http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:ckp&section=today deviantART RSS for by:ckp en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:25:08 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/27776613/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/27776613/ Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:38:21 PDT
I found quite a bit of material going back to '20s and '30s until the witch-hunt of McCarthy era.[Even suggestions that Barack Obama has had connections in Chicago and is a creation of the KGB!!]

This alliance, though apparantly fragile has a striking parallel in India today.
Like blacks in America, the lowest caste people in the Indian society have been mostly deprived of opportunities of livelihood, education, decent living space, etc.A vast majority are forced to take up hard labour as land-less labourers generation after generation.With globalisation huge industrial establishments are coming up snatching big chunks of fertile land, further marginalising these sections. The number of these people easily runs into a few hundred millions.

A fraction of these have taken to arms and are now fighting the Indian State for land-reforms.The State instead of addressing the underlying economic problems is passing new draconian laws declaring these as 'terrorist organisations'.They are spreading fast in their reach though and a number of districts - a few hundred - have their presence.
Many times there are killings from either side - the government and the armed gangs.They have a number of factions but more or less all claim to operate under the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology.

My project would be to study the american history of blacks and how the government suppressed the communist movement, and where they stand today.

Luckily, the first publisher I talked to in India has enthusiastically welcomed the idea of a book on this topic.

I would like to know if you can suggest some reading.

thanks.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/26337030/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/26337030/ Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:16:09 PDT The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
[W B Yeats]

Of late I have written on many issues - Iran - suppression of the ordinary people opposing the election results there; China suppressing the minorities; western europe trying further to marginalise the already marginalised like the immigrants from east europe or blacks; India - innumerable acts of violence and suppression by the state of its own disprivileged peoples...And I have not written about it but Russia suppressing dissident voices whether of ordinary citizens in its erstwhile empire or simply killing the journalists... the list goes on.

If these suppressed people resort to non-electoral, violent means and butcher a few in power, technically, i.e. legally a line is crossed.

I really do not think actually there is a line anymore.

And Yeats wrote that in 1919.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/26247989/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/26247989/ Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:23:55 PDT Of late she has also taken up causes of landless labour, tribals suffering due to mining, homeless in big Indian cities,farmers who have to forefeit their tilling lands for industrial projects, etc. etc.

She got Right Livelihood Award, also known as alternate Nobel Prize in 1991, and many more subsequently including Human Rights Defender Award from Amnesty International, Best political campaigner by the BBC, etc.
In short she is the voice of alternative development in India, going on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi, through peaceful and non-violent means.

Recently, a major scandal [yet another one] has come out in open in the state I come from. Ex-Chief Minister of the state and the current Agriculture minister in the central government of India has been embroiled. A huge tract of land about 20,000 hectares has been acquired from a number of villages making the small land-holders and farmers destitute.Project is to build a holiday resort there for the well-off. Land has been bought under spurious names and at throw-away prices citing the project as 'government project', when it is a plain commercial venture.It has not been bought at going rate, else it would have cost the investors millions of dollars.The holiday resort is to have water-sports too. The water is going to come from a dam that supplies water to a nearby city of 4 million people. Eventually this city will not have water, so it is proposed to be supplied from another distant dam, again affecting local people in that area!
She has been fighting for these people for over a year now.I wrote last week an article as a contribution to the on-going debate in a local newspaper on this issue.I do not know if they will publish it at all, given politicisation of media. I had sent a copy to a few concerned including her.
[Lavasa is the name of the place where this racket has been going on.
'Andolan'[means agitation] is the state-level-magazine of National Alliance of People's Movement. Medha Patkar's movement is part of this alliance.I write for this magazine every month.
She uses an honorory suffix of '-ji' while addressing me!]

This morning I was delighted to receive her e-mail as follows -

Dear Chandrashekarji,

Thank you for your valuable contribution to the Lavasa debate, especially the last article, which is candid, clear and to the point.

We have always been appreciating your clarity on issues, promptness, contentful writings and countering comments sent for ‘Andolan’.

Your paintings / drawings / pictures too are of a very high quality, as recognized by all.

Thank you so much for being with us, with all support.

With best regards

Medha Patkar

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/26005953/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/26005953/ Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:21:51 PDT
It is about a suicide bomber.

Of late I have been interested in this topic and intend reading two books suggested by dawno
[link]
a soon as my local library gets hold of them.

Meantime, looking up the library catalogue this book came up. It is a good read for the backdrop on this phemnomenon though I would say it is relevant more to the Palestinian problem, than muslim suicide bombers everywhere per se.

Let me know if anyone has read it, how you find it...

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25918608/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25918608/ Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:23:24 PDT
One of the magazines I write for reported this incident commenting that social reform like banning of burqa by muslim women has to come from within that community.Such utterances in fact make the task of the reformers more difficult. Their other point is his statement smacks of cultural superiority and is therefore unwarranted.

Following is my impression about the issue.

At the outset let us be absolutely clear that Sarkozy's stand on burqa practice of muslim women has nothing whatsoever to do with their liberation or social reform.Simple fact is a majority of white europeans do not like immigrants in general and specifically muslims among them. Sarkozy is just playing to this gallery. In October 2006, Jack Straw, the then British foreign secretary [He was earlier Home Secretary] also expressed similar opinion on burqa.

This statement by Sarkozy is an indication of the dilemma the West faces. On the one hand they have to say officially that they are liberal and sound politically correct.On the other hand they can not in the heart of hearts accept that the third world culture is at par with theirsbecause their electorate does not believe so. Then statements on such literally superficial matters are made.

Being officially liberal means saying all cultures are equal. As a concession they may concede that cultures may be different but they are equal!So the culture of aborigins in Australia, of tribes in Africa and high society in France are equal. They are not. They are just different. Equality implies some least common denominator. It does not obtain across cultures except in exploitation [which is no culture].But nobody wants to admit that publicly.Then this dilemma resorts to the idea of Human Rights. Human Rights are conveniently forgotten when drones bomb Afghan wedding parties killing women and children, when wars are imposed, when weapons of mass destruction are supplied to the third world for money.

Look at France. The much touted french revolution is credited with having bestowed the values of liberty, equality and fraternity to the world. Revolution was over in 1799. Until the decade of 1960s, the french had colonies in Africa, Asia and North America.Untold pillage and atrocities happened to the colonised during that period of more than one-and-half century.There was no liberty-equality-fraternity for the colonised.

But saying burqa undermines muslim women's human rights serves both the purposes - it gives vent to their disapproval of immigrants and is also a politically correct stand.Actually wearing a veil and being forced to wear a veil are two different things. The West deliberately confuses these. And since it is impossible to know the veil-wearing muslims women's own feeling about it the world over, it is assumed that they have been forced into it.

For example, in a place like Darfur, women are raped en masse. Not only are they raped but disfigured for life so that the community knows that they have been raped. A common practice is to cut the foot of a raped woman, making her disabled for life. This is real violation of human rights.Whether she wears burqa or not is not going to save her from her fate. Such genuine problems are relegated wih cheap sloganeering like Sarkozy's.

If burqa is objectionable, different valid grounds could be cited. For example, social security in public places.You never know if a burqa clad person is a suicide bomber. Or, in schools where wearing a uniform is mandatory because rich or poor, all pupils must be taught to look the same while there.But objections are never raised on these grounds. They are raised on the grounds of Human Rights of which the West has been and continues to be the biggest violator.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25552825/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25552825/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:47:54 PDT RIP.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25469111/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25469111/ Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:31:06 PDT
With a few,where I know someone personally, we have been discussing the possibility of giving some of my paintings of their choice to them on an indefinite loan from me. They display the paintings in their office. In the absence of any potential for major exhibition, given the type of work, this will at least generate some actual, unlike this [virtual] visibility to my work.It will also be a meaningful utilisation of their wall-space.

I am glad that Mercy Corps, UK [They are an office of the parent american Mercy Corps] have taken five of my paintings on loan.

