She lives in Bhopal, the city of lakes, and has rediscovered her love for capturing the changing seasons in her paintings. It had been a while since she put paint on paper; domestic life, a family to take care of, and helping a daughter become a doctor meant little time for herself, leave alone her passion for painting. Now that she has can, she’s rediscovering herself, and is back to what makes her feel alive – being an artist.
When we approached her for designing the cover of our book “Making Molehills of Mountains”, it was almost an interview of sorts – she took one! Why the book was being written, who were the target audience, what our stories said, and so on. For reference photos, we sent her those mailed to us by our contributors – Dr S P Sati, Dr Lokesh Ohri, journalist Vaishnavi Rathore, climate activist Priyadarshini Patel, and State Disaster Response Fund.
A Garhwali by birth, Bhargava was brought up in Mussoorie, completed her college education from DAV (PG) College, in Dehradun, and is a gold medallist in MA, painting. Her love for fine arts led her to do a course in acrylic medium and textile designing, as well as sculpture. Although she loves all mediums, acrylic is her favourite at the moment, for its versatility and the fact that it is inexpensive.
She chose the same for the book cover, and used several references from the photos sent to her. The cover came about after some back and forth on terminology such as “molehills” (she even tried to fit in a mole in the earlier sketches), “devbhoomi”, and “disasters”. Special focus, however, was on not making the cover a gloomy one. “That is why the emphasis on the sky colours being orange and yellow, both signifying vitality, energy and optimism,” she says, adding, “We can’t stop at what ails my hill state; we have to look beyond that and strive to make it better. After all, we are because Nature is.”
As the cover idea crystallised, the mole had to go, as did the endearing image of a SDRF personnel cradling an infant with landslide debris in the background (which was taken from a real photo that is produced herewith). What emerged as a final painting was a ravaged hillside with tumbled-down rock and debris from a landslide, broken homes, and silhouette of bent and uprooted trees in the distance.
Somewhere between the trees is a small temple, slightly askew, but its flag still swaying in the wind, giving hope, urging us to do the right thing for our devbhoomi. And then there are the lashings of dark orange over a yellow-orange sky, making the cover truly come alive, standing out among other book covers.
“I may have settled down in Bhopal after marriage, but my heart still resides in the hills, in Mussoorie’s winterline, oak and rhododendron trees, and the hairpin bends. I’m so humbled to be a part of this initiative and feel glad my brush strokes told the story that needs to be told – let’s change our definition of ‘development’ in the hills. Let’s protect nature; if for nothing, then for our own sake.”
Glad to get her copy of the book, Bhargava promises to put in on her Instagram account soon, and has just been gifted a big collection of acrylic paints by her daughter, who has directed her to paint every day. Here’s hoping she never stops!
