE shot at Shutterstock AI Generated Images. So I went to the input box and wrote, MICROCHIP GODDESS and what appeared is seen below. Now THIS could be a good take off point for a really interesting work!

A VERY MA KAALI LIKE ‘MICROCHIP’ GODDESS WHICH IS ENTIRELY AI GENERATED

CINEMA AND AI

Remember the Bond film Octopussy, showing airplanes diving in and out of the Taj Mahal during a fight scene? Well back in the day they called it SFX (illusory effects generated by software used in film, television, and entertainment). Today far greater effects are possible tapping into AI. Just casually waiting for RRR the movie to start, I happened to see the opening disclaimer that no animal seen in the film..be it a Tiger, Boar, Deer, Snake, Leopard…was injured during the making of the film because..hold your horses..none of those animals were for real! They were all digital creations! I watched, as closely as possible for pixels instead of skin and fur on those mega beasts..and quite easily fell in line with what most movies ask for..a willing suspension of disbelief!

AI ROBOTS SERVING YOU A DOSA IN LA

TILL DEATH CAN NEVER DO US APART!

One very interesting application of AI is in medicine. I remember an earth shattering revelation by famous astrologer Bejan Daruvala, predicting that “technology and the human body are going to be interconnected, where technology will enhance well being and the possibilities of human life, like never before.”

We have already started widely having devices attached to our bodies which track and monitor key health indexes like heart rate, oxygen saturation, metabolic rate and age, fitness trackers, sugar level trackers,.etc. All this data has made it possible to have the next-generation of medical tech… Medical Robots, who allow surgeons to dextrously manipulate surgical instruments or catheters inside the patients body, doing minimally invasive surgeries.

BIO TECH AND BIO DATA

There are devices that can be embedded in our bodies that automatically inject insulin when a person’s sugar levels go too high. There are pacemakers for an arrythmic heart… and as we hear Shah Rukh Khan’s character joke in the blockbuster movie Pathan, he has enough metal rods, screws and joints in his body to send metal detectors crazy!. What are we driving at? If body parts are going to be replaceable..if AI kidneys, hearts, etc are going to replace failed organic ones, then is physical immortality far behind? And what if we have learned our karmic lessons and should ideally exit despite a functional body? This is where my friend Mimi Rao has a spiritual answer.

“If you think about it, we have already doubled our lives, Think back to the 1800s where 40, 45, 50 years of age were your average life spans. Today we are headed towards the 100 mark, and it is quite common to have a population in the 90s. In fact the US is running a program where people in their 90s are given loans to set up new businesses! So we have already doubled our life spans without realizing it. So yes, I think we will expand our youth, our lives, but I don’t see it as a big deal at a karmic cycle level. Time is only on this dimension, otherwise it’s a space and time continuum, which science tells you. So your time on Earth is a gift. You can spend this time to increase your karmic load, or enlighten yourself and grow spiritually. It’s the same life choices you have if you live till 200, or if you live till 80. And let’s not forget the role of the Free Will in choosing when you want to go.”

WHEN AGEING IS NO LONGER SAGE-ING

One rather sad shift that has occurred with the information and content explosion is that of younger people not feeling they have anything much to learn from senior colleagues or relatives. This directly leads to more surface values and poor levels of introspection, creating a far more data oriented,profit oriented ethos rather than one which has wisdom, patience, deep insight or forbearance, which saw earlier generations deal with many challenges.

As loneliness spreads,with everyone locked into their phones, elderly populations would probably welcome the company of Robots programmed to offer compassionate, supportive behavior and gestures. Think about it! Even Chat GPT has a Lord Krishna bot who is ready to chat with you, offering you wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam! And these days we see fabulous AI renderings if our Hindu God’s and Goddesses, on Insta Reels, moving to uptempo rap and sitar tracks …by hip hop artists like Brodha V. My dear friend Mimi, however, feels very strongly that Robotics will never really have feelings, even if there are YouTube videos showing human beings attached to their robots!

AI AND OUR AVATARS

The implications of having AI be able to be not just digital avatars but become sophisticated humanlike doubles of us, is a SciFi story I would like to see. Already, the BBC has shown a documentary where 360 degree scans are done of a person, to create digital avatars that can extend the limits of physical activity for the original blueprint human…be it in sport,or work hours, or achieving challenging goals.

Then my queries will become even more philosophical…Krishna Bot, who acquires the Karmic load of the Avatar? The Krishna Bot came back saying the question is not related to the existing sacred texts;) 🙄

AS BILLIONS CONSUME CONTENT – OR GET CONSUMED BY IT – IN DIGITAL FORMATS, OFTEN IN A STYLE THAT FOSTERS CONTENT INFIDELITY…JLF TAKES US BACK IN A TIME CAPSULE WHERE THE HIGHLY SEDUCTIVE PRACTICE OF LISTENING TO AUTHORS, GETTING BOOKS SIGNED, AND REVELING IN NEW WAYS OF SEEING, REMAINS ADDICTIVE! SANGEETA WADDHWANI CULLS RARE INSIGHTS FROM JLF 2023…AND SHARES HER PERSONAL DIARY OF A CREATIVELY CHARGED FIVE DAYS!