If you know of any such organisation, which might be keen to display my work please pass on my web-site address to them and they can contact me.Organisations working in the areas of - reduction in poverty, education, helping the Third World, anti-war, environment protection, etc would be interested.All I insist on is that they should be genuine and someone responsible working there is personally known to you.I am not charging anything, they may only have to collect and deliver the works back to me, whenever I need them.

The paintings selected by Mercy Corps -

frames gone astray
[link]

the carers
[link]

his life won't recycled
[link]

needs, not wants
[link]

descent of man
[link]


You might get an idea of the type of work these organisations may want from the above.

my web-site
[link]

Thanks

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25454479/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25454479/ Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:49:21 PDT
Better still, this is a newspaper meant for the lowest stratum of the Indian society - people disadvantaged both on the class and caste front. The newspaper is extremely poor-resourced and I do not know th exact circulation but it may not be more than 10000 copies.

It is not that I do not get publicity in mainstream there. Leading newspapers - both english and our language - have really gone out of way to publicise my exhibitions or give more-than-due coverage to myself.And they have circulation running into tens of thousands of copies.

But somehow this is more gratifying because it will reach the people for whom I try to speak.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25219038/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25219038/ Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:51:09 PDT
What is this phenomenon of suicide bombing? Both the Western and the Eastern thinking seem stumped by it.

To put the record straight, it was started by hindu tamils in Sri Lanka, more by young women recruits to the cause of an independent tamil state in Sri Lanka. It was claimed at that time that this is the pinnacle of women's liberation.These women gave up marriage, sex and children to fight for a Tamil land by committing suicides.They claimed many lives including those of an ex-Prime Minister of India and a Sri Lankan President.Now, of course it is monopolised by muslims.Everyday, and literally everyday, there are scores of deaths due to such bombers esp in Pakistan these days, and so too in Iraq until recently.

Western thought has mostly socio-economic explanations, or attempts at explanations like they come from areas where there is tremendous social repression [Saudi Arabia, muslim countries in general], where there is economic backwardness [like in Pakistan] or something wrong with Islam itself. Assumptions behind this thinking are - there is no social repression in the West, or christianity is the only worthwhile religion.So, the West offers nihilism as the explanation - that the suicide bomber devalues his own life to such an extent that the victims are further devalued and are of no consequence.But this is more a description than an explanation.Also the asumption is human life is sacred.

In the East fatalism prevails. So, suicide bombing is taken quite easily in stride by the societies. People are destined to die anyway, so whether they die of man-made disasters or natural ones or on their own doesn't really matter.I do not know if this means that human life is not sacred.

Either way, it defies given theory.And may be because it defies theorisation it becomes a puzzle.

I think in seeking socio-economic explanations or ascribing it to fatalism we underestimate the inherent violence, sadism and machoism in humans. I have no respect for psychology, so I do not mean it that way. This seems more anthropological than psychological?

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25042520/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/25042520/ Sat, 30 May 2009 23:45:45 PDT
Last few days reports of attacks on four Indian students in separate incidents in Melbourne, Australia have been making news in India.One was kicked and beaten badly in a local train and 3 or 4 white perpetrators have been caught on the CCTV.This film is being shown in every news itmem. Another , in a separate incident was beaten up so badly that he is in coma.
The Indian sudents' house was also burgled and contents smashed.

The Australian High Commissioner in India, the Indian High Commissioner in Australia made usual noises about the 'deplorable' incidents, australian police ascribed theft as a reason and denied racism, they are quite tight-lipped in giving out details either including of a murdered Indian youth some time back.

Here, in Britain, a white supremacist party called British National Party is expected to make significant gains in forthcoming elections to european parliament and then the general elections , benefitting from corruption scandal [my last journal entry] which has discredited all the three major political parties. BNP's motto is anti-immigration, Britain for whites [british jobs for british workers] only and allied pure racism.Elsewhere in europe to, due to economic downturn, foreigners are first to be blamed for taking 'our' jobs away and rightist parties are on an ascent.


British were not invited to either Australia or India, or any of the colonies two centuries back.They went to plunder and did that over the next century and half aided with superior technology and military.The surplus from the plunder has made this nation rich. Carrying the culture abroad the white 'immigrants' systematically marginalised and almost annihilated the aborigines in Australia.

It is remarkable that students have been targetted in Australia.They brought money to the country unlike migrant workers.

Of course racism does not recognise logic or history.But it is regretful that racism makes the same history of hatred and violence over time.

I think there is more to racism than just economic disgruntlement. The primal animal instincts of territorial possession are quite alive and kicking notwithstanding the superficial claims of 'civilisation' and 'democracy' and 'multiculturalism'.No religion, no ideology has been able to get humans rid of these instincts.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/24748054/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/24748054/ Thu, 14 May 2009 03:02:44 PDT from already repaid mortgages to laundry bills. They made some noise but Tories also have a lot of dirty linen being washed in public.
The amounts involved are not huge but it is the trend that is disturbing.
I am bemused when I compare this unravelling with the Indian scene. Difference seems only of degree, not kind.There huge amounts are involved, more often than not, the guilty get away with minor punishments, if at all caught, and that too after years of litigation.The sheer brazenness, callousness of Indian political class and bureaucrats from top civil servants, militray brass to traffic police can only be compared with the worst kleptocratic despots in Africa, and may be S E Asia like The Philippines or Indonesia.By some estimates some 20 per cent of the candidates in the on-going parliamentary elections have criminal records from mafia activities to murder.

What is interesting is this - in both places the media play the holier-than-thou role in exposing the scandals.But here in Britain it all has a ring of the theatre of the absurd. Media themselves are no white lilies [neither in India].And the common citizen here may at best sigh in the pub over a pint of lager.There is no public outcry, no demonstrations, no taking to street unlike in India.There, not that it makes an iota of difference but at least people protest.

I see both as going through motions - here the media has to create sound-bites, there some groups have to come to streets all the time. Both seem essentially resigned to corrupt politicians.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/24636165/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/24636165/ Thu, 07 May 2009 14:10:56 PDT
714 million voters casting votes in 828,804 polling stations across a sub-continent size country to elect 543 members of the parliament. A country that expects 5 per cent rate of growth in the down-turn of global economy days when many developed countries would be happy to register zero or fractional growth.
A country where some 400 million earn less than 2 dollars a day and may be some 200 million less than a dollar a day.

They believe they can make a change through voting. When after 60 years of independence politicians have consistently let them down. But that is conventional way of putting it.

It is really the people who have let themselves down though it is politically incorrect to say so in a democracy, esp at this hour of massive feel-good factor.

If people think elections can change their lives for better, it is not only escapism, it is abdicating their own responsibility in bringing about a change through non-electoral non-violent ways.

So, the ritual goes on. I had made a painting, some 5 years back - our last general election, and, sadly, it still holds true.
It is called -
India votes - a five year ritual of hope for the millions -
[link]

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/24307917/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/24307917/ Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:45:00 PDT
I find these items quite representative of our times.

One is Bernie Madoff who took a few billion dollars down the drain and got away with only a jail sentence. He confirmed the worst of capitalism - in greed, swindling and how the high and mighty are so very gullible to power.Among his victims are a billionaire who committed suicide, a lot of red-faced secretive swiss banks and scions of the rich and famous families all over the world.In the end, though it was OUR money he abused. These people are well-protected by the state and go physically unhurt when innocent bystanders in Iraq or Pakistan or Mexico get killed by a dozen a day. Madoff had only to plead guilty to save his skin.

Second person is Josef Fritzl, who raped his daughter, sired eight children , keeping all of them in a cellar for 24 years, killing one of them by neglect. He too has got away with a confinement and treatment in a psychiatric ward.Fritzl had only to plead guilty for reaching a new low in published human depravity.

