Love in Tokyo

No, this isn’t the preview of an Akshay – Katrina re-make of the 1966 box-office hit. Same era though, just that the woman happens to be in love with Japanese art.


(The following was published in Mumbai Mirror online on 15 January 2009)

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/11/200901152009011512431464781a72957/Love-in-Tokyo


As the modern-day race for acquisition rages on, human creativity seems to be at work in the background. It often receives little notice and is unfortunately sparse, yet it grows with mysterious persistence. Case in point: Manorama Khapde, the 70 year old artist cum craftswoman from Thane whose repertoire includes a wide range of fine arts and crafts both Indian and Japanese. Having studied at several institutes including the University of Tokyo and with a series of professional engagements at Camlin, Khadi Gram Udyog and over 30 schools in Bombay behind her, Manorama’s rich and colourful life exemplifies the leap from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

Humble Beginnings

Her journey began in 1954, when she decided to join Sir J.J. School of Arts much to her parents’ discomfort. “Those days doing a B.A. or a B.Sc. was far more respectable than pursuing fine arts. My parents eventually gave in but on the condition that I do not tell outsiders what I was doing!” she mentions.

After her course she joined the All India Handicraft Board at Worli where she learnt crafts like doll making, cane work and leather artisanship. Only men were allowed to enroll for the leather artisanship course since women were not expected to be able to withstand the stench which accompanies leather processing. That was hardly enough to deter her though and soon she found herself contemplating a student visit to Japan upon seeing an exhibition of Japanese dolls and other Japanese art at the Jehangir Art Gallery.

Tokyo Time!

“As a middle-class home-maker the idea of going alone to a foreign country to study its art forms was hard for people to digest”, she says matter-of-factly. And while finance was a major consideration her husband and brother showed their full support and she soon found herself in Tokyo armed with curiosity and a return ticket to India!



“I did not know then that the hardest phase in my life was about to start”, she says. Living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, getting adjusted to a foreign culture and overcoming the language barrier were difficult challenges but unforeseeable gateways opened themselves for her and she was able to secure affordable accommodation thanks to the consideration shown by a Japanese gentleman from the Indo-Japanese association. Life in the university was another matter though as she initially found herself alienated by her Japanese class-mates. “But then one day we were asked to introduce ourselves by creating something unique. I drew a Kimono design on an umbrella and from that day every body was friends with me!” she reveals triumphantly.



Over a span of 11 years she went to Tokyo seven times, each time for a period of six months. During this period she learnt Japanese crafts like Chu-ma-mi (Drawings made from silk cloth), O-shi-e (Drawings made from Kimono cloth on a card-board base) and traditional Japanese doll-making where depending upon the level of detail a doll can take up to three months to finish. Eventually she was awarded a tuition waiver and was even able to take care of her living expenses by teaching the Japanese what she had learnt in India!

Rare Reflections

For Manorama the experience in Japan was refreshing on account of the wide-spread respect and admiration that she witnessed towards native art as opposed to what she was used to in India. “The Japanese are very proud of their culture. Out there, indigenous handicrafts are most expensively priced and yet people are happy to buy them.” For her it was a pleasant change from the situation in India where local craftsmanship is surrounded in a general air of devaluation.

“It feels scary now to think of those times when any thing could have gone wrong. But it was perhaps my good fortune that every thing went fine”, she adds nostalgically.

Any regrets then? “My own institute for learning arts and crafts would have been nice, but somehow that never happened.” And as to her future plans, the reply is non-committal – “No plans!” she says, hands raised evasively.

Sound of Music

Sa-Ma-Ni happens to be the last name of this Keyboard player from Sion who loves his young students as much as he loves his music.

(The following was published in Mumbai Mirror Online on 30 December 2008)

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/11/2008123020081230115750641ae3a8962/Sound-of-Music?pageno=1


Following one’s heart is the stuff of movies, the cynic will say. When it comes to choosing a profession, most of us adhere to tried and tested pathways paying banal dues in exchange for comforting security. The few of us who take the leap of faith live a life full of experiences reserved only for them.

Meet Vipul Samani, a 34 year old Keyboard player based in Sion who has been making his living as a professional Keyboard teacher for the past 12 years. Having started small as a home tutor he now heads his Gurukul Music Academy which has eight teachers and around 170 students. While most of his students are school-children a few are as old as 65.

Vipul would fiddle with a mini-keyboard as a child and one day at the age of 12, after seeing a professional player at a party he decided to take up the instrument seriously. “My first teacher was based in Malad. I hadn’t even heard of the place back then!”, he exclaims. Several teachers and 22 years later the inspiration that got him going as a child shows no signs of leaving him as he treats you to an exquisite rendition of Beethoven’s Fur Elise.

“We Gujratis are very backward when it comes to music”, he says lamentingly. “If the child learns to play a few notes, we feel he knows all of music.” Being the only person in his entire family tree who has a connection with music, it wasn’t exactly the case of a rite of passage for him but rather one of having broken the mould. “Fortunately my father was very supportive. He never asked me whether I could make a career in music but only whether I wanted to do music! He is my first Guru.”

But it’s not just about playing music for Vipul, it’s teaching music to children that really drives him. “At Gurukul, we only teach one-on-one”, he declares proudly. Each student has to go through a little test in which Vipul makes sure that the child has a natural feel for tempo and key. If the child is found to be not so musically inclined, he politely says no to the parents. “Children fascinate me with their imagination”, says Vipul whose five year old son has recently started learning the drums. “Although I am their teacher here, each day I end up learning something from them.”

Vipul has been learning Indian Classical from Pandit Anupam Rai for the past three years and when asked on how he would like to shape his career as a performer, he humbly says, “I have no major aspirations as a stage artist. I just love teaching my children.