THE FORCE RETURNS!

Here’s the real deal…THE FORCE returned to @jaipurliteraturefestival in full this year! Over five days, we heard and saw the finest congregation of creative and path breaking spirits, hearts and minds, flocking together from all parts of the world,  to the expansive Clark’s Amer campus. As always, one was overwhelmed with the sheer literary luxury – your daily buffet of choices were between Booker Prize Winning voices, Sahitya Akademy award winners, Pulitzer Prize Winners, Padma Vibushan winners, even headlining mistresses of translation (like Daisy Rockwell who translated this year’s Hindi masterpiece novel, The Tomb of Sand, Winner of the Intercontinental Booker Prize).

The Festival continued it’s unique and ambitious tradition of representing all Indian national languages and multiple foreign languages with sessions spread across five venues with over 250 speakers. Some notable   speakers included Abdulrazak Gurnah (2021 Nobel Prize in Literature winner), Bernardine Evaristo (joint-winner of Booker Prize 2019), Deepti Naval (actress and writer of the recently released A Country Called Childhood), Jerry Pinto (Mumbai-based journalist, writer, and translator), Merve Emre (Turkish-American author and literary critic), Rana Safvi (American-Canadian author and filmmaker), NoViolet Bulawayo (2022 Booker Prize shortlisted author of Glory), Tanuj Solanki (2019 Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar winner), and Vincent Brown (American historian and academic), among others. We also had the fiesty Shobhaa De launch her latest…INSATIABLE…a book that is truly proving to be everything but Profound, Pedantic and Pretentious!!!

FICTIONAL ‘TRUTHS’ VS REPORTAGE

As always, many sessions threw up seminal new insights on a whole host of topics. A rivetting one titled Where Does Fiction Come From? Featuring Deepti Kapoor, Ruth Ozeki, Amit Chaudhuri and Shehan Karunatilaka in conversation with Alexandra Pringle, brought to light how the truths revealed in fiction are always multi-layered, “Touching on emotional truths, unconscious forces, physical truths, societal truths, interpersonal dynamics and realities, while shielding the author who is spread over the many characters in the book, allowing the author to be present behind many masks!”

This insight, shared by Ozeki, opened a new way of seeing the power of fiction, which was richer in ‘truths’ unlike journalistic reportage which has a more uni-dimensional, time bound approach to truth.

ARE WE TRULY SEEING THE END OF JOURNALISM?

There were uncomfortable revelations about “The demise of journalism” by veteran columnist, food critic and TV personality Vir Sanghvi, whose session Food For Thought, saw him confessing, that earlier “it was a huge aspiration for a politician to be on the cover of an India Today, but today, it makes far less of a difference now….even though, as the moderator Mandira Nayar noted, “politcal reportage is still the most respected genre of reporting.”

One of the key reasons for the loss of power with journalistic curated content, clearly, is that social media platforms give everybody their own share of voice, making media vehicles redundant. Also, traditional media in India is heavily corporatised, which means its business agenda often overrides content freedom. Governments and politicians who have mastered the digital game win the electorate and put their best fake and real agendas out there.

I myself recall Rajdeep Sardesai talking at a Tata Lit Live!,session in Mumbai, about how PM Modi had a full team employed 24/7 to post about his engagements, new initiatives and campaigns on social media, which made him far more relateable to a young electorate, than  ‘Shehzaada’ Rahul Gandhi who was usually telephonically  ‘switched off’ post 6pm, as he hung out with friends at some elite club. And of course, even actress Kareena Kapoor was seen telling Karan Johar in a live stage interaction at the opening of the MAMI Festival, back in 2019, “We put everything up on instagram today..The new make up tricks, our holidays, new borns, exercise routines…there’s nothing much to tell a print media journo…it’s boring for us to repeat everything for a story that will be seen a lot later!”

THE ETERNAL LITERARY QUEST

Strangely, however, books continue to pour forth from determined communicators, thinkers, content wizards from around the world. This was itself a heartwarming fact given human beings statistically have attention spans of seven seconds today – officially smaller than a donkey’s!😂

THE RIGHT TO SEX!

One noticed that many of the stellar insights emerged from writers employed as professors, from the world of academia, like the brilliant Amia Srinivasan, whose session, titled after her book, The Right to Sex, was highly revelatory. Srinivasan, currently the Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at All Souls College, Oxford, has also been a prolific author who has written on sex, the politics of pronouns (he, she, it)….among many other subjects. The Right to Sex is her first book, and already being billed as a classic in the world of academia as it consists of sharply observed essays looking at codes of patriarchy and entitlement around sex, the forces of capitalism and even state racism prevailing in around sex. Questions from the audiences were also brilliant,  asking about marital rape as a widely unreported crime, as also the ‘ME Too’ movement that swept over the entire world…it was a joy to listen to her nuanced insights …it’s rare to listen to a feminist philosopher who believes compassion between male and female forces..not confrontation..has the key to better, equitable relating. Post session, it was a joy to meet with the humble feminist academic, and I do hope to dedicate an exclusive blog to her work post reading my signed copy.