By an estimate, there are some 2 million women mostly in Africa, some in Asia who suffer from fistula, due to unattended and complicated child-births, mostly teenage mothers. The problem is seldom attended to later on either due to lack of health service there. Most of the pregancies arise out of rapes in strife-torn areas. What happens is if the foetus is in a wrong position, or the baby too big to be delivered normally, either the baby dies and a woman passes a corpse out. Or, the baby ruptures the bladder, the uterus and vagina. This leaves a hole and urine is passed through vagina, or stools leak. So, the women smell, they leak and are disabled, and live most of their life as outcasts - as terminally ill destitutes.
No one pleads guilty, friends and family banish them so they are condemned to a life of agony.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/24182603/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/24182603/ Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:50:45 PDT
I have been following the two countries and their fast down-slide aided first by the US and then internal obscurantist forces over decades.

To sum up, in the 19th century, there was a tussle beween the British empire and the Russian empire to control Afghanistan. This was called The Great Game - note the colonial arrogance - in 'game', afterall no white lives were at stake.British suffered three humiliating defeats and retreated.
In the 20th century, Russia burnt its fingers upto knuckles in trying to control Afghanistan. To counter Russia, and limit communism [god knows WHY!! as that system was equally brutal as capitalism], America created the Frankenstein of Taliban and , in turn Osama-bin Laden who are now America's nemesis. Russians beat a humiliated retreat as Britishers did a hundred years ago, and now the americans are heading there fast, notwithstanding the messiah Obama.

Literally billions of dollars continue to be pumped in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and both the countries breed only misogynist, medieval psychopaths bent on annihilation.Plus Pakistan has nuclear weapons.

My own reading of the situation is - it is the concept and reality of nation-state which is the root cause. Moment you have these geographical artificial entities 'Afghanistan', Pakistan', India, Iran... human mind grabs it as territory and the chaos of lawlessness descends under the name of law and order.

I am no dreamer of 'all humans being angels' but practically, this demarcation in nation-states, breeds self-righteous monsters on the hand - whether under the name of George Bush the Second or Tony Blair or Putin...


[I am keen to know your thought on this issue, Thanks]

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/22750969/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/22750969/ Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:10:37 PST
Richard Skellington is a colourful personality - a senior office-bearer of the Open University - UK, editor of their newsmagazine for Social Sciences [circulation about 45000 copies], a social scientist with some solid research on ethnic relations in Britain, an actor,a local councillor, a cricket umpire, a football referee. Of late he has taken up writing poetry and requested me to allow use of some of my painting-images.

I think he was trying for a print edition but for the moment, the collection of poems has gone on-line.
Happily, four paintings have been used. The poems and the images can be seen on the link below -

[link]

[They have also given a write-up on me, which can be seen on clicking my name under each painting].

As they have not given titles of the paintings, I am giving them below in the order they appear on the poetry-page with links to resp DA pages.

cry in the wilderness
[link]

one day all masks might desert you
[link]

all we have been doing is to create walls
[link]

her son, foreign clouds
[link]
[this has been used in black and white]

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/22276474/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/22276474/ Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:29:15 PST 17 paintings

writing-wise a productive year.

painting-wise quite a lag considering I have produced some 30-odd on an average per annum since I started. May be three months of being away to India instead of the usual one, and spending more time on each painting these days.

On the visibilty front, conducted some half-a-dozen talk-shows while in India with some of the paintings in the background, plus a recent public event where they showed my CD-ROM.

Not a bad year, then.

A very happy new year to all.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/22133119/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/22133119/ Tue, 23 Dec 2008 01:40:49 PST Though it was triggered by the Mumbai massacre of 26-29th Nov., it protested against violence in society in general.A procession was taken out through the city [population 4 million] and culminated at a historic fortress at the centre of the city.An open air meeting was held there.

As part of the meeting, the organisers included display of some of my paintings from a CD-ROM on a giant screen. The CD-ROM has paintings with my commentary on each piece.

I understand the paintings were received well by the audience. I was waiting for photos to upload here but none has come about quite ok as screening was done in dark.

I am glad that this experiment has taken off at last. This is the first time that the CD has been played in my absence. That is the purpose of reproduction of paintings.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/22043078/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/22043078/ Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:58:43 PST I had requested the person to stop commenting unless he has something worthwhile to say.He doesn't but he keeps on.
This has become a minor nuisance to me now.
Is there any way one can 'block' a particular deviant from commenting on one's work? Like we block spam mail addresses?

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/21692062/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/21692062/ Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:54:57 PST Already more than a hundred have been killed, an unknown number held hostages in 3 major hotels in the city which has been a terrorist target over years. Last multiple location bomb blasts killed 200 innocent commuters, office-goers, common people.
This time 3 high ranking police officers including a head of anti-terrorist cell, an assistant commissioner of police have been shot dead.So this is more planned, more specific attack.
By all appearances, it is the work of muslim fundamentalists, probably aided by Pakistan.Though nobody is saying so from official circles.

I dread the retaliation by hindus against indigenous muslims - which could lead to a mass violence frenzy.
One of the hotels - Oberoi was just opposite my office when I was working in Mumbai. The other hotel - Taj, I used to frequently visit too. That elegant old hotel is on fire now with some 6 or 7 terrorists and 50 or 60 hostages still inside.

This nihilism has no redress.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/21329921/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/21329921/ Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:49:27 PST
For the first time, in my living memory, I find something good done by America.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/21250934/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/21250934/ Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:49:46 PDT
This is an open invitation to suggest me about a new theme I have in mind.
I intend doing a series of paintings on The Superficial.

I mean, people, who, in my view spend a life not only pursuing superficial activities, but are also big consumers of resources.For example, national military.They are the holy cows anywhere in the world as we are so enamoured by our own domicile nation. And they are the noble ones to protect us.

To get an idea of what I mean, please look up

[link]

on my site. This is a series on The Marginalised - the poor, the street children, the illiterates, the migrants, the AIDS victims, the mentally ill, the modern-day slaves, etc.
The Superficial are the culprits.
For example, browsing through issues of National Geographic I came across dance-teachers who teach dance to dogs. In america [where else!].Or restaurants which specialise in celegbrating your pet's birthday. That, to me, is The Superficial when 2 billion people in a world of 6 billion are on poverty line or below it.Not getting enough to eat a day, surviving [or dying] on 1 or 2 dollars a day.

Any or all sugestions welcome.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/21127906/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/21127906/ Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:37:57 PDT
I am glad that for the first time something written by me has been published in a british magazine.
'Stride'is a magazine promoted by the Scottish Government and reaches all the 8000 council [that is, government] schools here.It is meant to be a directive magazine for the school teachers.

An abridged version of my original article in my language written as a monthly column for an Indian magazine has been used for the latest issue as the editorial.

Please look up
[link]).pdf
or
[link]

Then keep on following Stride - for download and all and you should get the pdf file of the entire issue.
I am sorry the article does not seem to be accessible with a single click.

Are Human Rights Western Rights? - that is the title of the article.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/20738250/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/20738250/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:16:58 PDT
There is a document called Death Certificate without which you can not move a step after a person's death in officialdom.
As mentioned earlier here I lost my father on the 26th August, was in India on the 27th and started working immediately on matters that needed immediate action.
First thing was to get his pension sorted out. As per law, part of his pension now goes to my mother.I went to the government department handling this affair.I had taken with me the three documents - all that was there - a report from the hospital about his death, another document to similar effect from another government body and the receipt of the crematorium where last rites where performed.I enquired about the procedure.The officer-in-charge was duly rude.He curtly told me to get the Death Certificate. I asked if he could give me the blank form which was to be submitted, so that I could start working on it until I get the Death Certificate.He told me 'not to ask for unnecessary things' when Death Cert was all he needed to start with.In short, sent me packing.
So next day I go to the local council who are supposed to issue this document based on the hspital report.I submitted a form there and asked how long would it take.The reply was very illuminating - these days everything is computerised. So we await the hospital report through proper channel on our computer system.Until it comes from them there is no use bribing us to expedite it.Once it is there in, say, 10 days, come again. Then 'we'll see what we can do' - meaning we will take bribe only then and not now.This is computerisation in India. Earlier I could have greased the man's palms and got it in half-an-hour. Now I waste both time and money.

