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Elected the first Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1955, who is known for his iconic folk style paintings with flat forms and bold outlines?

Jamini Roy was an Indian painter. He was honoured with the State award of Padma Bhushan in 1955. He was one of the most famous pupils of Abanindranath Tagore, whose artistic originality and contribution to the emergence of art in India remains questionable.

Jamini Roy was born in the year 1887 at Beliatore village in the Bankura district of West Bengal. Roy was born into an affluent family of land-owners. His father, Ramataran Roy, resigned from his government services to pursue his interest in art. In the year 1903, when he was only 16 years old, Jamini Roy left his village and made it all the way to Calcutta (now Kolkata) to enroll himself at the Government College of Art. There, he received education under Abanindranath Tagore, famous for his valuable contribution in the field of modern art. Tagore was the vice principal of the college and trained Roy as per the prevailing academic tradition. Roy finished his education in 1908 and was given a Diploma in Fine Arts. Roy was true to the art that he learned and started painting in accordance with the Western classical style. But he straightaway realized that his heart belonged to some other form of art. 

Jamini Roy’s paintings that belong to the early 1920’s reflect the influences of the Bengal School of art. Initially, he came up with some excellent paintings that marked his entry into the Post-Impressionist genre of landscapes and portraits. Later in his career, several of his many paintings were based on the everyday life of rural Bengal. Then, there were numerous ones revolving around religious themes like Ramayana, Radha-Krishna, Jesus Christ, etc. Jamini Roy also painted scenes from the lives of the aboriginals called Santhals. Throughout his works, his brush strokes were largely bold and sweeping. Around mid-1930s, Jamini Roy moved away from the conventional practice of painting on canvases and started painting on materials like cloth, mats and even wood coated with lime. He also started experimenting with natural colors and pigments derived from mud, chalk powder and flowers instead of European paints.

 

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Nephew of poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was instrumental in setting up the Indian Society of Oriental Art?

The Victoria Memorial Hall is proud to present this major exhibition of paintings of the great master Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951), the foundational figure of the Bengal school of Art, and widely hailed as the ‘Father of Modern Indian Art’. Curated by Professor Ratan Parimoo, the Director of Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum of Indology and N. C. Mehta Gallery, Ahmedabad, and a leading expert of Tagore paintings, this exhibition – put together painstakingly from the combined collections of the Victoria Memorial Hall and Rabindra Bharati society – includes representative samples from Abanindranath’s entire oeuvre, showcasing not only iconic works like Bharatmata and The Passing of Shah Jahan, but also works from his celebrated series of Krishna Lila, the Mangal Kavyas, The Arabian Nights, and his playful takes on Masks. Many of the works included in this exhibition will be on view to the public for the first time.

Abanindranath Tagore was born in Jorasanko, Calcutta, British India, to Gunendranath Tagore and Saudamini Tagore. His grandfather was Girindranath Tagore, the second son of “Prince” Dwarkanath Tagore. He was a member of the distinguished Tagore family, and a nephew of the poet Rabindranath Tagore. His grandfather and his elder brother, Gaganendranath Tagore, were also artists.

Tagore learned art when studying at Sanskrit College, Kolkata in the 1880s.

In 1890, around the age of twenty years, Abanindranath attended the Calcutta School of Art where he learnt to use pastels from O. Ghilardi, and oil painting from C. Palmer, European painters who taught in that institution.

In 1889, he married Suhasini Devi, daughter of Bhujagendra Bhusan Chatterjee, a descendant of Prasanna Coomar Tagore. At this time he left the Sanskrit College after nine years of study and studied English as a special student at St. Xavier’s College, which he attended for about a year and a half.

He had a sister, Sunayani Devi.

 

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Who literally wrote the Constitution?

The original Constitution of India was handwritten by Prem Behari Narain Raizada in a flowing italic style with beautiful calligraphy. The Constitution was published in Dehradun and photolithographed by the Survey of India.

The original copies of the Indian Constitution were written in Hindi and English. Each member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution, signed two copies of the constitution, one in Hindi and the other in English.

There are a total of 117,369 words in the English version of the Constitution of India which contains 444 articles in 22 parts, 12 schedules and 115 amendments.

With so much of writing, the Indian Constitution is the longest of any sovereign country in the world. In its current form, it has a Preamble, 22 parts with 448 articles, 12 schedules, 5 appendices and 115 amendments. Both the versions of the Constitution, Hindi and English, were handwritten. It is the longest handwritten constitution of any country on earth.

 

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The original Constitution of India, adopted on January 26, 1950, was entirely handcrafted by the artists of Shantiniketan under the guidance of which Indian art exponent?

The original Constitution of India, adopted on 26 January 1950, was not a printed document. It was entirely handcrafted by the artists of Shantiniketan under the guidance of Acharya Nandalal Bose, with the calligraphy texts done by Prem Behari Narain Raizada in Delhi. This document is now preserved in a special helium-filled case in the library of the Parliament of India. In many ways, the original handcrafted Constitution represents one of the triumphs of Shantiniketan and Kala Bhavan.