GURU TO A VERY CONFUSED WORLD!

Marvelous insights were gained into Swami Vivekanda’s life and mind, in a session dedicated to a book by scholar Ruth Harris, titled, Guru To The World, the Life and Legacy of Swami Vivekananda. This was one young voice, who took the Advaita philosophy to the World’s Parliament on Religion in Chicago, on that unforgettable date, 9/11/1893! His words to this day ring with poignant pride in our core Hindu civilisational values: “I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance.”

The radicalisation of the Hindu faith in our times, is something we can’t deny, however! But something else became a point of intrigue in this session.The Hindu monk, philosopher,  teacher and disciple of the mystic, RamaKrishna, seemed to have his guru’s deep admiration for woman’s true power and potential, as he “said he would like to be reincarnated as an American woman.” Why American? The rivetting answer we got was, “His guru, the mystic RamaKrishna, was a worshipper of Goddess Kali, and perhaps Vivekanda’s deep feminism (he had mastery of typically female domains like cooking and sewing) was rooted in this love for the divine feminine. The reason he said ‘American’ was because possibly at that time, Indian women did not have the agency, the independent stance that they have today,” shared Ruth.

ROHINI NILEKANI: FAITH IS FOREMOST

A session titled ‘Samaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar – A Citizen First Approach’…blew me away because no matter what limitations moderator Vir Sanghvi put before Rohini Nilekani, about the ordinary citizen not being truly empowered to create massive positive shifts..Rohini held forth with utmost optimism, citing the donations given by the middle classes (not necessarily the corporate sector only) to help the less privileged during the Pandemic. She had an astounding knowledge of the number of schools now available to educate a new generation of non urban Indian children, she had no qualms about the brain drain as she felt “all the top CEOs of tech companies are Indian, and these kids have tremendous potential to bring new knowledge back to contribute to India.” She also felt that if communication remains open between Indian companies and this Gen Y…then geography is TOTALLY irrelevant. Her unbridled optimism about India and her salutary belief in  positive changes saw Vir asking the audience post session for a show of hands for those who would join up with organisations working for social change..and lo…many, many hands did shoot up!

A (HIS) STORY OF ART WITHOUT MEN!

Katy Hussel, author of A STORY OF ART WITHOUT MEN proved to be so passionate about her research into the invisibility of female artists through time, she had us enthralled for a good hour! Her mission with this book, was to create a corretive art history, We discovered that most women artists’ careers were sacrificed at the altar of marriage and children, while the wives who did persist with their art practice often married artists and painted anonymously, on behalf of them often, working in their husband’s studios…while he, not she, appropriated full credit for the work! Some women started signing off the works in symbolic ways, like hidden, miniscule self portraits, so as not to ruffle feathers. This is interesting because the same often happened with women writers, many took on male pen names when published!

We find out that The Royal Academy of Art has never hosted a solo exhibition by a woman in their main space. The National Gallery was founded in 1824 and held its first major solo exhibition by a female artist, Artemisia Gentileschi, in 2020. The first edition of EH Gombrich’s supposedly definitive The Story of Art featured no female artists in its first edition in 1950 – and one woman in its 16th edition. In 2015, the curator and art historian Katy Hessel “walked into an art fair and realised that, out of the thousands of artworks before me, not a single one was by a woman”.

Katy made a reference to India’s earliest contemporary female artist, Amrita Shergill, elaborating on how courageous her journey was (see embedded video below). She also gave the example of Plautilla Nelli, who entered a nunnery in Florence at the age of 14 in 1538, set up an all-female workshop there, had a stellar career and was one of only four women namechecked by the Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists!

Little wonder Katy’s book sold out at the JLF bookstore…being so richly imbued with insights, research, fascinating anecdotes and images of women artists and their art. This session will continue to educate me as I look to order the book and rebook at the history of global art…being a part time artist!

‘NOBEL’ VOICES OUT OF AFRICA: CHIGOZIE OBIOMA AND ABDULRAZAK GURNAH

Being Indian, we relate easily to the low cultural self worth, historical amnesia and fiscal ravages of being colonised, even as the decolonisation process is unfolding slowly in India with Hindi titles now visible in public spaces and across shops and restaurants. We also see our former coloniser in deep economic crises, energy crisis, strikes disrupting the world famous Tube transport system, doctors and nurses of the NHS striking, Heathrow processes in a mess. This is perhaps the Universe striking hard, albeit centuries later, saying, “Enjoy Third World chaos and their cruel summers!”