My entire official work there could only start after the Certificate.So, I did not have anything to do for 10 days.Kept on following up after a week or so.Then was told that it would be better if I followed up at the zonal office than the regional office where I was going.So, there.They had got it that day itself.The routine of forwarding it would take 'may be a week'. I volunteered to take it myself and for a small sum was allowed to.Another two days and I got it, and back to the pension office. Then the form. Then some three trips to get various unclear/mistaken/ambiguous entries in the form sorted.Some pages had to be notarised, got them done so. Then was told it was a wrong ceritification, get some body else to do it, etc.Then there were public holidays, the man in charge on leave, the deprtment went on partial strike, system was down...
Finally, the man in charge materialised after 15 days, admitted reluctantly that all the paper-work was in order. Next and final step was to take my mother there, whose all five fingerprints were to be put on the form in front of that officer as identification. That was a Monday. He told me to come on the next Monday as he would have to locate their records and needed time.I pleaded if it could not be done in 3 or 4 days instead of a full week.He elaborated the difficulties - we have only 50 per cent staff, there are 50,000 cases to be attended to, I am the only one doing all this work...if I was not happy I could very well approach his senior. I did that as the senior was right there.The guy treated the senior more rudely than he did me!He obviously wanted to make money which I did not want to. Not out of any 'rinciple' but just to see how far he goes.
Until Thursday nothing happened. By then I had to postpone my return date twice costing me some amount.On Thursday an acquintance's acquaintance came to know about this delay and how I was stuck in India just for want of this matter to be sorted out.He phoned me, got all the details like the officer's name, reference number of the application, etc.Phoned me me back in half-an-hour to take my mother immediately there. I did that. That was a transfer scene. The man in charge was on his knees keen to oblige, the officer came around assuring the work would be done that day itself. Next 20 minutes the file was cleared.
On coming home I asked the gentleman what trick did he play. He had threatened them with an exposure in the local press and they started grovelling.

Similar experience with many banks where both my parents had joint accounts. And the apparantly simple matter of deleting father's name and retaining mother's was made into an uphill task in a new way by each bank. There is no universal, standard procedure, no customer-friendly approach in most of them. Best answer was from two different banks - one said simply - his name cannot be deleted. Another said - why bother, clean up the account but don't insist on deleting his name as it is a 'long procedure.

And we talk... ]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/20734340/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/20734340/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:51:04 PDT What with writing priorities before that, in effect I have not painted for more than 3 months now.
Intend taking it up asap.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/20169366/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/20169366/ Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:15:55 PDT He was alert and conscious until the very last few hours,a solace to me under the circumstances.He was admitted to a hospital for a minor infection but suddenly it took a bad turn.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19934710/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19934710/ Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:05:52 PDT
After the usual journey of 30 hours by clock I returned yesterday to Scotland.

In India we have our biggest festival - Diwali [festival of lights]- in October/November as per the Hindu calendar. Many magazines bring out special annual issues around that time.

Three magazines in my language want my contribution for their issues - from alternative development to philosophy.
I doubt if I will be able to write that much in the next month but will try to write at least two.

Then there is a good opportunity for my paintings. One of these magazines is likely to use some 6 or 7 of the paintings in their issue.

A demonstration of the second volume of my CD-ROM can be seen on the manufacturer's web-site now -
[link]
click on the 'demo' square to the right of this page.

A half-a-page feature on my work also appeared in a major daily newspaper. Unfortunately it does not seem to be online.I hope you can read at least bits of the article in the [terribly] scanned version I have put in the Scraps section -
[link]

[It was an achievement that I could scan the two pieces of the page at all and put them together!]They have mentioned both my web-site and the new CD-ROM too. Hopefully a few read it and look up my work![And my face is not mottled. It is the scanner which did the cosmetics].

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19774856/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19774856/ Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:14:19 PDT
My last two events of display and discussion on paintings went off well.
The session with the intellectuals turned out much more lively than expected. I got the impression that people really enjoyed viewing the work and knowing the background of the pieces. They were also keen to know the mechanics of working behind painting and questions were quite interesting too.
For once I actually managed to sell some of my CD-ROMs too!
The last programme was in Mumbai for the most deprived social class in India.Problem here turned out to be qualitatively different than the other four programmes. Though I ran it exactly as the earlier programmes - All the 25-odd paintings were on display when people arrived. They could view them at their own pace. Then I took one picture at a time to the stage and talked on it for a minute or so. After that I showed 5 or 6 pictures each from the two CD-ROMS. This whole process would take an hour. Then the discussion followed.There were hardly three or four people who talked then [out of an audience of some 60 people], a bit to my disappointment. When the programme was declared over, a whole stream of people started coming to me and discussing individually.That went on and on until I had to leave.
The organiser and a renowned bard who had travelled some distance to attend the event explained that 'viewing and discussing these type of political paintings was a novelty for one, second reason for the subdued reaction during the programme was - people feel inhibited in voicing opinion publicly, and the thirdf being - it all was too much for them in such a short space of time.'May be.

But overall I would say the experiment worked well.

I also have some promise of use of images of paintings for forthcoming special issue of a magazine devoted to alternative development.Plus a request for a couple of articles for annual issues of journals.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19656983/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19656983/ Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:44:06 PDT
Half way through with my painting-cum-speaking assignments.

The first programme, on the 25th, went off as expected. With the ultra-leftists-for an audience - seething with anger-and-resentment-against the establishment-under 25-youth .Besides the usual objections to my work, there were a few new angles.First the usual objections - your work poses problems, does not offer solutions, you are evading responsibility..
To me, it is THEY who are evading responsibility by expecting answers from me.I reiterated that I am not running a pharmacist's shop to offer paracetamol to any Tom, Dick and Harry for this ache and that.
New angles were from two women - one works with children of prostitutes in the city. She related with some of my work - a very flattering acknowledgement for me.She told how prostitutes become friends to many men after the first few encounters, then they visit them more to talk than for sex.
Another works for rehabilitation of women in the border region of India and Pakistan - where abuse of women and flesh trafficking is rampart, with both the sides revelling in repression. She too found echos in my work.
Surprisingly, a well-regarded though not quite of national stature socialist,an ex-mayor of this city of 4-plus million city was the Chief Guest. He spoke well.

The second programme on the 26th, was for the kids of the rich. That too, went off as expected. A professor who attended the show summarised and explained the dumb silence well-
if you ask these kids to write an essay on 'the poor' their narration will go somewhat like this -
'once upon a time there was a poor man...his cook was poor, his chauffeur was poor, his maid was poor, his doorman was poor, his gardener was poor ... '

To be fair, the students were rather young than I had expected - they were may be 18/19 year old and I talked as if I would for 25-plus audience.

Third programme, on Sunday was a bit of a let- down on the attendance front. The organisers had bragged of at least 50 plus audience but effectively, there were some 20-odd people [discounting the organisers' workers, kids of the guests, etc]. [There were two muslim-terrorists attacks in two major cities in India on the preceding two days [killing more than a hundred] - Bangalore and Ahmedabad, and our city was on hgh alert, dampening the movement.]
Plus, unfortunately, and I was made aware of this fact AFTER the event [!] - most of those present were conventional artists. And I said clearly right at the outset that 'only those who do not know anything about painting might appreciate my art!'
Still, there was quite a lively discussion with almost everyone participating.

Next programme is day after tomorrow with the intellectuals where I expect much verbosity and no substantivity . Then I travel 100 miles to another city - Mumbai a major megapolis of 15-million-plus people, and commercial capital of India - for the last of the scheduled programmes for an audience with the most deprived section of the Indian society.

