Khalil Chishtee...

Khalil Chishtee...

I was sifting through articles in The Hindustan Times in search of something interesting... I then came across this article by Debashree Majumdar under "Soak inculture" titled as "Life of plastic not fantastic"... This mentioned the use of plastic in such a creative way that it could represent emotions... Seems impossible.. but it ain't... His genious.. Khalil Chishtee made few objects out of white plastic trash that actually represented sorrow.. grief.. happniess and lot deeper emotions...

One of his creation named as "Dreaming of Dreaming" dedicated to creative people who have lived very ordinary life through their suffering and became a victim of organized society , so much so that their creative dreams became an impossibility. I read it in one of the articles online and could relate to the "Sajda" song by Lata Mangeshkar :

Dhuan banaake fiza mein udaa diya mujhko

main jal rha tha.. kisi ne bujha diya mujhko ...

khada hoon aaj bhi roti ke chaar harq liye

sawal yeh hai kitaabon ne kya diya mujhko

safed sang ki chaadar lapet kar mujh par

fasil-e-shaher mein kisne saja diya mujhko

main ek zarra bulandi ko chhoone nikla tha

hawa ne thaam se zameen par gira diya mujhko

dhuan banake fiza mein uda diya mujhko

main jal raha tha kisi ne bujha diya mujhko

For Chishtee, plastic is a symbol for communication between heaven and earth and also a tool for pointing to a sad fact of human existence — the tendency to use another human being as a stepping stone.

In the above pic, it seems to me an unfaithful lover holding a pistol, while showing a false love to her lover... On such song potrays very beautifully the truth.. It was sung by Great Gurdas mann. A verse goes like this:

Is nagri de ajab tamashe Hanjua de bhaa vikde haase Dushman ban ke vaar chalonde Sajan banke den dilaase Mehram to mujram di mohar lava layega Bekdre lokan vich kadar gava layenga

If I try to translate, it would roughly mean:

This society got unique shows...
happiness is sold at the price of tears...
They first become our foe and hit us
then the same become our lovers and solace us
You would be blamed by Judge
You would loose your value amid these careless n ruthless people...

Cheers to Khalil Chistee... His fabulous works, which I found on http://www.khalilchishtee.com/ are outstanding.. May be I ll try to make something creative out of the trash I have,,,:)