In a session titled, Road to the Country: In the Words of Chiguzie Obioma, we got deep insights into Nigerian culture, languages, conflicts and how tenuous resolutions have presented multiple dimensions to an ancient land taken over by brutal colonialism. His prize-winning novels The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities reflect the socio-cultural realities of his country even as the people strive to build a free nation in the midst of divisiveness and differences. His essay ‘Pride and Punishment’ is a compelling statement on the beauty and complexity of Nigerian heritage. In conversation with Manasi Subramaniam, Editor-in-Chief at Penguin Random House India, (who joked that Obioma would be shortlisted for a Booker Prize even for a grocery list;) led the discussion into rich territory. Obioma also gave us hints about his upcoming book and the narratives that have formed his writing life…watch this space!

TITANIC ACHIEVERS FROM A TITANIC CITY: JAVED AKHTAR & PT HARIPRASAD CHAURASIA

The other sessions took me back to the magic of my own city, Mumbai, and how it somehow brings epic dimensions of fame and success to hardworking, high integrity creators. Festival Director Sanjoy K Roy conducted wholesome tete-a-tetes with two such titans: Javed Akhtar and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. I have been fortunate to have met and interviewed both legends in the course of my journalism career, but there were some revelations that will always stay with me from these sessions. One, when Sanjoy asked Javedsaab what sort of characters he most enjoys creating, and he said, “The villain! Because the villain operates away from religious conditioning; he is truly a free spirit, unfettered by a moral conscience!” He gave the example of Sholay’s Gabbar Singh, portrayed with highly sadistic overtones, and who still remains immortal in the canon of Hindi cinema villains. “He was both cruel and a born leader…and no motives were assigned for his cruelty…”ye bhi bach gaya saala” he says, and then fires away at his own henchmen. I love creating villains…” he laughed, revealing something one would never have otherwise guessed! Roy also the touched upon the creation of Amitabh Bachchan as the Angry Young Man; a character that embodied the voice of the voiceless in the tumultuous late 70s. As one heard Javed’s views, one saw that he actively sought out counterpoints to established ideas. Also, in a country besotted by different versions of Godhead, he is a total atheist!

BREATH OF GOLD: BY SATHYA SARAN

The session featuring Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, (born on July 1, 1938 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh) was based on Sathya Saran’s recently released biography of the maestro, titled Breath of Gold. Sanjoy sensitively touched upon the tragedy of Panditji’s early years. Chaurasia was just six-years-old when his mother passed away. His father, who was a wrestler, wanted Hariprasad too to take up the sport, but somehow, though he did train with his father, it became obvious that music was his true calling. He got himself a guru to learn how to play the flute, and then took up a job with All India Radio in Cuttack Odisha. In 1960, Chaurasia was transferred to Mumbai, where he met many renowned musicians. He evinced interest in attending music lessons from classical music teacher and surbahar (bass sitar) player Annapurna Devi. She agreed to take him under her wings on the condition that he would unlearn all that he knew. Chaurasia showed his commitment by switching his style to become a left-handed flute player.

During the session, Hari-ji also called Lata Mangeshkar a living ‘devi’ and said he was almost in tears when he had his first ‘darshan’ of her. Thereafter the two became great friends and she would insist on him being her flautist for any song that required one! Hariprasad also praised song lyrics by Javed Akhtar, revealing how sometimes they tweaked a tune just to accommodate the words he penned!

It did seem strange that Hariji was reluctant to discuss one of his most successful partnerships! In 1967, he and santoor maestro Shivkumar Sharma began working in films under the assumed name Shiv-Hari. This partnership led to extraordinary music for films like Silsila, Chandni, Darr, Lamhe, Faasle, Sahibaan and Vijay. The two also changed the game when they composed an instrumental album titled Call of the Valley, which put their music on the world map, attracting interest from virtuosos across the world like George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and David Crosby!

Sathya Saran shared how when she started putting down Pandit Hariprasad’s life story, she felt it was directed by a higher force, leading him from strength to strength. To wit, in 1968, Chaurasia found himself collaborating with the world’s greatest rock n roll band, the Beatles. His flute was featured in the track titled The Inner Light, released as a single. He also collaborated with Garbarek, Ken Lauber and John McLaughlin. Today, Panditji may not have the stamina to pull of a performance, but he can gaze with pride as the students of his gurukul, established in 2006, hold audiences spellbound. he founded the Vrindavan Gurukul in Mumbai to train students in Hindustani classic music.

Unlike many classical musicians who have been part of families steeped in a musical practice, Hari Prasadji is credited with not only having mastered the instrument independently but also developed a distinct style by dint of experimentation, dedication and rigorous practise. Today, he leaves behind his Legacy with his gurukul, which always miraculously got the funding it needed!

INSATIABLY YOURS: SHOBHAA DE

This was a session I would not have missed for the world, having met, interviewed and commissioned articles and columns with Ms De…who has also stood by my humble effort at writing and launching books over the last decade or so! So I have done the next best thing…put aside all other books and started reading this one first!

Do I like it? To be honest, De’s books are always infectious with their insouciance. Her voice is always provocative, filled with attitude and chutzpah. I will add to this review once I finish the book! But to lure you into her unique tome, toasting her 75th bday, I carry here a delicious excerpt: “Happy tears are the best tears, I wanted to explain. But [my grandchildren] are a bit too young to understand that. The day they do, we will weep together.”

