Thanks to Apparao galleries in Chennai, i am all set and cheering about a festival of lectures on the Arts. The series opened with a session of 6 talks by Dr. Ashrafi Bhagat. A name, i have often looked up at many art exhibitions, featured in the very informative and succinctly written write-ups capturing the various aspects of the exhibits, giving the viewer a very good initiation and a mood to enter the exhibits and a direction as to what to look for..
obviously , i was excited about listening to Dr Bhagat, and moreover she was going to give a sweeping perspective on the Indian paintings.
her lec proceeded from the magnificient Ajantha murals, then moved on to Ellora, the Cholas, Pandyas and Pallavas, the Vijayanagara, Kerala murals; The Deccani miniatures, company Paintings and finally the courtly Raja Ravi Varma.
while she had a gargantuan task ahead of her she went about it with the grace and charm of a seasoned lecturer, her more than 30 years of teaching at Stella keeping her in very good stead, she could go on with no signs of fatigue for well more than the scheduled hour.
it was even more fascinating to learn that she had never talked on some of the topics and on some she was talking after a gap of almost a decade and went on to share that she was going back to those old topics with a newfound zeal as a result of the experiences she had picked up in the intervening years. one can imagine, with the talker in such and enthusiastic and cheerful frame of mind, how gifted we listeners were.
she had an interesting way with words. She could repeat verbatim certain sentences to explain a certain concept, this i found out when she was summarising the next day. she was not probably speaking out of memory but it was a kind of flow.
it was kind of tickling to see her struggle and mix up with the names and charecters of the epics. she was at her graceful best while taking questions. she would stop, take your question in and give u a studied response.
i had three evenings of absolute bliss listening to an expert talk about paintings, making me wonder if my evenings would ever be as blessed again. i am not sure if it was from the paintings are from the talker, i am leaving these sessions infected by loads of grace.
obviously , i was excited about listening to Dr Bhagat, and moreover she was going to give a sweeping perspective on the Indian paintings.
her lec proceeded from the magnificient Ajantha murals, then moved on to Ellora, the Cholas, Pandyas and Pallavas, the Vijayanagara, Kerala murals; The Deccani miniatures, company Paintings and finally the courtly Raja Ravi Varma.
while she had a gargantuan task ahead of her she went about it with the grace and charm of a seasoned lecturer, her more than 30 years of teaching at Stella keeping her in very good stead, she could go on with no signs of fatigue for well more than the scheduled hour.
it was even more fascinating to learn that she had never talked on some of the topics and on some she was talking after a gap of almost a decade and went on to share that she was going back to those old topics with a newfound zeal as a result of the experiences she had picked up in the intervening years. one can imagine, with the talker in such and enthusiastic and cheerful frame of mind, how gifted we listeners were.
she had an interesting way with words. She could repeat verbatim certain sentences to explain a certain concept, this i found out when she was summarising the next day. she was not probably speaking out of memory but it was a kind of flow.
it was kind of tickling to see her struggle and mix up with the names and charecters of the epics. she was at her graceful best while taking questions. she would stop, take your question in and give u a studied response.
i had three evenings of absolute bliss listening to an expert talk about paintings, making me wonder if my evenings would ever be as blessed again. i am not sure if it was from the paintings are from the talker, i am leaving these sessions infected by loads of grace.
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