Life is Like that

Sometimes you need to look at life from a different perspective.....

Handwriting Fun Project

We form a cusp generation, as we started treading the cyber path after we graduated from a teenager. Not too late, but it was not too early either.

Long distance calls were exorbitantly expensive and the known way of communication was through letters. Phones were meant to be used in case of emergency or to deliver short messages like … “I reached hostel safely.”

Message was not the only interesting aspect of letters, it was the entire Jing bang. The pen pals, the paper, ink color, handwriting and not to forget the precious little things on the cover… the coveted postage stamps. I enjoyed every aspect of this process and it’s not only stamps I collected, I also treasured many a letter.

An artist friend managed to remain untouched by computers creating an opportunity to communicate through lengthy personal letters. Not frequent, but immensely satisfactory feeling, nevertheless. An email announcing the receipt of my letter last year brought down the last bastion of letter writing.

On a train to London in December, we witnessed travelers writing festive cards like our olden times. Like London city, many traditions remained preserved, I explained to my daughter.

We decided to send our personalized cards around the world. A first time experience for our daughter to buy stamps, affix those before dropping them off.

No one chose to send back a card. But undeterred, I shall trying again to revive this old tradition. 

A Rothko – what makes the art market tick

A painting sold for a stupendous price of $72.84 million at an auction at the Sotheby, New York on May 16, 2007. I was introduced to this bit of information while watching an old Documentary.  We generally accept that art can be very expensive but this work by Rothko baffled me completely.

Name of the Artwork: White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)

Dimensions: 6’- 9” X 4’ – 8”

Painted in: 1950

Style: Color field – Abstract Expressionism

Name of Artist: Mark Rothko (Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz) An American painter of Russian Jewish descent. 25 September 1903 to 25 February 1970.

I gathered these information but miserably failed to equate the product with its price tag and decided to dig deeper.

Expressionism was an artistic movement of the mid-twentieth century where the artists were at the liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through nontraditional and usually non representation means (Merriam Webster). Tate org further elaborates that this new forms of abstract art was developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning during the 1940s & 1950s. It is often characterized by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making and the impression of spontaneity. They were inspired by the surrealist idea that art should come from the unconscious mind and by the automatism of artist. 

They were broadly classified into two groups:

Action painter – they attacked their canvases with expressive brush strokes. (Jackson Pollock & Willem Kooning.)

Color field painters – filled their canvases with large areas of a single color. (Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman & Clyfford Still)

Now I have a description for our painting. A "color field abstract expressionism" with “superposed color bands of uneven size with blurry edges”.

But I still had my puzzle unresolved. After more deliberation, I found an answer that was somewhat acceptable. 

“Value is not the only link to quality” and there are other factors that influences the value.

In this market where high value art are traded, name of its former owner is as important as the artist and his/her piece of work. The provenance is important.

This particular work of art has been glamorized by its provenance. It was part of the collection of David and Peggy Rockefeller. Part of one of the most powerful family if not the most powerful family in the history of the United States.

The bottom line therefore is "billionaires love to own property of fellow billionaires".

Since then, there were two more similar works by Rothko sold in auctions. Both could be attributed to the "color field - Abstract Expressionism" school.

 

Orange, Red, Yellow

Sold at Christie on 8 May 2012 for $ 86.88 million

 

Painting No 1 (Royal Red and Blue)

Sold at Sotheby on November 2012 for $ 75.1 million

 All images has been downloaded from Wikipedia. In case your are interested to glance at the list of Most Expensive Paintings please click the link.

Somenath, Friends, Hostel 16, Campus life, Et al.

It was 11th May 2015 and I was sitting on an airplane traveling to Kolkata to meet Somenath’s family. Memories of the past 20 years came rushing to my mind like a giant waterfall the realization that life is a one way traffic got me thinking. Somenath was one of my closest friends and has now left us forever on the 9th. Kolkata, I knew will never be the same place again. I argued with myself “wouldn’t it be a great way to remember a friend by sharing some of those golden moments with rest of the world.”  The opportunity to re-live those moments once again got me tempted to this narration. I knew the word processor would help me bring back incidents from deep inside my memory lanes.