And that’s my JLF Diary for now folks! To understand the vibrant, vivacious JLF evenings, check out the videos from the Writers Ball, the Heritage Night at Amer Fort and Literary Agent and Jaipur’s grand dame of literature, Mita Kapur’s house party. Til we meet (in Jaipur) next year..adios or alvida!

IF CITIES LOOK LIKE ALL HUSTLE AND CONCRETE TO SOME, SANGEETA BABANI’S CANVASES MAKE THOSE VERY ATTRIBUTES A COLOURFUL FIESTA! SANGEETA WADDHWANI MEETS THE ARTIST WHO WAS RECENTLY APPROACHED TO ‘ARTIFY’ AN AREA NEAR THE MUMBAI SEA LINK, PART OF THE BMC’S 25 CRORE INITIATIVE IN LIEU OF THE G20 PRESIDENCY.  WHILE SHE REVELS IN CAPTURING THE SEA, SKY, BUILDINGS, TREES AND FLORA FOR THIS WORK, HER OWN CANVASES CONTEMPLATE A HOST OF CITY SCENARIOS – FROM LADIES LUNCHING TO EROTIC MOMENTS BETWEEN COUPLES SPRAWLED OVER CONCRETE TO ICONS DRIPPING CHARISMA…  HERE’S A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH THE CITY-LOVING ARTIST

SANGEETA BABANI is on a roll!

One has been watching her, sleeves all rolled up, atop ladders, moving her roll-on brushes over rough wall surfaces to complete a mural titled, ‘Think Blue to go Green’, created in association with the BMC, and sponsored by S Raheja Realty. One has known Sangeeta to always have an open, near playful approach to her art practice of over two decades. Just glance through her history, and one sees how she was approached to paint the Tata Nano, created a funky 3D installation for the Palladium Mall (inspired by obsolete tech), and now, has been chosen to be part of a high-budget municipal drive to beautify Mumbai tapping into the city’s abundant creativity and artistic spirit. (You will see this work at the Bandra Reclamation Underpass towards the Sea Link).

“The inspiration and concept had to go with the surroundings of the area,” she shares. “The Arabian sea is close by and we have beautifully landscaped Nature around; these became an integral part of this composition.”

One has seen a host of young artists, of all ages, painting the surfaces around Mumbai, mostly after dark. “We hope this work, and the entire initiative, will inspire others to think how they can beautify their own communities, ” shares Sangeeta. While the current drive to go beautiful is definitely frantic, this is a good time to acknowledge how the Jindals had engaged with street artists to bring vibrancy to neighbourhoods and buildings around Mumbai, and even the Rouble Nagi Foundation has placed playfull installations near the Alibag jetty and prettified slum colonies with an arresting array of hues.

A FIRST LOOK AT BABANI’S WORKS

One recalls having first set eyes on Sangeeta Babani’s vibrant urbanscapes at the iconic Jehangir Art Gallery, in April 2022. Having looked at a host of abstractions and nature revisitations post-Pandemic, I was fascinated that here was an artist who LOVED cities! Her vibrant works depicted nudes and erotic moods, ladies who lunch and domestic goddesses, all at ease in a hectic urban whirl. Also a byproduct of cities, she has painted even cinematic icons, who arrive on her canvases dripping with notes of the real and surreal, the forbidden and the archetypal…

RE-EMBRACING URBAN LIFE

The more one walked around Sangeeta’s works, the more one could pick up on how she celebrates the spirit of possibility, happy collisions, city style statements, cataclysmic hits and misses. She doesn’t believe art should be too ‘real’ as then how would it tease the imagination? So one intuitively appreciates her choice to throw splashes of primary colour where we would usually see 50 shades of grey across buildings and sidewalks.

Babani’s works hold on to the idea that the urban jungle is a place of hidden colours revealed by her art. There is a humanism in her depictions, where ordinary lives have extraordinary beauty. ‘Urbsphilia’ – the love of urban ecosystems – had come back to life again. Babani’s repertoire, seemed to remind us all that while nature spoke to the soul, cities were still the place to dream, to fall in love, to dalliance with perfect strangers and to revel in the mocktail of the moment.

“As an artist, I am seduced by a white canvas that allows me to transform it with the aura of colour and a variety of elements. Each line represents an accumulation of many moments, emotions, feelings – some strong, some diluted, some welcome, others not so welcome. You will see joy, envy, ecstasy, contentment. At the end of the day, Life comes out of our Mind. I truly believe thoughts mould the world in a direct form through actions and feelings. Colours and bold brush strokes help me breathe and have become a language for me!”

As always, she had inspirational people around – Priiya Dutt who posed with a portrait of her late mother Nargis, beautifully rendered by Sangeeta. There was Niladri Kumar, the ‘Zakir Hussain’ of the sitar. There were an assortment of writers, media mavens, influencers and a delightful sense of creative community. It certainly helps to have these luminaries flock one’s artistic outings, given the city’s media machinery wakes up pronto! Sangeeta shares, whether it is a Javed Akhtar or Shabana Azmi, a Rishi Kapoor, “I have just requested their support and they have been there for me… just out of goodwill and respect for my art. Nothing more.. that is the truth.”