At the beginning of each part of the Constitution, Nandalal Bose has depicted a phase or scene from India’s national experience and history. The artwork and illustrations (22 in all), rendered largely in the miniature style, represent vignettes from the different periods of the history of the Indian subcontinent, ranging from Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley, the Vedic period, the Gupta and Maurya empires and the Mughal era to the national freedom movement. By doing so, Nandalal Bose has taken us through a veritable pictorial journey across 4000 years of rich history, tradition and culture of the Indian subcontinent.

The Vedic period is represented by a scene of gurukula (forest hermitage school) and the epic period by images from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Then there are depictions of the lives of the Buddha and Mahavira, followed by scenes from the courts of Ashoka and Vikramaditya. There is a beautiful line drawing of the Nataraja from the Chola bronze tradition.

 

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Conferred the Padma Shri in 2018, which Gond tribal artist from Madhya Pradesh has taken his art to international fame and onto the pages on illustrated books?

Internationally-acclaimed Gond artist Bhajju Shyam has also been honoured with a Padma Shri. Mr. Shyam is famous for depicting Europe in his Gond paintings. Born in a poor tribal family, he worked as a night watchman and electrician to support family before becoming a professional artist. His The London Jungle Book sold 30,000 copies and has been published in five foreign languages.

Kerala’s medical messiah for the terminally ill, M R Rajagopal, is among the awardees. Rajagopal has specialised in pain relief care for neo natal cases.

Maharashtra’s Murlikant Petkar, India’s first para- Olympic gold medalist, who lost his arm in 1965 Indo-Pak war, is another winner.

Tamil Nadu’s Rajagopalan Vasudevan, known as the plastic road-maker of India, developed a patented and innovative method to reuse plastic waste to construct roads, has also been given the Padma Shri.

 

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Who was referred to as Indian Frida Kahlo?

She was young and super talented but we lost her when she is just 28 due to unknown reasons. Late artist Amrita Sher Gil was about to attend her first solo show in Lahore but went into a coma and left her legacy behind which went onto becoming world famous! Born in 1913 in Budapest, Hungary, her paintings are known worldwide. Often called India’s Frida Kahlo for aesthetically blending traditional and Western art forms, Amrita was one of the most famous painters of India.

Her artwork may have mostly depicted Western style and culture during the initial stages of her career, but she gradually rediscovered herself by depicting Indian subjects using traditional methods. She even travelled to different parts of India, France and Turkey, which inspired her techniques. 

Her works in India, which were after her wedding, Amrita’s paintings had a tremendous impact on Indian art. Many of her works were influenced by the works of Rabindranath Tagore and Abanindranath Tagore. Some of the best works of her time include ‘Siesta’, ‘Village Scene’ and ‘In the Ladies’ Enclosure’, which represented the poor state of the unprivileged and women in the country. In 1941, she moved to Lahore (before independence), where art was being appreciated at that time. There she came up with ‘The Bride’, ‘Tahitian’, ‘Red Brick House’ and ‘Hill Scene’.

 

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What is the life story of Sir Winston Churchill?

Painting as a pastime

Popularly known as ‘The Man Who Saved Europe’ for his role in the victory of the Allied Forces in WWII, Churchill is considered to be Britain’s greatest warhero and one of the best-known statesmen of the 20th Century.

While he devoted his life to public service, he picked up the brush at the age of 40 and became one of the world’s best-known amateur painters. He was so enthusiastic about painting that he even wrote a book about it at the age of 74.

Churchill describes the joy of painting in his book “Painting as a Pastime”, published in 1948. “Happy are the painters – for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep company to the end, or almost to the end, of the day.”

Churchill wielded the brush for the first time when he was at a low point in his career. He had just resigned from the government because he was demoted from his position as the First Lord of the Admiralty for attacking Gallipoli, Turkey, during WWI.

Consumed with anxiety, he took up an unexpected hobby painting. Painting helped him clear his head and relieve the stress of an highly challenging career.

He eventually created over 550 paintings, crediting the practice with helping him “to hone his observation and memory skills. The pastime continued to flourish, as he progressed in his career as a world-renowned writer, orator, and political leader.

As a writer

After he left the Army, Churchill worked as a war correspondent for several years. He covered important historic events such as the Cuban War of Independence, the Siege of Malakand in British India, the Mahdist War in Sudan and the Second Boer War in southern Africa. He wrote his reports under the pen name Winston S. Churchill.

He penned down the experiences in India’s Northwest Frontier Provinces in his first book, “The Story of the Malakand Field Force.”

After he was elected a Member of Parliament in the U.K., over 130 of his speeches or parliamentary answers were published as pamphlets or booklets; many were subsequently published as anthologies.

In 1953, Churchill received the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values”.

The rare painting

On November 17, 2020, a rare painting by Churchill was auctioned for a whopping £9,83.000. The wartime leader created the still life work, titled “Jug with Bottles”, in the 1930s at his country house Chartwell, in Kent, southeast England.