There may be one or two more programmes coming up but I am not sure as of date.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19568232/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19568232/ Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:26:18 PDT
This time as I am not holding an exhibition, am trying a diferent track to increase visibility and to reach out to people.
I have brought some randomly selected 25 paintings with me. I have been in touch with two organisations over the last year - one consisting of young social activists from the lowest class and lowest caste of the Indian society - angry youth, another working in rural India.Both have organised a session each - of 2- 2-and-half hours where I will display the paintings and discuss the issues the paintings depict with the audience.
By word of mouth two more organisations approached me.Interestingly, one of them - the person who contacted me -is a lecturer in a local architectural college who showed keennes in an event at her college for the students. This college is what we call in India as 'donation' colleges. Private entreprenuers have commercialised education, degrees are on sale. Quality may be at par with non-donations colleges [which are heavily subsidised government colleges and admission is on merit] but the entry criterion is how much money you are willing to pay, not merit.Obviously children of only the rich are admitted. This group is creamy layer of the Indian society furthest removed from the lowest caste group.
Fourth group is a study circle - more or less impotent intellectuals - academics and social commentators in print media.
Incidentally, this is the first time in India that I made it clear to these people that I come only with my paintings and talk. From booking the hall to ensuring pre-event publicity, enough people turning up, , etc all their responsibilty. Not an ego-trip but wanted to test their sincerity too. Happily, I have not spent any money on any of the event. Earlier on, for both the exhibitions I have had to ship the paintings, book the hall, pay rent, get stuff printed and all running around.

So from tomorrow I begin the series of programmes.
Tomorrow - the poorest and the angriest of the lot
Saturday - the rich kids
Sunday - the mixed crowd of social activists and NGOs - here editor of local socio-political magazine, same one which backed out of printing my painting-images will be interviewing me publicly.
Thursday - the intellectuals

It would be interesting to know the reactions across the social strata.

The second CD-ROM of my 47 more paintings is expected to be ready by tomorrow too, for display at the programmes.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19385051/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19385051/ Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:33:55 PDT
Mixed results of the Indian week so far.

Met a very distnguished artist yesterday based in another city. He was suuportive and had good things to say about my work. I also got much needed tips and direction on further improvement.
There is a likelihood of three public programmes on my paintings in another fortnight one in Mumbai a big megapolis, two in the city I am in.Yet to be confirmed though.
As half-expected the socialist weekly magazine has developed cold feet over printing 3 or 4 paintings per month!The sub-editor is a slippery guy. Reason he is citing is advertisements are taking precedence!I had expected the editor to be much more involved in these matters and met the whole team who decide about such policy as soon as I arrived.As I had not met the editor at all all along.I could sense then that they have left it all to this one guy.
So I am writing that off now, as yet another try which has died before taking off.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19202680/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19202680/ Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:56:35 PDT
Pune is the city [population about 5 million] that I come from in India.
Department of Political Science had approached me to use my painting -
India votes
[link]
on their web-page on the university web-site and have done so today.
[link]

Not a great achievement but every little counts.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19118679/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/19118679/ Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:59:27 PDT
By now two issues of the magazine which carries some of my work on the front and back cover-pages have been published - in all some seven images of the paintings.
The reactions of the readers as I see them in 'readers write' section seem extreme!
Majority of them are overboard with compliments, congratulating the magazine for this initiative. There are a couple of dissenting voices alright though.Common criticism of this group is to call my art 'incomprehensible and abstract and modern.'And this, AFTER I write very elaborate text accompanying a pairnting explaining everything!In my opinon I actually overdo it.
One of my writer friends says Indians are not used to visual arts, may be.And of course, you can not please everybody.

At least the work is being noticed wheteher pro or anti. I think I should be content with that.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/18820386/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/18820386/ Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:38:46 PDT
So, this month has been quite busy in non-painting activities - reading and writing mainly.As I write regular columns for two Indian monthlies, and all my raw material is here, had to write more so that they are provided for until September.
Plus there was a special request from a rebel young poet from India to write a review of his collection of poetry published recently.That was quite a delicate task as I empathise with the group but they go overboard in desacralisation which I find objectionable.
Then another urgent plea from a scottish educational magazine to write their editorial on Human Rights.

My own interest of late has been Paul Tillich, a german theologian and one of the briliant minds of the last century. Even if I would not touch ANY organised religion by a bargepole, any great mind transcends narrow confines of any faculty - that is what I found in Paul Tillich. His two books - Faith and Courage To Be I have already finished and would like to translate at least a gist in my language.So, looking for a publisher now with the synopsis I have done. Tillich tackles anxiety-fear philosophically - very contemporary themes, though he wrote on these in 1965 or thereabouts.

Another name on the verbal scene is that of Thomas Bernhard - a completely cynical and negatively existentialist austrian writer who died in 1989, hating Austrian society and criticising it in all his work, so much that he did not want any of his writings to be published by an Austrian publisher. He was awarded a big literary honour and at the ceremony insulted the Culture Minister of Austria who walked out!
His work I have found to be much deeper than Sarte or Camus.I have already read three or four of his novels and am on a short story collection called The Voice Imitator.
One day I would like to write on his work too - either a translation or an overall article.

Look up these two, if you can.

I do not think I will be painting before mid-August now. But intend posting my articles - one on the oil crisis, another on water crisis shortly here for your views.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/18535726/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/18535726/ Tue, 27 May 2008 22:27:52 PDT
One is the riots and violence against migrant workers in S Africa.It has already taken a toll of 56 lives and displaced thousands of migrant workers who came to South Africa for sheer survival from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, etc. They lived in slums, in wretched conditions mostly near Johannesburg to make a living. They were attacked by the poor S Africans who lived nearby equally miserably.
This is dispossessed versus defenseless. A new low.

Another is child abuse by UN peace-keepers and aid workers in war and disaster zones like South Sudan, Haiti, Ivory Coast. The hungry children are supposed to get food and protection from these relief agencies. Instead they have been coerced, denied food unless submitted to sex, made to participate in child pornography, or touched and kissed inappropriately.
This long-going perversity came to light through a field investigation over a year by Save the Children.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/18442301/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/18442301/ Thu, 22 May 2008 05:32:29 PDT Eight years of Republican rule bestowed Afghanistan and Iraq war to the world. Since the last year with the crises of housing loans, rising oil and food prices the economy is slowing down. American voters will have to decide whether to go in for democrats as a change now.

The almost certain Republican candidate - John McCain does not promise much of a break from the past. His awareness of global issues comes out as meagre as well - in the Middle-east he was confused about who are shia and who are Sunni, as also exactly what countries AlQueda is powerful in. He does not want the Iraq war to end sooner either. In other words, the overbearing attitude of America will very much continue under his presidency. Only, the economic and military might that this attitude is founded on, is obviously waning. So, the downslide of America as a superpower may be hastened under him.

But what has gripped everyone's attention is the sub-duel between Obama and Clinton more than this main duel between Republicans and Democrats.

Hillary Clinton started with the perception of the 'inevitable candidate' in the democratic camp. Bill Clinton was the president until 2001 for eight years, and Governor of Arkansas for 14 years before that. Hillary has been near the power centre being his wife all this time. She has been on numerous policy making bodies as an unelected member as well. Like Sonia Gandhi in India, who first as a daughter-in-law of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and later on as the wife of Rajiv Gandhi [a subsequent Prime Minister and Indira Gandhi's son] Hillary has very much been part of the establishment.

The picture changed by the day though with once the primaries started in January. A hardly noticed-until-then first time senator Barack Hussein Obama surged ahead. Hillary is barely surviving in the race now even having started with all the advantages - immense funds, political networking of 25 years and powerful satraps whom the Clintons had granted favours over the years.

That Obama would come almost to winning the nomination has been quite a phenomenon on the american scene. His mixed - black-and-white parentage brought the issue of race to the fore. His having spent his childhood days in Indonesia - world's largest muslim country, and with Hussein as his middle name confronted the prevalent anti-muslim atmosphere in the West.

Feminists and social scientists are busy now explaining his success as - gender bias is stronger to overcome than racial bias. [They would have come up with equally plausible explanations even if the result were exactly opposite.]

The question of gender bias or racial bias in this election is really not important from the Third World point of view. There have been women leaders of countries in Asia since two generations, much before in Europe. That neither bettered the lot of women in those countries, nor gave human face to their countries.

Therefore, this fight has to be seen dfferently. Relish the largesse of the system for your entire life and then one fine morning declare yourself to be the revolutionary agent to overhaul that very system - this ploy is not credible. And that has been Clinton's ploy. Her connections with the vested interests go back to many years and are are too deep to make her trustworthy for any change. Obama is an 'outsider'. He had opposed the Iraq war, when, to go with popular flow of that time, Hillary had supported it.

