Wisdom Tree Cafe on Jatin Das Road near Deshapriya Park in south Kolkata played host to Colours of Courage, an extraordinary exhibition, on December 9 and 10. Arijit Official, with My Kolkata as digital media partners, had organised the exhibition with six differently abled artists who showcased 30 pieces of art. Eighteen of those were sold. Ranjan Kurmi (in picture), a 42-year-old, was born with underdeveloped limbs. Ranjan has been painting since the age of five. He paints with his toes (as seen in pictures) and water colour is his preferred medium
Photographs by Soumyajit Dey
When asked what inspires him to paint and how he chooses what to paint, he replied: ‘When I am roaming around any place, I always look around and if I see an interesting subject, I take out my equipment and start painting. I like the natural light a lot.’ When we spoke to Ranjan, he was painting a picture looking at a tablet and said: ‘These are pictures of my paintings. If I am at an exhibition, I use these for references.’ Ranjan also teaches art. He started by teaching at home before opening a professional centre
The youngest artist, whose art was lauded by all who visited the exhibition, was Soham Das, a 14-year-old non-verbal child with autism and other challenges. My Kolkata spoke to Soham’s mother, Sunanda Das, who said: ‘Soham has always been artistically inclined but I didn’t realise it until his doctor, Amit Ranjan Biswas, told me that he paints abstract pictures. I had no idea about abstract art before that.’ Soham also has social anxiety, which is controlled through his art
Sunanda Das spoke to us about Soham’s schooling and how he was treated differently: ‘We had enrolled Soham in a normal school first, a very highly rated one. But then instead of treating him as per his requirements, they would tie him up if he was having ticks. I caught that and took him out of that school and put him into Arohan NGO. Since then, he has only been getting better.’ Soham was previously featured in an article by The Telegraph, his mother told us that he was viewed very differently before and after the article was published. She said: ‘I have to thank The Telegraph for making people view my child normally now rather than the negative way they would approach us’
Somenath Chowdhury, who lost the functioning of his legs, said: ‘Art is my drug, if I didn’t have art I would have died. I would have nothing in my life if not for art.’ Somenath is the principal of Tulika Art & Culture. At 58, he has seen his fair share of battles but according to him, it is art that keeps him going. He dreamt of being a soldier but life had different plans for him. He has had the pleasure of painting a portrait for former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which he says is the best painting he has ever done. ‘That is a painting you have to see in person, even a picture of that painting will not do justice to it’
Reema Banerjee has been differently abled for life but that didn’t stop her from achieving a degree in computer science as well as a masters degree in fine arts. At 37, Reema teaches computer and arts simultaneously. She said: ‘I love listening to music and painting. That is what makes me most happy. I imagine what are the things I would like to do like play an instrument or dance and I use that as inspiration for my painting’
(In pic) Susmita Chakraborty Chatterjee and Debraj Chatterjee are partners in art. They fell in love through art and are both artists who do customised art on request. On display was Debraj’s work. The 29-year-old lost his left hand to cancer. Debraj said: ‘When I was receiving treatment for cancer and I was in the hospital from the day my hand had to be removed, I started drawing because I couldn’t do much else. I always loved art but since that day art has never left me.’ The second picture is a painting done by Debraj earlier in the years signifying his life blooming despite the hurdles one stroke at a time
Debraj was drawing when we saw him. About his art form, he said: ‘I like water colours mainly. We do a lot of series paintings to form collection like this one of the boats (referring to painting in pics). His wife, Susmita, said: ‘We both teach art but we do a lot of painting together. We get requests for customised paintings mostly for gifting. We get portraits which people request to use for different set ups.’ The couple love art as much as they love each other
A blood cancer survivor, Arpan Sardar, is a 26-year-old idol-maker and artist. Arpan was in Class 9, when he was diagnosed with cancer. Growing up loving art, he was told to pay more attention to studies as things were not financially well-off. “I had given up art but then when cancer happened and I was recovering at Thakurpukur Cancer Hospital, I went into depression. The doctors gave me art material and I feel that I am glad I had cancer because art came back into my life.’ Since then Arpan has never left art and he makes a fair living for himself. He has been moulding idols for the last few years for various pandals and he now even has two people who work with him
Arijit Mukherjee, once a director for television, turned his life around and wanted to build a platform to uplift those who do not have a platform for themselves. All the artists present were from his Shakti Samman 2022-23 winners. Using his platform, Arijit Official, on platforms like YouTube, he tells unique stories. On his motivation, Arijit said: ‘There is a lot of sorrow all around us. Today, people think they don’t want to live any longer but look at these six artists they have all been through a lot. What if they had stopped fighting? Through their art they display courage and with Colours of Courage I wanted to show the beauty of life through art’