Whenever time permitted, he would escape to Chartwell, set up his easel outdoors and start capturing the beautiful countryside. Chartwell has now been turned into a museum which houses Churchill’s painting studio.

Promoting science

Churchill was the first British prime minister to appoint a scientific advisor. He had regular meetings with scientists such as Bernard Lovell, the father of radio astronomy. He promoted scientific research, and used public funds towards laboratories where some of the most significant developments of the postwar period first came to light, from molecular genetics to crystallography using X-rays. During the war itself, the decisive British support for research, encouraged by him, led to the development of radar and cryptography, and played a crucial role in the success of military operations.

Did you know?

Queen Elizabeth made Churchill a knight of the Order of the Garter, the highest honour in Britain, two years before his retirement
Churchill became the Prime Minister of the U.K. twice. First time from 1940 to 1945, when he led the country to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955.

 

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How many test wickets has James Anderson taken?

James Michael Anderson, OBE (born 30 July 1982), is an English international cricketer who plays for Lancashire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team. Anderson is the all-time leading wicket-taker among fast bowlers and holds the record of most wickets for England in both Test and One-Day International (ODI) cricket. He is the first fast bowler as well as the first English bowler, and the fourth overall, to pass 600 Test wickets.

Anderson was the first English bowler to reach 400, 500 and 600 wickets in Test matches. As of August 2020 he is ranked 8th in the ICC Test Bowling Rankings, having previously reached the top position at various times between 2016 and 2018.

James Anderson was a pupil at St Mary’s and St Theodore’s RC High School, Burnley. He played cricket at Burnley Cricket Club from a young age. His childhood dream was to be a cricketer, and at the age of 17, after a growth spurt, Anderson was one of the fastest bowlers in the Lancashire League. He stated that “I’ve always bowled seam, but when I was about 17 I don’t know what it was but I just started bowling fast all of a sudden”.

 

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What is Bhuvneshwar Kumar famous for?

You must be knowing that Bhuvneshwar Kumar is an Indian pacer who bowls right-arm medium-fast, working his magic mainly with swing. But did you know that he is the owner of a particular record? By having hit the timber to get his first wicket in all three formats of the game, Bhuvneshwar became the first player in cricket history to have his first wickets in all formats!

You would have seen him walk off the field injured in the Indian Premier League that just concluded, ending his campaign with Sunrisers Hyderabad rather early. Injuries have blighted Bhuvneshwar’s career in the recent years, forcing him in and out of the Indian Squad.

While in his element, however, Bhuvneshwar has played all three formats of the game for the country, making the ball do the talking and contributing with the bat as well. That was how he made his international debut in all formats late in 2012 and early 2013, impressing one and all with his line and length.

Buvneshwar first played for India in a T20 against Pakistan on December 25, 2012. He didn’t have to wait for long for his first international wicket as he had Nasir Jamshed bowled off the last ball of his very first over!

When he made his ODI debut few days later against the same opposition on December 30, his first wicket in the format came even quicker. For off his very first delivery, and the first in the match, Bhuvneshwar cleaned up Mohammad Hafeez.

His Test debut came in February 2013 against Australia, but he went wicketless in the format in the next Test match, he hit the stumps once again after David Warner got an inside edge.

With that, he became the first bowler ever to have bowled as his first dismissal in T20s, ODIs and Tests!

 

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What happened to Zidane head-butt?

Italy won the World Cup after beating France 5–3 in a penalty shoot-out following a 1–1 draw at the conclusion of extra time. The match had been surrounded mostly around France’s Zinedine Zidane and Italy’s Marco Materazzi: this was the last-ever game of the former for France, both were scorers in the final, and also embroiled in an incident at extra times that led to Zidane’s headbutt on Materazzi. The incident was the subject of much analysis following the match. Italy’s Andrea Pirlo was awarded the Man of the Match, and Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball as the player of the tournament.

The final served as a key match in the France–Italy football rivalry, coming after Italy were defeated by France in the UEFA Euro 2000 Final. Italy’s victory was their first world title in 24 years, and their fourth overall, putting them one ahead of Germany and only one behind Brazil. The victory also led to Italy topping the FIFA World Rankings in February 2007 for the first time since November 1993.

It was an incident which followed both players ever since – both were fined by FIFA at the time and have not discussed it until only recently. In an interview this week, Materazzi spoke in detail for the first time about what happened: “Zidane’s headbutt? I wasn’t expecting it in that moment. I was lucky enough that the whole episode took me by suprise because if I had expected something like that to happen and had been ready for it, I’m sure both of us would have ended up being sent off,” the former Inter Milan defender explained. 

That was the final straw for Zidane, who turned and headbutted Materrazi in the chest. After reviewing the incident, the ref sent him off. Zizou spoke about it for the first time in an interview for Téléfoot in 2017: “”I’m not proud of what I did. One of the first things I did was to apologise to all of the young players in front of everyone, to all of the coaches who try to ensure that football is not about something else, not that. But it forms part of my career, it is part of my life and part of things which may not be that serious but it’s something which I have to accept that happened and take it on board”.

 

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