His being 'ousider' alone, of course is no guarantee that the american foreign policy is going to change overnight if he becomes the president. Power has its own logic. Presidency is a peak symbol of vested interests. A number of american vested interests are to the detriment of the Third World. The weather-cocks supporting Republicans today can be counted upon to change sides swiftly in case of Obama' victory.
The rest of the world may be in for a disillusionment in his transition from candidate to president.

That said, the power of vote to bring the establishment to knees is a marvel.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/17377114/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/17377114/ Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:30:52 PDT The company are in the business of software export, with branches and offices all over the world, a small multinational.One of the directors was quite impressed by my work and thought of this idea. It was very adventurous of them and I would say, a sign of social maturity and commitment to have financed this whole experiment.Below is a link to my CD on their site. It is called 'Outsider Art'.

[link]

As expected the venture has been a commercial disaster! At least so far.

It is only now that some social activists and some grass-roots workers have started approaching me to take the CD-ROMs to rural India and conduct educational programmes with the help of it.Though I have no hope of anyone actually buying it!They request me and I request the manufacturer to part with 'sample' copies free of cost!

Rural India and urban India are two vastly different entities living in different centuries. Poverty, lack of - sanitaion, regular electricty, good roads are the infrastructural difference. Then, culturally, superstitious beliefs abound in villages.One organisation works towards educating people against superstitions - it is a vast subject interwined with local religious beliefs, quacks peddling harmful herbal remedies to 'cure' people, a lot of wastages of scant resources in marriages, funerals due to 'tradition', following rituals blindly, godmen swindling people with 'miracles' , etc.
This organisation is keen to hold one-day/two-day exhibitions of prints of my paintings with write-ups explaining the paintings and of the CD-ROM in rural schools and colleges.
Another organisation works for secular education, literacy programmes, anti-caste system awareness programmes, etc.This organisation is interested in taking and demonstrating the CD-ROM.


I feel that at last this is getting somewhere! Also, the manufacturing company has shown keenness to produce second volume of my subsequent paintings now.
So, may be by the end of this year it will come out.During one of my forthcoming trips to India, I will record the commentary. That is all I do, anyway!They take care of the rest of production.

And may be one day some institutions will buy it! Mostly, at least in urban parts, where I tried to promote it I found out that people just make pirated copies and get away with it! I don't mind as long as the messages reach more people but the manufacturer must not be liking it!

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/17218584/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/17218584/ Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:04:22 PST [link]

He has bought a subscription for me on DA!

He has always been a great support to me not only through discussions on my work but also specific mention of my work in his
Journal.

He is a socially conscious artist with a great empathy for the disprivileged in the world.That makes this act of his all the more valuable to me.


Thanks again, Michael.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/17209729/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/17209729/ Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:09:02 PST
It is a 60 year old journal, a weekly.
India attained independence from the british in 1947.
Mahatma Gandhi was murdered on 31st Jan 1948.
The magazine was started on 15th August 1948, the first anniversary of Indian independence.
The founder, an ultra-sensitive man committed suicide in 1950 perhaps foreseeing the way the country was going.

The magazine, luckily, was kept alive.

I am very honoured that they approached me and will be printing 4 images of my paintings every month from now on.
Such magazines run only on subscriptions in India. No corporate houses support or sponsor them. So, mostly they can afford only black and white printing.
They are going out of way and having colour pages for my paintings though.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/17053320/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/17053320/ Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:57:49 PST No journal entries too either from that date. I was wondering if something is wrong with my message receiving system?

If any of you have any submissions in the last 10 days, please let me know. I would like to take it up with powers-that-be at DA.

Another odd thing is, even as I am typing this journal entry, sometimes it just does not get typed at all!! And I have to re-start all over again. Is this what everyone is experiencing, or is DA just selectively singling the non-subscribers out!!

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/15501022/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/15501022/ Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:31:21 PST
Ø Until I was 13, I thought my name was 'Shut Up.'

Ø I'm not afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.

Ø Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.

Ø I've never been drunk, but often I've been over served.

Ø The road to success is always under construction.

Ø Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce.

Ø Work is fine if it doesn't take up too much of your time.

Ø When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

Ø Born free; Taxed to death.

Ø Everyone has a photographic memory; some people just don't have film.

Ø Smile -- it makes people wonder what you're up to.

Ø I love being a writer... what I can't stand is the paperwork.

Ø A printer consists of 3 main parts: the case, the jammed paper tray and the blinking red light.

Ø The hardest part of skating is the ice.

Ø The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot; the guy who invented the other three, he was the genius.

Ø The trouble with being punctual is that there's no one there to appreciate
it.

Ø If you can't convince them, confuse them.

Ø It's not the fall that kills you; it's the sudden stop at the end.

Ø When I was born, I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/15414659/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/15414659/ Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:01:11 PST
Diwali literally means a row of lights - it is festival of lights.We light earthen lamps, make beautiful patterns of coloured powder in the courtyard and do a lot of decoration within the house.

Typically it lasts for four days.

During the four days we are supposed to get up before daybreak, have a scented bath - with sandlwood and numerous perfumes and medicinal herbs.

First day is a celebration of triumph of good over evil within.Mythologically, one of our gods - Krishna killed the Lord of the underworld who was tyrannising the earth- on this day and made earth a habitable-again place for humans.There are also other stories for this particular day.

Second day is the worship of goddess Lakshmi - the goddess of wealth - prayers for prosperity to all on the earth
Third day is the beginning of our new year, and also a celebration of husband-wife/father-daughter realtionships.
Fourth day is celebration of brother-sister relationship.Brother is supposed to be going to the sister's marital house in the evening and offer gifts to her.

A lot of firecrackers, exchange of sweets and feasts mark the whole festival.

It is basically a rejoicing after the harvets, combined with religious beliefs and stressing family as an institution.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/15363358/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/15363358/ Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:22:52 PST
Pakistan, alongwith the CIA of the USA, gave birth and teeth to Taleban in Afghanistan to fight against the Russian occupation then, two decades ago. Eventually, Osama Bin Laden settled there to plot against America, after the Russian ouster from Afghanaistan. All was well until Sept 11. Then America [Richard Armitage, the then deputy Defense Secy] threatened Pakistan that 'it will go back to Stone Age with american bombing unless it disowns Taleban'. So Musharraf, the military dictator, turned coat overnight and Pakistan became America's ally in the fight against terrorism, i.e. muslim fundamentalism.

In reality what happened was , America threw a life-line of some 20 billion dollars aid, of which 5.6 billion are tax-payers money to Pakistan to tide over its economic mismanagement.Pakistan acted as if it was acting against indigenous and afghan muslim extremists, though it could not and did not.

Upshot has been Taleban is very much on rise in Afghanistan again, and Musharraf seems to have oulived his utility for the USA though he 'won' a manipulated election with 90 percent plus vote - as the President again last month. Enter another puppet of the US and Britain - ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan - Benazir Bhutto, a convicted kleptocrat who has been in exile for the last 8 years in London to escape imprisonment under corruption charges. She was promised that all charges against her would be dropped if she goes through the sham of election later this year and agrees that Musharraf stay both a military head and the President.

She has been a stooge of both America and Britain who are more scared of nuclear weapons falling into muslim hands than of trampling of democracy or uplifting of poor there.

But then the Supreme Court in Pakistan, suddenly finds it objectionable that a miltary man should hold a civil top post as well.So, Musharraf's recent election may be decalred void.

So, he declares martial law, a state of emergency in Pakistan yesterday. And taunts both the US and Britain - in your face.

Democracy is suspended sine die, phone lines cut in the capital, parallel TV channels, other than government TV - stopped from operation and hundreds of political opposition leaders and human rights activists arrested or detained under house arrest.

As long as the colonial hangover of the West continues with compliant petty satraps in the East, there is no hope for this generation of pakistanis too to crawl out of the quagmire. First casualty always is weaker sections in these circumstances - religious minorites and women.

