For the first time in the history of Indian Railways, its officials from Delhi and Bengaluru, joined hands to do something both directly and obliquely related to art, the Railways in general and Bengaluru railway station in specific.
They have come out with a coffee table book on artistic delineation of the Indian Railways through paintings and cartoons. Earlier, coffee table books published only technical aspects of the Railways.
The book, titled “Art and Railways — A Bangalore Saga”, is penned by Sudhanshu Mani, the Railway Advisor in the Indian Embassy at Berlin, and Lily Pandeya, the head of the personnel department of South Western Railways’ Bangalore Division. Both are avid art, poetry and music aficionados. The book has been published by the National Rail Museum, New Delhi, the first such endeavour of its kind.
The 120-page book includes three important aspects in the life of the Railways — the art, photography and cartoons, additionally poetry, history and present status of the same. Also called SAFAR — Support And Appreciation For Art And Railways, it is dedicated to travellers. The pages comprise photographs of day-to-day happenings at the station and platforms, juxtaposed with paintings, introduced poetically with verses by Ms. Pandeya herself.
Talking about the genesis of the book in an e-mail interview from Berlin, Mr. Mani said: “Although I am a hardcore railwayman, the drama of a moving train in the Indian context truly hit me one hazy and lazy evening between Hindupur and Bangalore. I was looking through the end window of the inspection carriage, at the graphic view of the track and stations behind the speeding train. Looking at the drama unfolding in the vast fields, village roads, wayside stations, etc., with the repetitive sound of the train in the background, what stuck me was not the magnificence of the machine or the romance of the moving train, but the magic of the Indian way of life. Not the staid scenes one would see in a western country, but fascinating scenes of great excitement. Little joys, pathos and poignancy.”
Ms. Pandeya added: “Mr. Mani broached the idea by asking if I liked art. Being an admirer of finer things in life, it wasn’t difficult to understand his point. Excited, we invited eminent artists from Karnataka and conducted four art camps in 2011-12. All railways stations were changed virtually into a studio. Each camp had different artists, except M.S. Murthy, who was the guiding spirit for everyone. The most important thing was public excitement and involvement. We also invited students of Chitrakala Parishath to paint a wall mural under the guidance of Professor Rajendra Prasad at the Bangalore City railway station. Going to the National Gallery of Modern Art gave me an idea on how to display the huge number of paintings and cartoons in the book.”
As a result, few eminent cartoonists from the fourth camp were invited to sketch their impressions of the railways. Accordingly, the art works portray the romance of a speeding train amid green fields, coolies chatting during their free time, a beautiful sketch starting from the mountain and entering into a canvas — coming full circle, Gandhiji’s historical journey in a train in South Africa, Krishna and Yashoda running to catch the train, some abstract impressions of the wheels and much more.
In order to showcase the art to the commuters instead of leaving it “languish in a corner” in an art gallery, the duo also erected an art and cartoon gallery right at the Bangalore City station.