THE PRIVATE AND THE PUBLIC

It’s interesting when the artist says, “I draw inspiration from people with emotions that communicate a sense of tranquility and privacy, moods which I value above everything else.”

We look at her series of nudes and works which show couples intertwined in connubial bliss. These sit almost with a sense of public apology – in discreet corners of her home. But within the paintings, the lovers are free… copulating across the concrete jungle.  “Well cityscapes run through all of my works, as you know. But by placing lovemaking couples in the public urban domain, I was portraying love with no boundaries of space or time. Just bringing love together with freedom.”

Such works are definitely a nod to our ancient love of erotic depictions… and the terrible post-colonial denial. The naked body is treated as an offence… what will the radicals do next? Blame an outside influence for the erotic sculptures of Khajuraho and Konark, and texts like the Kamasutra?

Sangeeta laughs at this, and in turn, asks, “Why paint animals in nature? Why paint and draw trees, flowers, animals, cityscapes? There is nothing more beautiful than the natural form. We are magnificent creatures. Would you put a sheet over an animal to paint it?”

FROM SEXUAL SELL TO SEXUAL HELL

“We’ve become far too obsessed about sex and nudity, where nude doesn’t mean sex, it simply means unclothed. There is something mysterious and utterly beautiful in the depiction of a human body. It reminds us that the human body can be both beautiful and grotesque, innocent and sexualized, free and controlled. It forces us to consider where our own beliefs fall in these spectrums,” muses Sangeeta, begging the question, ‘where do our own beliefs fall?

I share with her how I have interviewed Indian scholars who were so repressed they denied that erotic sculptures have a place in Hindu temples and were considered auspicious! In Tantra, the uniting of the male and female was looked upon as a coming together of earth and sky, most auspicious… and only royal figures were offered the secrets of sexual alchemy, as it lead to prosperity and super powers!

THE RICHLY DELINEATED NUDES PITTED AGAINST URBANSCAPES BY SANGEETA REMIND US PERHAPS OF TODAY’S CASUAL URBAN DALLIANCES (ABOVE)

In 2016,  at the Jaipur Art Summit, yours truly had seen a London-based painter, Radha Binod Sharma’s works labelled ‘offensive’ by radical vandals who tried to rupture the canvas and injure the artist. Similarly, Kolkata-based artist Eleena Banik had ‘the moral police’ vandals trying to destroy her nudes at the iconic Jehangir Art Gallery, about a decade ago.  She was forced to take those particular works down. Remember Ravi Varma’s tryst with nudity when his apsaras were panned? Remember MF Husain’s exile from India owing to a nude Goddess Saraswati?

THE CONTROVERSIAL WORK BY ARTIST RADHA BINOD SHARMA AND THE LADIES WHO PROTESTED A BIT TOO MUCH, ALMOST INJURING THE ARTIST

Says Sangeeta, as we continue to look at her sensuous and erotic work, “At times this form of art turns into a controversy, at times it becomes a prayer. However, if you see an artwork with a shallow eye, you will only find nudity. But when you go deeper, it shows the profundity of expressions imprinted on it.”

“The first thing that needs to be changed is your own world, in order to change the world itself. This requires changing your mind. Freedom is a state of mind. The most alluring quality of art is to question our preconceptions about the roles we consciously and subconsciously play in life. There is a beautiful quote here:

TWO WORKS BY MF HUSAIN BEFORE HIS EXILE FROM INDIA (ABOVE)

TAKING ART OUT OF HALLOWED GALLERIES INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

Like a Husain, Babani does not believe art should sit in elitist spaces. As mentioned earlier, she has painted ‘live’, in public, over the Tata Nano car after being discovered by the Tata team, who were going through various art galleries to locate an artist whose work was vibrant, and who was comfortable creating and interacting with audiences all at once at the launch event. “They saw my work in Pradarshak Art Gallery and loved it. So I got to paint over the Nano!” she smiles, a twinkle in her eye at the memory.

Not for Sangeeta any need to be an enigma huddled in a studio, who one never meets as a real person.

Another experiment she embraced was creating an installation called The Lost Art: The Art of Imperfect Progress, which featured in a lifestyle and luxury destination – the Palladium Mall. Yes, we have seen installations by Valay Shende here, we have seen EztablishArt.com stage an exhibition here… but what set this installation apart? In a universe of breakneck speed, where today’s tech becomes yesterday’s e-waste, this 18 foot tall work, fully hand-painted, asked for a pause. “It took you down memory lane, showing you the faded post box, the typewriter and the sewing machine; technology that was once game-changing but totally redundant in our disruptive, fast moving times,” she shares.