I always marvel at the duplicitous standards of the western democracies. Democracy 'at home' - never abroad, women's rights 'at home' - never abroad, racial justice 'at home' - never abroad.....the list could go sickeningly on and on.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/15128254/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/15128254/ Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:54:00 PDT The last painting - rendezvous - was the last straw. 3 days I spent on it and the image is still sort of blurred.May be its sensor is on its way out finally.

Hopefully this one - with 7 mp and higher pic size -some 3000x2500, as against the highest of 1600x1200 of the older one should vastly improve the quality of the images.

This one may enable me to get better prints too.

And I am off on a holiday for a week to Italy from Sunday. Never been there, so look forward to Venice, Florence and Rome.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/14893525/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/14893525/ Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:30:50 PDT
When I click on the normal view it is either 'file not found' or a small red cross on an empty window.

Does anyone else has the same problem??

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/14668314/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/14668314/ Mon, 17 Sep 2007 02:48:21 PDT
In case the following link doesn't work, please look up my site -
home page - Exhibitions- India2007 page.

[link]

thanks

my site can be accessed from the main page here as well

[link]

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/14332852/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/14332852/ Sat, 25 Aug 2007 11:01:38 PDT
After a very tiring but fruitful trip to India back to Scotland again.

The exhibition in India went off well from the point of stirring debates and visibility. Some 250-odd people have noted their comments in the GuestBook , plus three classes of local college and university students [about 60] attended the exhibition as part of college work and I got their feed-back on a seperate form. In all there were some 7-800 visitors, a very small number, really, considering all the major news-papers [seven in all] interviewed me and gave a wide publicity to the event and the city has a population of 4 million!
I should be uploading all this on my site shortly.
A sample photo can be sen in my scraps section -

[link]

You can actually see people seriously reading the booklet I had prepared [at a considerable cost to me!] which explained some of the paintings.This experiment of combining painting-plus-text went off well too.My contention was - if I want people to understand my work, I got to help them understand it. I can't wash my hands off saying - I am 'an artist' , let them understand it or not.

A major difference in viewership this time unlike the last exhibition in India 2-and-half years back was -
Then almost all the viewers were from urban middle-class. This time almost half the viewers were from really deprived sections of the Indian society - many of them social activists, students and people from very different movements. For example, in my state there is a big group of young students - all 25-minus - who are poets, singers, actors. They enact street-plays, sing their own songs only with a drum as musical instrument - and try to raise awareness of people about pressing political issues - like globalisation, urbanisation in India. They have no external funding but collect small donations from the viewers. I presented a set of some 20 prints of my paintings and they have promised to display it after getting it laminated , whenever they get a hall anywhere for performance.Another group was pf people working towards eradication of superstitions in the India society.Yet another working with the rural poor, yet another for environmenal issues etc.I was happy that my work seemed to have touched a chord in all the types of viewers.

A socialist foundation has a big establishment in the city I held the exhibition in. They are considering displaying some 20-odd prints of my political/philosophical work as a permanent show. If it comes about I will be very pleased.
A major difference between here and there is - people there are not much bothered about the true-to-real replica in print of art-work.Message counts.So, I got some prints done in India at fraction of a cost here.Basically my type of work doesn't need sophisticated printing either!
Finally I seem to have found a way of reaching art to people, at least in India.Holding such shows with real paintings is very difficult and costly too. If prints can serve the purpose, all the better.

Some of the paintings, for example are -

'left' and the proletariat -
[link]

Kashmir
[link]

needs, not wants
[link]

Russia
[link]

spot the beast
[link]

etc.


As to writing,
I was approached by a magazine editor as well to write for a special annual issue on 'why I paint'.Mostly my writing is on political issues. This was an interesting topic, so I have given him a longish article.Cover-page will be one of my painting, and he will be using some 15 other paintings with the cover-story.

The cover-page will be -

bravado
[link]

Another writing assignment for yet another magazine special issue -they want an article from me on - the perception of India in the West. I am not sure if I will be able to met their dead-line though.I welcome your views on this subject, it will help me for the article - whether you view India as a land where elephants roam on streets/a nuclear power/a backward society/a rising super-power...whtever. [all this is true, by the way!!]

As to the exhibitions in Scotland, one ended while I was away though they are showing two or three works as part of the local festival. Some one bought one painting during the... ]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/13964115/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/13964115/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 23:29:31 PDT
The response has been good so far, most of the visitors being art students. I expect some more social activists, journalists, people from theatre and in creative arts from today.

Yesterday I conducted a workshop at the exhibition for the students of Media Studies and Communications from the local university, on Friday one more workshop is planned for students of Liberal Arts of a college.

Three intances are note-worthy -

Day before yesterday a girl spent almost 2 hours in the exhibition - first going thru the paintings and the write-up I have prepared for some of the paintings - normally people spend about half-an-hour.Then she went through my CD-ROM which has 45 non-exhibition paintings with my commentary.After writing her reaction in the GuestBook, we had a small exchange.It was only then I noticed that she had polio. Her remark suggested that I should make a painting on the physically disabled.

Three-four days back an engineering student touched my feet to show his respect - an acutely embarassing gesture for me.

The very first evening, a senior lady artist broke down after viewing only a few paintings and said 'she can not take any more depiction of pain'. Her entry in the GuestBook also records that. 'Never in my long life have I faced so much pain...'

To that extent the puirpose of my show in India seems to have been served.

I am still fully dependent on internet cafe for web access and have been unable to comment on deviations submitted since I left Scotland. I have neither been able to reply to individual comments on my work. Hope you bear with me.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/13521561/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/13521561/ Thu, 28 Jun 2007 06:22:27 PDT
I look forward to know how people there find my work. One good thing about India [among many!] is people actually come and discuss the painting/ask for explanations/argue over it then and there.There is always a lot of interaction and eagerness from the spectators.

In some 20 exhibitions I have participated in Scotland so far, the atmosphere in a gallery is usually like a funeral. People go silently past the paintings and do not even bother to write anything in the guest-book. So I stopped being present during the duration of an exhibition here.

Culture, I believe.

That said, one exhibition showing some eight of my works is going on in east Scotland for 3 weeks now, and, at least people have been talking among themselves about my work, as per the gallery-owner's feed-back. That exhibition will continue until the end of July.

Another gallery will be showing some 11 of my paintings from end-July until September.

I also have some writing assignments for Indian magazines which have been long overdue.

Therefore, I do not think there will be any new paintings from me for the next 2 months or so.

Internet connectivity being poor in India, in general, there may be a time lag from my side to comment on your deviations as well, for which, my apologies in advance. Though my attempt is to look up each work and comment on it when I can.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/13315952/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/13315952/ Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:53:37 PDT
He is told," First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and beats you for the rest of the day."

The man does not like the sound of that at all, so he moves on. He checks out the USA hell as well as the Russian hell and many more.
He discovers that they are all more or less the same as the German hell.

Then he comes to the Indian hell and finds that there is a long line of people waiting to get in.
Amazed, he asks, "What do they do here?"

He is told, "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Indian devil
comes in and beats you for the rest of the day."

"But that is exactly the same as all the other hells - why are there so many people waiting to get in?"

"Because maintenance is so bad that the electric chair does not work, someone has stolen all the nails from the bed, and the devil is a Software Engineer, so he comes in, signs the register and then goes to the Cafeteria!!!!!

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/11915274/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/11915274/ Wed, 21 Feb 2007 22:31:41 PST
Here are a few new ones -

1. Sardar : You cheated me.
Shopkeeper: How ?
Sardar : YOu said this is American made radio. But when I put it ON, it says All India Radio.

2. Sardar got into a bus on 1st April when conductor asked for ticket.
He bought the ticket and said 'April fool. I have pass.'

3. Sardar joined new job. 1st day he worked till late evening on the computer.
Boss was happy and asked what he did till so late.
Sardar : Keyboard alphabets were not in order, so I made it alright.

4. On a romantic day sardar's girlfriend asks him. 'Darling on our engagement day will you give me a ring.'
Sardar : Ya sure, from landline or mobile.

