It was the most awaited college trip of the year. The students were to spend over two weeks travelling across South India together. As they piled into the bus to Kumbakonam, they hooted, sang and danced and the excitement reached a point where people began to wonder if the noise had anything to do with the election results that were out that day. “Soon, the police asked the vehicle to be driven to the station,” laughs Karthikeyan, who was among those in the bus. Along with him were artists who would one day win accolades for their work. They are all students of the class of 2000 of the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai. Today, they have all been brought together by that which they set out to study some 15 years ago — art.
They call themselves the ‘Millennium Batch’, and among them are award-winning artists such as Benitha Perciyal and Sooriyamoorthy. Seventeen of them have come together for an art show titled ‘Harmony’ at the Lalit Kala Akademi. Seated in an air-conditioned art gallery surrounded by the works of their classmates, the alumni of the oldest art institution in India recall the good old days.
During the late Nineties, many youngsters set out to learn art to become art directors in the film industry. When the Millennium Batch passed out of college, however, animation and graphics were booming fields and several students got jobs in this industry. While some of them made headway as art directors in movies and TV shows, as years moved on, they drifted away from art. Today, the batch comprises a software engineer, a homemaker, a photographer, a music composer, a teacher…
“We joined college with dreams,” recalls Venkata Rao. “We hoped to paint, have our own shows, sell our works…” he trails off. But life was difficult for a student who spent his productive years learning to sketch, sculpt, and paint. “To make a living, we had to do other jobs. I’m a portrait photographer now. I take pictures for those who come to my studio. As years passed by, I could hardly paint, though deep down that’s what I want to do,” he smiles sadly. “But he was with a camera all through college,” his friend Ezhilmathi cuts in. “He is our archive.”
The show gave them an opportunity to revisit a chapter in their lives that many were forced to forget. In two months, they worked on paintings, photographs, sculptures and installations. “I’m a software engineer who travels far between home and office,” says Meenakshi Sundaram. “I reach home only by 11 p.m. every day but I pushed myself to paint,” he says. Some of their batchmates, such as Benitha and Vennimalai, continue to pursue art.
If you’re lucky, you can overhear laughter-filled conversation between friends who’ve reunited after a decade, as you walk from one painting to another at the gallery. The things they talk about… “Remember that class work we had to submit?”; “It was Saravana who got me my first job at that stained-glass painting place for Rs. 750 a month”; “Remember the time when we shoved rotis into our pockets from that restaurant to eat on the train journey?”; “Do you recall that I painted at the Adyar signal? The traffic policeman got me tender coconuts.”
Harmony, in a way, is their college reunion. “We’ve found friends whom we thought were lost,” says Saravana Kumar. “Durga, for instance, was among the seven girls in our class. One day, during the second year, she just stopped coming to college.” Durga explains, “That’s because I was to get married.” A mother of two, she is now back in the old gang. They may have grown older, married and had children, but things haven’t changed much between them. Those who organised the long college tours back then are the ones who are doing all the organising for the show now; Ezhil, the soul of the party, remains one; and Saravanaa, who composed music for college events, now composes music for a living.
The meticulously-planned all-India tours were an important part of the curriculum. “Our college seniors advised us not to miss the tours,” recalls Sooriyamoorthy. “During a 21-day trip to North India, for instance, we spent 10 days travelling on trains. The compartment felt almost like home.”
“I’m proud to say that I’m from the College of Fine Arts,” says Saravana Kumar. “We’ve painted near dustbins, sketched on chairs… if a person expresses something completely different from the others in a group, he/she would probably be our alumni. The College leaves a lasting impression on you.”
Harmony is on till April 26.