ALFAAZ…A TRIBUTE TO CREATION AND DEEP AFFECTION

In August this year, she also staged the launch of her short film, Alfaaz, at Bandra’s Otter’s Club… a tribute to a beautiful equation between her and a secret admirer who frequently messaged her deeply inspiring insights about life, art, love. I couldn’t help ask Sangeeta how this film, with its passionate rendering of hope and strong currents of romance, stood side by side with her married status? “It was entirely a work of the imagination, like my paintings,” she laughed. The film is truly poetic and poignant too; in some ways it magnifies the popular notion that love is often a creation of the imagination more than a real thing; but in this narrative, Sangeeta literally has a deeper palette of emotional colours to paint with… and so love is a vivid presence even in a lover’s absence. More real in fact! As we speak, the film (released by Pocket Films) has been chosen to feature at the Scarab Short Film Festival, staged in the UAE.

WHAT NEXT?

The end of 2022 has been heady. Not only is Sangeeta feeling a sense of fullfillment having contributed to Maximum City directly as an artist, but she is also excited about new installations to feature at the international airport of Mumbai, (which is possibly the richest public art space we know of in the city today). What will she be doing this time? Let’s wait and watch!

IN AN ERA DEFINED BY DISRUPTIONS AND THE CHAOTIC TIDES OF SENSE GRATIFICATION…PERHAPS CONNECTING TO THE UNMOVING OBSERVER AND THE INNER COSMOS WHILE OUR BODIES WHIRL…OFFERS NEW POSSIBILITIES OF LIVING WITH JOY AND SURRENDER. SANGEETA WADDHWANI SHARES HER EXPERIENCE OF A RECENT SUFI RETREAT HELD AT DEVPRAYAG NEAR RISHIKESH

Here is perhaps the human condition’s biggest paradox: We are both, creations and simultaneously slaves of our minds. “Imagine if you dropped your identity…dropped your thoughts..who are you? Nothing but the same Divine Light which permeates Existence. When you start whirling, the idea is to experience the still, non-dancer within the dance. Let everything spin around you…at your core..you are still…that is the Sufi submission to egolessness…empty out the mind, so the Divine consciousness can emerge and dance through you ” was the essence of our young guru, Meera Ekin’s message.

Yes, our teacher for this unique retreat, held at Devprayag, (at a cosy resort perched along the sacred Ganga), was this loving, compassionate ingenue, who seemed to have discovered her calling after many meanderings experienced by young seekers (the parties, the hit and miss relationships, and general experiments with life…).

It was apparent to me that Meera was 100 percent aligned to her own guru, Anantaji who she referred to as “father.” She wasn’t a voracious reader of books and did not hesitate to share this. So her satsangs expanded on the idea of ‘dropping the mind’ without too many anecdotes from the Sufi cannon of stories, without too much variety and certainly lacking the finesse of more seasoned and knowledgeable orators like Osho and Sadhguru. Words like “cool”, “chill” punctuated her talks, and then she subverted her own efforts at one point saying, “this lecture is rubbish…just surrender to the experiences of our active meditations..!”

I loved her sincerity at that point. And I could see her charisma had won over many hearts if not heads…

So yes, Meera put her heart and soul into bringing The Sufi Way to life for participants mostly twice her age. Sitting around her were doctors, authors, lawyers, magazine veterans and bloggers, mobile phone app creators, investment bankers, healers and tarot exponents, real estate dealers and other spiritual coaches.

Now with such diverse achievers who clearly earned their retreat through the use of their minds, Meera’s insistence on seeing the mind as an enemy on the spiritual journey was not easily digested. The hammering of this message made it difficult to engage in dialogues because she accused every question “to be of and from the mind”…! My personal take on this would be to keep this philosophy as more of an experiential journey rather than one conveyed through words..which were, in the final analysis, an instrument of the mind!

However, where this young lady excelled was her ability to breathe life into our transformational tools… Chakra breathing, Zikr (Sufi prayers that had magical inner rhythms and which truly sweep you to a realm of spiritual bliss). Meera and her loving team also helped us experience the Sufi Sema…where devotees chant zikrs in a circle while dervishes whirl in the centre to the innate rhythm of the prayers.

These experiences brought to mind what AR RAHMAN had shared with me about the Sufi Way of seeking oneness with Divinity. Rahman’s Chaiyya Chaiyya hit was a Sufi prayer not to a human love, but a pure love from a human heart to the Divine. All the repetition in its sybillances mirrored the beauty of Sufi zikrs…repetitive sounds which calm and intoxicate our minds. The overall exchange grew into an energy-related, deeply memorable, soulful experience. Which was the retreat’s truest spirit.

We savored the privilege also, of being in a space consecrated by Ved Vyasa…author of the Hindu sacred text, the Ramayana. On the morning of our arrival, before the retreat start time of 12 noon, me and two Delhi-based participants went to the nearby Ved Vyasa temple to explore. I met a humble Punditji who had an alarming sophistication, as he quoted a sacred sutra on the power of the Ganges…”she washes away human sins of this and other lives, as she originates in Vishnulok.” Translated, he affirmed that even if one is yojanas or many miles away from the sacred Ganga, just remembering her at the time of death, can absolve one of sin!” This was truly a revelation.

