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 e-mail: khokar1960@gmail.com Punjab matters! September 27, 2024 The state of Punjab in India is divided into four geographical regions: Majha, Doaba, Malwa, and Puadh. That's Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Chandigarh for you. These regions are divided by rivers: Majha is located between the Ravi and Beas rivers; the word "Majha" means "central" or "heartland". Doaba is located between the Beas and Sutlej rivers. Malwa is located below the Sutlej river and extending to the Yamuna river. Taking Mohan Khokar (1924-1999) Centenary celebrations to his home state - the Punjab - was a commendable feat by the IGNCA under Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi. He has supported the centenary celebrations since Dec 30th last; the first one took place in Chennai at Kalakshetra on the occasion of the birthday of late Prof. Mohan Khokar. Dance icons Sonal Mansingh, Padma Subrahmanyam and guru Kalyanasundaram Pillai blessed on dais and many stars of the scene were in attendance. Dr. Achal Pandya gave full support to the publication of the 300 paged tome on Mohan Khokar: The father figure of Indian dance edited by yours truly. Functions later followed in Bombay, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Pune and now - Punjab. SNA Chair - both at centre under Dr. Sandhya Purecha and in Chandigarh under Dr. Sudesh Sharma - warmly welcomed the initiative and pulled out all stops to make arrangements, at very short notice, with local bodies like the PGGCG Sector 11 to host the first of the four functions. Chandigarh is an elegant city built by Corbusier, the French architect-designer and we had a house there built by grandfather in sector 10, bang next to Mt. View Oberoi hotel, the first and oldest five star hotel of Chandigarh. The avarice of human greed (of tenants) and need (of father to maintain his ever-growing dance collection) made us sell the house for a song 30 years ago. When we lost a fortune in Partition of India, what's a house in Chandigarh? (Thank God for Punjabi resilience, ki farak penda attitude and tera tujh ko arpan adage where parents' welfare is concerned. Sub text: A philosophical bent of mind certainly helps!) The Chandigarh college campus was full of life and lively sounds of active, assembled folks - teachers, students and dignitaries invited - were all riveted by the film made by yours truly with footage from Jamini Roy's grandson Debabrata on Mohan Khokar. That over the tome published by IGNCA - Mohan Khokar: The father figure of Indian dance history was launched by the Principal Mrs. Anita Kaushal (whose mother Mrs. Ojha one had met 40 years ago in the same college when she was teaching there!) and Dr. Sudesh Sharma, active theatre presence in the city. Here is a man of the masses and one who is humble, which is the best abhushan of a true artist. He looks like a sadhu and is forceful in his speech.  Book release The highlight for me was the presence of full family of surviving cousins, Kaka Shravan Kumar with wife Sunita - an ebullient, full of spunk and substance Punjabi - with children. The other cousin (no more) Baby Chandrakanta Goswami was missed much and her surviving son Dhiraj Goswami was there with wife Nidhi, a pathologist-teacher and son Varen. I've not seen a kid of 12 with so many books, especially on history. He and elder sister Shristi showed what good parenting can do. Such sorted youngsters. But then Baby, my cousin was a born leader and a ring master! We followed her like little lambs. Darling lady. Full of spunk. Married to a saint of an army MES man, Goswami ji. The eldest surviving cousin Renu came all the way from Patiala as did Daljit Ami, director and head of EMRC under Punjabi University, Patiala. Here's an iconoclast whose lateral knowledge is amazing and his vision for Punjab and Punjabiyat (core, kernel attributes) is immense. In the drive back to Patiala, we called on Dr. Arvind, a genius, a quantum physicist, who had headed many universities and should return to Punjabi as the best candidate. One look at his room showed what a beautiful mind his is. The blackboard said it all.  Next stop Patiala. The royal city. Of courts and courtesans. Kathak under an efficient, effervescent Dr. Indira Bali whose tireless monitoring and invitation to Navtej Johar, the dance talent of Punjab back in Punjab helped activate the local team of many enthusiastic students, who filled a hall like Kala Bhawan full with 300+ in attendance. The real artistic talent of Punjabi University - Daljit Ami - director EMRC and his team did much to make the Mohan Khokar Centenary celebrations in Patiala (even without the famous Patiala peg), full of high spirits! Daljit Ami is a multi-media, multi-tasking, multi-talented master of the medium. He organised everything so well that even in his absence on the day (as he had previously committed travels), everything ran smoothly. That shows true leadership.  With Navtej Johar  Daljit Ami, director EMRC, documenting art Prof. Surjit Singh, the deep and dignified head of Punjabi language, had a day earlier arranged a meeting with Khoj group of seekers plus senior students and scholars of his department, whose questioning minds showed where Punjab youth stands today. At cross roads.   Portrait of Mohan Khokar
