SHAPES OF TURBULENCE

Rajshekhar Pant 
For Hamish Fulton, the famous nature artist, art may be a form of passive protest against the dominance of urban life and he may claim of being curious about the wilderness and not the metropolis but “living through a profound transition of awareness” Dr GC Sharma is in a hurry to fill up with his “harrowing creations” the speedily shrinking space between the aggressive urban and the submissive rural. “I want to shock the contemporary sensibilities” says he pointing towards the new series of his sketches displayed at the parlour of Birla Vidyamandir in Nainital. In his this series the sappy texture of leaves growing on a somewhat pathetic looking tree is in a process of transition. It is getting transformed into iron. This transformation symbolizes a contemporary crisis of a rather greater magnitude. Green leaves are the rudimentary building blocks of energy that sustains all live forms. Iron on the other hand symbolizes that ongoing process of reckless exploitation which has rendered the human psyche immune to all impending dangers. “We have developed a culture of overlooking the warnings inherent in our speedily changing lifestyles,” says Dr Sharma adding further, “pet bottles of mineral water, illogical installation of hand pumps all over hills, diverting rivers into tunnels in the name of run of the river power projects and a countless other such activities reflect on the possible curse of yet another world war and this time on the issue of water…..The facts that our fuel reserves, our forest covers are depleting fast do not shake our conscience. Why, why have we become so complacent? Why do we think that something or the other will happen by then ensuring a smooth sailing of life for ever,… I don’t understand? ” This commonplace complacency and the misplaced approach of seeking a secure future “in the reckless amassing of resources and assets” troubles Dr Sharma. In the cold feel of iron, in its hardness, its crushing grip and the violent insensitive vibes it has, he sees the image of future. These moments of ‘prognosis’ at times enable him to feel the prospective insensitivity of human beings in terms of huge screws buried irrecoverably in trees. “It is a shocking creation indeed, strong enough to shatter our complacent sensibilities,” says Kirti Kamal, a graphic animation artist from Shimla, commenting on his new series. A human arm is also there. Struggling hard to preserve all its resilience it poses a striking contrast to the callous and deformed stem it rests upon. Advancing towards a cluster of ramshackle houses underneath, it probably stands for the ultimate struggle to save and catch hold of ‘homes’, the seat and refuge of the finest human emotions and values. “It is a faint indication towards the only hope that despite all bewilderments will not let slip ‘homes’ from human hands. And as long as these units of sweet human relationship are there to provide bedrock for our sensitivity to rest upon, we have reasons to be hopeful for the future.” I look at Dr Sharma- a stout figure from the small pocket of ‘Chorgalia’ in Kumaon hills. Over 3000 acres of alluvial farmland in this first ever well irrigated pocket of the Central Himalaya has been acquired by the SIDCUL (State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttaranchal Limited) Much of the greenery therein is already replaced by concrete structures and bellowing chimneys. The bed of the river Nandhor running along the settlement of Chorgalia has been encroached upon by the squatters in liaison with corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and now the fear of flash floods is being exploited by a coterie of contractors and officials every year in terms of massive wind falls from government exchequer in the name of flood control. Once know for its rich floral and faunal wealth this region away from the highlights of media has now become a hotbed of poachers and jungle mafia. Dr Sharma along with a handful of his journalist and activist friends has for log been fighting a relentless battle against this “organized mafia hell bent to rob this region to the utmost.” Walking with me out of the parlour he shows me his sketchbook telling in bits and pieces that how his anguish gets a vent through his spontaneous creations. At the back of his sketchbook are scribed in his casual hand the following lines from Niles Udo, a Baverian artist, “ to preserve the original character of nature, its unscathed condition, was like preserving the air I breath, the basis of my existence.”

pant.rajshekhar@gmail.com
Badri Bhavan Saket
 Bhimtal Distt:
Nainital (Uttarakhand) 263 136
 ph: 9412100304