The Ganges likes to be active. One felt a dancing, prancing vibe as she made her way around the stoic Himalayan range…undaunted by the monsoon mud coursing through her veins on her sparkling sojourn. She was so near and yet far…a constant vision in front of us at our Ganges By the Banyan Tree resort. Come tea time, and all of us aspiring Sufis, sworn into silence, would sit on plastic chairs and surrender to the vibrations of our sacred horizons..viewing the seductive Ganga, the changing yet unchanging hills and skies. There is a harmony in nature recognized by our very DNA. Tea drinking took on an inner dimension here as we synced ourselves to an uncomplicated Universe, designed to carry us with its intelligence through victory and valleys…if we only surrendered.

We also went for a dip into a beautific waterfall, a treat for city dwellers accustomed to little natural mystery. Here, it was our feet venturing over hidden pebbles, grounded into the present moment as we splashed and laughed. Even if we had been a group in silence, we became family as there were hands perpetually ready to reach out to steady us. Even in nature one learns to ‘connect’; certain rocks, we discovered, were trustworthy as they anchored us against the relentless pressure of the falling water. Our inner child took over and this was No Mind occurring most naturally!

The days were packed with intense sessions. We plunged into intense active meditations designed to expunge and unclog our Chakras. These meditations had been designed by mystics like Osho and Gurdjeff, to help a data-overloaded mind throw out all its baggage and for the mind-body system…particularly over-burdened hearts and throat Chakras.. to get detoxed. We got into Osho Gibberish meditations as well…as Gurdjeff the mystic found this process accelerated his disciples’ spiritual progress. It is a trick to get out of the mind by nonsensical communicaton, helping hidden emotions to surface without the filters of socially approved and understood language.

I later heard Meera talking about Gurdjeff’s extreme and almost nutty experiments with his disciples, “including getting them drunk..as under the influence of alcohol one’s true inner dialogue can be heard. After listening to a group of drunk disciples, he figured which ones are truly on the path and which weren’t and honed his followers down accordingly,” she shared, over one inadvertent tea time conversation (only she was permitted Indian chai and speech;)

We truly delighted in the Sufi whirling, with skirts and blouses especially stitched prior to the retreat with facilitation by the retreat team. While the skirts seem weightless when we watch Sufi whirling, in actuality they have a heavy border that provides ‘grounding’ for the dancer

In fact a covering message on our skirt packages read, WINGS TO THE BELOVED…The whirling skirt is an integral part of the whirling dance. It helps in grounding and centering. Traditionally the whirling skirt was made of the cloth used to cover dead bodies, signifying the death of the ego. It signifies the letting go of our false identity, so our pure, Godly nature shines forth.”

Even more interesting, the prayer that echoes in the heart ❤ of a Dervish is…”Empty me, my Lord! Empty me of myself so only You remain.Merge me in You.” A tag line went, Rahe-e-Ishq: THE Way of Divine Love!

Towards the last day of the intense retreat, we trekked to a river..a tributary of the muddy Ganges..for a redemptive swim. This truly proved to be the ice breaker we all needed, as we held on to a rope tied to a rock (so as not to be swept upstream)..and revelled in truly merging with clean water, clean air and bright blue sky. My sunglasses became a casualty, falling into the water and vanishing for an eternity!

Meera experimented with dipping her full head into the current to feel its power..and at one point as she floated with a life jacket, face looking skyward, a butterfly perched on the tip of her nose! To many this seemed like an ancestral spirit blessing our young master.

The grand finale was the Naamkaran ceremony, where those aspiring for a spiritual rebirth opted to get a new name. The care taken to elevate the hall where we conducted our daily activities, was palpable. Marigold flower arrangements were made all around, while intense dhoop and aggarbattis permeated the space, but the most transformative energy came from the music..sacred chants and bhajans rang out through large speakers, casting a celestial spell. All the participants were freshly showered and wore white, which enhanced the angelic vibe.

Calling one participant at a time, to her sanctum, Meera engaged in a deep energy dialogue with each soul trying to reboot ..looking deep into his or her eyes, while her team held, embraced and supported different chakras…particularly the heart Chakra. Many were moved to tears as this wordless dialogue carried on, soundlessly healing hidden wounds. Meera was a mere channel in this dialogue, something she confessed the next day. “I surrendered to my Father..he was doing everything…” She shared. But we all felt her generosity that night, as she too surrendered to the process that touched so many at such deep levels.

I was told no new name had yet arrived for me…but I did get that experience of being scanned by Meera’s eyes which seemed possessed of another light. A divine, compassionate, all-knowing light. I felt a redemption and I felt my heart melt…..it almost felt identical to how one melts before Shirdi Sai Baba’s presence in his sacred shrine.

We left Devprayag as a newly minted family, knowing that we had just surrendered to a different dimension of existence…one that was effortless, filled with little miracles and new possibilities.

Will we be able to sustain the Sufi Way of surrender, living in the innate abundance of the Divine Present Moment?