Our college experience would have been half as interesting had it not for Somenath. With him around there were hardly a dull moment and fortunately for us, he was always around. No matter how grave the situation was, it was never serious enough to be serious. For those who do not know, he was perhaps one of the most enterprising entrepreneur that our alma mater has ever seen. But he has paid a stiff price for this phenomenal success.

We joined hostel 16 of B. E. College, Shibpur, young, vulnerable and most of us coming out of our home for the very first time. We needed hands to hold. We also wanted to break out of the stereotype of departmental friendship and formed a group with enough diversity to set an example. Ten close friends settled in adjacent rooms in one of the wing.

What we did made little sense and at times those were so blatantly stupid that we could have given the three stooges a run for their money. As time passed, likeminded students from new batches got indoctrinated and the tribe increased and our legacy continued even after we left. To put it in an expression of Majrooh sultanpuri ….

“Hum akela hi chala tha jaanib-e-manzil; magar log sath aate gae aur karwan banta gaya... “

Colleges and hostels, all around the world, have been fertile grounds for lifelong friendship. So many friends tied in a single string like us probably is not as common. They say university builds our wings so that someday we can fly away and live independently. We were became the birds of same feather who continued to flock together even since. Staring out at the clouds outside the window, I promised that even death would not do us apart.

Our time together

Political parties during those days played a significant role in the campus and often ended in dangerous confrontation. We did not shy away from openly expressing our political affiliation or participating in political activities. But politics never came between our friendships. Three amongst our ten close friends fiercely fought the college elections representing the two most dominating political parties of our time, CP (Congress) and SFI (Left Front).  This could easily have qualified as one of the seven wonders of BE College.

Creativity may come in many forms and shades but Nicknames has its own place in the history. I have not seen another maestro like Somenath, with such versatility when it came to assigning creative names that instantly caught up with the general public.

 Madness in boy’s hostel is not a myth and I got the first taste of it quite early in my first year. A senior student was nicknamed khyapa for his eccentricity and he carefully cultured it as if to live up to his reputation. One night after dinner, we got called up to participate in a daring mission impossible…. so to say. We were excited and proud to be considered worthy of being part of that yet to be disclosed mission. Later that night he led us to a crazy mission to fox with mosquito nets. To the amusement of anyone who was still awake at that late hours, we ended up roaming the campus holding the four corners of mosquito nets desperately looking for a fox to trap. We were constantly encouraged by repeatedly swearing and description successful past missions. But over the years, we realized that those jackals whom we heard growling from our rooms never came anywhere near the students, leave alone getting wrapped in a mosquito net.

A year later, another such late night mission to steal sugarcane ended up in switching off the main power of other hostels and getting into unnecessary troubles.

Our campus was engulfed with thick smoke one night and we panicked remembering Bhopal gas leak. One of the professors advised us to run to the botanical gardens as it was an open area with plenty of trees. While that decision was questionable during that night, we proceeded in that direction. We ran out of the campus in our pajamas and bathroom slippers eager to save our precious lives.

Soon we were joined by a couple of batch mates wearing trousers with shirts tucked, shoes and the whole nine yards. They cleared our astonishment stating that it was not about being stylish. There was a fair chance that the girls from the ladies hostels were also going to join us too and a few more minutes to dress up properly was a risk worth taking.

Golden Heart:

We all were compassionate to others but he was special. Not because he was one of my roommate and the closest friend but because he was a person with a golden heart. He was always there to help others and everyone used to love him for that. During the time when we used to count our pennies to manage our finances, he used to pick up the canteen bills of hostel mates coming from difficult background spending money he used to earn providing private tuitions to school students.

RIP Somenath, we shall always miss you!

 ‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’ 

08 August 2017

E-commerce for Dummies

“Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe....We shall overcome, someday”

Generations of Indians sang this song every morning in their school assemblies or while cheering teams later in the life. We are able to derive greater inner strength from this anthem. 

We successfully overcome numerous obstacles “day in and day out” as we navigate through the challenges of life. Unfortunately, we do not consider this mantra while chasing dreams close to the heart.

Leaving the few entrepreneurs, we conveniently shy off from grabbing the bull by its horns when it comes to setting up our own businesses or self-employment. This is particularly true for trained professionals like engineers in-spite being better equipped for it. They remain within the comfort zone of remunerations, oblivious of the fact that the same effort could generate more satisfaction, appreciation and higher revenue.

A myth we heard during our younger days was that money flew in Kolkata streets. It could be mistaken for a black humor today, but this could well be true then. A place where money flies today is unarguable the internet and one need to find a way to harvest it.

Every time we browse the net or use an application on the smart phone, we realize someone somewhere is reaping the benefits of the internet. I have spent countless hours finding answers to “how-what-when” of starting a revenue stream using internet technology. Unfortunately no clear path has evolved from the labyrinth of my unorganized thoughts mixed with dreams and fantasies.

I strongly believe that it’s only a matter of time till we lesser mortals catch up and we shall overcome this mental block one day very soon. Going forward, I have shortlisted a few viable e-commerce options worth exploring. Let’s call it e-commerce for dummies:

• Promote and sell your artwork of Paintings Online. There are many websites that will host the artworks for a sales commission.
• Identify your core strength on any subject and you can start offering online tuition or training. Another good way to earn money online is by offering to help students with their projects, research or thesis.
• Generate revenue by offering photos for sale on portals like Getty images, shutterstock, istockphoto, etc.
• One can earn money online through content sharing about your interest and passion through blogs, guest blogs, feature writer etc.
• Create interesting videos and upload those on sites like YouTube, Dailymotion etc. The more views it receives the more money it generates.
• A more business minded individual could procure products in bulk directly from manufacturers sell those through their own website or offer those to e-commerce sites like Flipkart, ebay, amazon etc.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’

WOW Post of 22 May 2017

I Channel - I share with the world that my eyes see

During the August of 2015, Varshika participated for #ColgateMagicalStories  competition hosted by indiblogger. Buoyed by the encouragement received from that effort, she continued to face the camera unscripted and is introducing her world to the outer world.  

As part of constructive parenting I am supporting her with post production and with the camera. She have completed quite a few videos for her YouTube channel. Its called I Channel and she invites all to find some time and visit her channel.

Different But Unique

20 May 2017

Each child coming to this world is Awesome, Unique, Talented, Impressive, Special and definitely they are all Marvelous creations of God. Some of them are categorized under….. AUTISM.

Autism or “autism spectrum disorder” represents a wide range of mental conditions that develops in early childhood and the term “spectrum” reflects its variety. Different combinations of genetic and environmental influences as we know, causes autism while creating unique strengths and differences in the affected individuals.

I would argue there are more than one ways of doing things correctly in our world and if a child cannot learn the way most others does then we need to learn new techniques.  We therefore need to accept the fact that when it comes to a child, there cannot be normal or abnormal because each of them are unique.

I was introduced to a personality albeit a feature article in the local newspaper and his name is Stephen Wiltshire. His website describe him as an artist who draws and paints detailed cityscapes. 

This Londoner, as a child, was mute being unable to relate to other people. He was diagnosed with autism at the age of three (3) could only learn to speak fully at the age of nine (9).  By that time he was already an established artist. His ability to reproduce city landscapes and cars with intimate details was unparalleled.

In 2006, he received the MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for his services to the art world at the age of 32.

Slow learner, Different learner, Unusual learner or the Usual learner …… no need to sweat over the nomenclature…….. Each are Unique.
Please give everyone an opportunity to come out of the cocoon and spread their own colorful wings.