5. Two sardars were fixing a bomb in a car.
Sardar 1 : What would you do if the bomb explodes while fixing.
sardar 2 : Dont worry, I have a one more.

6. Interviewer : When is your birthday.
Sardar : 13th Oct.
Interviewer : which year ?
sardar : What a question!! Every year.

9. Sardar was busy removing a wheel from his car. A man asks sardar why he was doing that.
sardar : Cant you read the board. Parking is only for 2 wheeler.

10. Sardar : What is the number of your car ?
Lady : I forgot the number, but is starts with "T".
Sardar : Must be a amzing car...starting with Tea. All our cars start only on petrol.

11. Boss : Where were you born ?
sardar : India
Boss : which part ?
Sardar : What which part ? Whole body born in India.

12. How will you destroy a submarine full of sardars ?
Simple. Just knock the door and they will open it.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/11538671/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/11538671/ Tue, 23 Jan 2007 07:40:01 PST Of some 8 or 10 inmates who join in the group, every week one is deleted after popular vote, till finally only one - the winner remains. It is a big money programme for the channel and the participants. And as it appeals to voyeurism in everybody, it has a large viewership as well.

The current programme is called 'Celebrity Big Brother' because all of them are some celebrity including an Indian actress, an ex-Miss Britain, a pop singer, etc.

This actress was consistently and cheaply bullied by co-inmates - the bullies being all white females.Racial remarks were freely passed, reducing the actress to tears at times. She was told among other things - you may be a fucking princess in some neverland, you make me puke...your sight makes my skin crawl...I can not say your name...why don't you fuck off home...you want to become white...etc.

A big row erupted as Britain wants to project itself against racism.

The sponsorships of the programme dropped, viewership shot up from 3.5 million to 8.8 million, finally one particular girl who seemed really retarded with limited vocabulary was voted out by 82% of the audience for being 'racist'.
The Channel [channel4, one of the main British channnels] came under fire that they should have stopped this racial bullying early on. British Chancellor and Prime-Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown happened to be touring India at the same time and was grilled there.Lots of protests erupted all over India against the programme and Britain.

All the british newspapers got their prey in the sacked female and were prompt in disowning her. Incidentally, this woman was made a celebrity by this very programme, having 'won' in earlier two series.She was swiftly unmade by the same programme and media. Some 40000 complaints against the programme were launched and police investigations have started.

I am reminded of a similar episode - of Pvt Lynndie England from the USA who was filmed in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal in Iraq 3 years back. Then too, mainstream america was prompt in disowning her as 'trailer trash'.Implying 'we are not like that'. It is not that simple though. These prejudices run deeper. Middle class and upper classes of whites try hard NOT to come in contact with other race-people except as employees. There is hardly any social mixing. Housing patterns show whites to be moving away from mixed race neighbourhoods, their children put in mostly-white schools.

Rather than the working class dim-wits it is the sophisticated ones who are to be blamed for this state of affairs.

Only, now it is difficult to get away with these attitudes because commercial interests demand Britain better behave vis-vis India, an emerging global power. Hence the acting of shame-facedness.

For once, a Reality TV programme showed real nature of this hypocritical society and made it squirm.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/11457429/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/11457429/ Tue, 16 Jan 2007 08:25:40 PST
The theme is to be -
social injustice.
[as most of my work falls in that category]

The organisers of the exhibition have requested me to try and see if any other artists would like to display their work, roughly falling under this category.

Easter is beginning of tourist season and school holidays in Scotland.So, we expect reasonable visibility.

The work could be given on loan for the exhibition or kept for sale there.

Please send me a Note in case any of you would be interested.

Thanks

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/11049170/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/11049170/ Wed, 13 Dec 2006 09:21:18 PST [link]

who has dedicated a painting for me 'inspired by my work', as she puts it.

The painting is called

'Children are waiting'

[link]

It is a very beautiful painting and I feel really overwhelmed that she has done this great work for me.

I am very grateful to her and am deeply indebted to her.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10943341/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10943341/ Mon, 04 Dec 2006 01:10:24 PST > speech. After his talk he
> offers question time.
>
> One little boy puts up his hand and George asks him
> what his name is? "Bob".
> "And what is your question, Bob?"
>
> "I have 3 questions.
> First, Why did the USA invade Iraq without the
> support of the UN?

Second,
> Why are you President when Gore got more votes? And
>
third, What happened to
> Osama Bin Laden?
>
> Just then the bell rings for recess. George Bush
> informs the kiddies that
> they will continue after recess.
>
> When they resume George says, "OK, where were we? Oh
> that's right ---
> question time. Who has a question?"
>
> A different little boy puts up his hand . George
> points him out and asks him
> what his name is?
>
> Steve"
> "And what is your question, Steve?"
>
> "I have 5 questions.
> First, Why did the USA invade Iraq without the
> support of the UN?

Second,
> Why are you President when Gore got more votes?
>
Third, What happened to
> Osama Bin Laden?

Fourth, Why did the recess bell go
> 20 minutes early?!

And
> fifth, Where is "Bob"? !!

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10854041/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10854041/ Sun, 26 Nov 2006 08:21:38 PST
Produced some 12 paintings, not all posted here. Some are commission work and they are for a book of poems by a british poet. They make more sense when read with that particular poem and I should not be posting the poems pre-publication.
Have 2 more on hand, which should be over in 3-4 days, and will be posting them here.

Now I get onto two very very long overdue projects -
one is converting my large video collection of movies into DVDs
second is to sift through tonnes of newspapers and magazines and organise the cuttings.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10832242/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10832242/ Fri, 24 Nov 2006 08:51:38 PST
Glad to have seen her work.



[link]

Hope she gets due visibility.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10821089/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10821089/ Thu, 23 Nov 2006 09:21:59 PST > >
> >Suddenly a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down his window and
> >asks, "What happened?"
> >
> >"Terrorists kidnapped President Bush and are asking for a $10 million
> >ransom. Otherwise they are going to douse him with gasoline and set him

on fire. We are going from car to car to take up a collection."
> >
> >The driver asks, "How much is everyone giving on average?"
> >
> >"About a gallon."

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10705974/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10705974/ Sun, 12 Nov 2006 21:01:55 PST >
> A Doctor took an X-Ray of George W. Bush's brain and
> came to the
> following conclusion :
>
>
>
> 1) His brain has two parts, RIGHT and LEFT.
>
>
>
>
> 2) In the LEFT part, there is nothing RIGHT.
>
>
>
>
> 3) And in the RIGHT part, there is nothing LEFT.

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10461746/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10461746/ Sat, 21 Oct 2006 00:58:27 PDT
'Pessimism as philosophy is skeptical of the idea of progress. Pursuing happiness is a fool's errand.Pessimism is not, as is commonly thought, about being depressed or misanthropic, and it does not hold that humanity is headed for disaster. It simply doubts the most basic liberal principle: that applying human reasoning to the world's problems will have a positive effect.
The biggest difference between optimists and pessimists...is how they view time. Optimists see the passing of time as a canvas on which to paint a better world. Pessimists see it as a burden. Time ticks off the physical decline of one's body toward the inevitability of death, and it separates people from their loved ones.
''All the tragedies that we can imagine", said Simone Weil, the French philosopher who starved herself to death at age of 34, " return in the end to one and only trgaedy:the passage of time." '

]]> *ckp http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10443120/ http://ckp.deviantart.com/journal/10443120/ Thu, 19 Oct 2006 08:50:22 PDT first was to catch up with proper oil painting. That, happily, on way. Should be posting soon.

then writimg for a Sunday paper back home. That, yet to take up. Sent an e-mail to the editor asking if I could write on one or two topics. As is thier wont, they do not reply.

then, and this was and is going to be very tricky, I knew it from the beginning but am stranded with the job. It is to find a publisher for the novel my friend in India has written in our language, and which, I have translated into English. Problem is I do not know WHERE to start for that. Someone suggested I look up the Artists-Writers Handbook for the latest year [2005]. That, as luck would have it, is out of print!!

]]> *ckp