Sikh art gaining ground at global auctions

In one of its most recent art auctions, Christie’s had in its Asian Art section, included a large number of artworks categorised as ‘Sikh Art’. This essentially referred to art generated during colonial times and earlier. There have been a number of auctions over the past three or four years by leading international and Indian auction houses who successfully featured and sold artworks in wash, tempera, pen and ink as well as numerous valuable artefacts and daggers.
Christie’s started taking an interest in ‘Sikh Art’ from last year when it auctioned five art pieces in April and a collection of paintings in October 2012; then again in April this year some artefacts went under the hammer. Last month’s exhibition had 10 interesting artworks, including a splendid painting on ivory of the Golden Temple, enclosed in a gold frame.
Bonham’s has also shown great interest in promoting Sikh artworks. This became apparent when number of such works were included in their auction of Islamic and Indian Art, held in June last year. Earlier, at the Chester Sale in February 2011, Bonhams had sold a splendid painting dating back to the 1800s, around the time of the East India Company. Also in January 2011, another rare painting — a view of the Golden Temple at Amritsar — went on sale.
In recent times, there has also been a move to categorise contemporary artists from the Punjab belt under the Sikh Art umbrella. So it now covers Sikh pianters such as Arpita Singh, her husband Paramjeet Singh and the ever popular Manjit Bawa. Arpita’s mural titled Wish Dream, fetched Rs 9.6 crore ($2.24 million) at a Saffronart online auction, making her the world’s top-selling woman artist. When asked about the central figure of a middle-aged woman in her mural, Arpita is reported as having said, “Glamorous women with hour-glass shapes are for film and television. I paint real women.” The mural, painted in oils on canvas in 2000-2001, consisted of 16 canvases clubbed together to create a mural 287 x 159 inches in size.
In September 2008, Manjit Bawa's untitled work sold for $362,500 at a Christie's auction in New York. At the time, the artist was in coma and remained so for three months — unaware of the sale of this particular painting and the many other sales of his works. Two years later in September 2010, again at Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art auction in New York, Bawa’s beautiful painting Durga, possibly due to a drop in the general drop in art prices, achieved a slightly lower price, selling for $3,14,000.
We have all read about the royal jewels worn by the royalty of Punjab, that seem to be seen off and on under the auctioner’s hammer in the past. It is hoped that along with jewellery and the other rare artefacts that are periodically up for sale at international auctions, rare paintings of earlier times as well as the works by artists such as Manjit Bawa and Arpita Singh, will somehow find their way back to India sometime in the future.

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Punjab’s tree man leaves behind a green legacy

Nonagenarian Gurdev Singh died this week, leaving behind a rich legacy of green cover around his village Ganduan in Punjab's Sangrur district. The old man had singlehandedly planted hundreds of trees in the village and its surroundings in one of the most backward areas of the state. He earned the sobriquet "Trivenian Wala Baba" in the area for planting a cluster of three trees — peepal, banyan and neem — that are together called Trivenis. Revered for their medicinal value and other benefits in the traditional Punjabi culture, Trivenis find mention in the Holy scriptures of Sri Guru Granth Sahib too. Once found in abundance in Punjab, not many have survived the onslaught of development mainly taken over by agricultural land. The Baba changed that singlehandedly at least around his village.

In the region which has brackish groundwater, unfertile soil and is marked by high incidence of cancer and farmer suicides, this has been a herculean feat for the frail old man who worked tirelessly for over twenty five years to turn the parched land green.

Born in a poor Dalit family, Gurdev Singh had never been to school. He did labour in his youth but as his sons grew up and he stopped working, he dedicated the rest of his life to planting Trivenis. He would go around villages on foot collecting saplings and transplanting them around the village along the school, dharamshala, bus stand and abandoned pathways.

Jagsir Singh, a school teacher and neighbour of the Baba said that some village youth gifted him a bicycle to travel around when they saw his dedication. "People called him mad in the beginning when he had started planting trees but he went on undeterred and the same people now enjoy the shade provided by those trees which have grown big and remember him," said Jagsir.

With his failing eyesight and a bent back Baba went on for years until old age finally caught up with him. He died last week in his sleep peacefully. Karamjit Anmol, a Punjabi film actor hailing from the village, has announced that he and a group of friends from the village have decided they would raise a suitable memorial for the Baba. "We want to honour the memory of the man who transformed the face of our village all by himself, besides raising a memorial that would inspire the generations to come," he said.

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Sri Lanka have won the ICC T20 WC 2014

Sri Lanka's stunning victory over India in the ICC T20 WC final underlines how success in hit-and-run cricket depends not on form, but on how a team performs over those three hours in the field. 

MS Dhoni's Indians went into Sunday's final in Dhaka as the only unbeaten team in the tournament, having coasted through four league matches and the semi-final against South Africa. 

But they faltered when it mattered most, their vaunted batting line-up managing just 130-4 in 20 overs against a disciplined Sri Lankan attack after being sent in to bat on a sluggish pitch. 

Sri Lanka raced past the modest target with 13 balls to spare, with Kumar Sangakkara -- playing his last T20 international, like his long-time team-mate Mahela Jayawardene -- leading the way with a glorious unbeaten 52. 

The win sparked frenzied celebrations in the Sri Lankan dressing room, as jubilant players lifted Sangakkara and Jayawardene on their shoulders before doing a victory lap around the Sher-e-Bangla stadium. 

India, meanwhile, failed in their bid to become the first team to hold all three major limited-overs titles, having won the 50-over World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy 2013. 

Virat Kohli continued his stupendous batting form with a brilliant 77 off 58 balls that earned him the player of the tournament award for being the leading scorer with 319 runs.

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China overtakes US as world’s biggest goods dealer

China has claimed that it is very likely that it overtook the US as the world's top trading nation, a title the US has held for decades. According to the most recent data, China's total trade grew at an annual rate of 7.6% to $4.16tn last year. The US is yet to release its full-year information, but its trade for the first 11 months of 2013 totalled $3.5tn. 

China became the world's largest goods exporter in 2009. Its imports have also risen amid development in its economy. It is very likely that China has overtaken the US to become the world's biggest trading country, said Zhengs Yuesheng, a spokesman for China's customs administration. Mr. Biswas added that the gap among the two countries was likely to become even wider in the present year. For the full year, China's exports rose at an annual rate of 7.9% in 2013, while imports grew 7.3%.

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Google: Amazing Smartphone with 3D sensors

Google has unveiled a prototype smart phone with "customized hardware and software" that enables it to make 3D maps of a user's surroundings.  The device's sensors permit it make over 250,000 3D measurements every second and update its position in real-time.  Google said possible applications may include indoor mapping, helping the visually-impaired navigate untried indoor places unassisted and gaming.

It has offered 200 prototypes to developers keen to make apps for it. Google supposed its Advanced Technology and Projects unit developed the phone as part of a project called Project Tango with help from researchers at various institutions. We are physical beings that live in a 3D world. Yet, our mobile plans assume that physical world ends at the boundaries of the screen.

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