Leadership qualities with a heart for art oozed out of Deepak Bali, chief guest at next stop - Jalandhar HMV College. What a five star environs and principal Saini was like an army commander in charge of all. My father's sister was in Jalandhar as army lady doctor and we spent many summers staying with her in the school holidays. Visiting these stations took me to childhood days. Punjab was happy then, Punjab looks happy now. Dr. Ramnita Sharda was the gracious, cultured hostess with mostest interest in dance and one girl student even made a sketch of Mohan-ji and gifted. The dance programme by Vishavdeep of Pathankot, Punjab, regaled the audience in all three cities - Patiala, Jalandhar and Amritsar. He managed to perform against all odds of limited lights, stage and circumstances. A true artiste.  Vishavdeep Ambarsar. That's what we always called Amritsar. The ultimate cherry on the cake of Punjab. What Tanjore is to Tamilnadu, Amritsar is to Punjab. The Darbar Sahib (foreigners call it the Golden temple! Har-mandir for all others. Amritsar was built by guru Ramdas. It was originally called Ramdaspur) or the holy seat for Sikhs, is the ultimate place of godhead as represented by Guru Nanak and Akal Takht. The temple complex is squeaky clean but lines of thousands of pilgrims suffer sun and strokes waiting in unruly lines for long. Why can't the SGPC make computerised bookings like it has been done in Tirupati and Shirdi where too lakhs visit? It can be really done in a day. Just make orderly serpentine lines like at airport check ins, so no pushing, squeezing or shoving takes place and on weekends when rush is more, why allow any visitor to sit in the small nooks and crannies in the main sanctum sanctorum? The Sikh race is known for chivalry and courage and Covid times saw how much they did for all in many parts of India for oxygen and food and meds. Why can't the HQ of Sikhdom - the Great Gurudwara - have better management for darshan? All else works very well, the kitchen, the museum upstairs, the dip in holy tank and the market leading to it. This is Majha, central to the region.  Washim Raja at Majha House Majha House under able trustees Preeti Gill and a royal looking hubby fondly called Gugu (Punjabis love nicknames like Bengalis!) but otherwise named Kulminder Singh Gill, were epitome of hospitality. The main karta dharta is Prof. Gurpartap Khairah, a bright, knowledgeable, smart teacher of English by daytime and culture vulture by night. The spirit of Punjab-gone-West-but-returned-home, was represented by Prof. Gurupdesh Singh and others made us feel not only at home but actually made us stay at home, the grand Majha House. It is a centrally located cultural space where the cream of members are audiences and the compact stage made a magical space for a majestic Washim Raja dance his guru Vanashree Rao brand of exquisite Kuchipudi preceded by Punjab's own Vishavdeep. Dr. Nanda and Prof. Gurpartap played the perfect serious foil on stage to a humorous yours truly answering their well-thought out questions. All in all, one felt fulfilled, not just in stomach with last minute gulab jamun after a light meal of malai-topped lassi with just two over-sized aaloo-puri lunch (this when we had had a full langar breakfast at the holy Golden temple) but in soul. In Shraadh period - this Shraddhanjali - was the best taking Mohan-ji home.  Critic, connoisseur, historian, author, artivist, archivist, administrator and more - editor, columnist and mentor Ashish Khokar remains true to his muse. More on attendance-india.com Responses * Beautiful memory lane; just read the article and felt I almost attended all the events. Really you are blessed to carry on these wonderful events in memory of your father and your own knowledge and interest in carrying forward the legacy. - Prashanth Shastry (Sept 29, 2024) * I had the pleasure of attending the seminar and was completely captivated by the entire experience! The collection you shared through the video at Majha House was simply mesmerizing. The dancer, Vishavdeep, truly touched my heart with his performance; it was a beautifully orchestrated program that surpassed all my expectations. I was left emotional and inspired. Kudos to you and your incredible team for putting together such an unforgettable event! - Suraj Kumar (Sept 29, 2024) * Very thoughtful and informative. We also get a deep insight of the events. We are blessed to know about the legend Mohan Khokar sir. - Archana-Chethana (Sept 29, 2024) * Excellent article summarising the events to mark Mohan Khokar's Centenary Celebrations, with a small introduction to the family in Punjab. This article is also a visit to Punjab, unlike the ones I or the common man undertakes. Indeed Punjab was once the most educated state of India. Very informative. - Rakesh Ratti Kapoor (Sept 28, 2024) * Your writing brings back old memories in a beautiful way. Every sentence you write feels like a delicate thread weaving together emotions with a simplicity that holds immense depth. It's amazing how, despite your busy life, you find time to write so thoughtfully. Each piece you create has its own special touch. There’s no doubt about it—your writing has a magic that stays with us. - Vishavdeep (Sept 28, 2024) * You have written beautifully. We are all proud to be your family members. - Sunita Sharma (Sept 28, 2024) Post your comments Please provide your name and email id when you use the Anonymous/blog profile to post a comment. All appropriate comments posted with name and email id in the blog will also be featured in the site. |
