A Delhi exhibition with a mission

Millions of animals are battered, blinded, force-fed steroids, dissected, mutilated and eventually killed every year. Hence the crusading activists for spreading the word of saving ‘animals in distress’, PFA, recently hosted two art exhibitions. In a bid to support wildlife conservation, Maneka Gandhi said that we should respect all life on earth. And Ambika Shukla added, “After all, animals are human beings with fur.”
Bear-y creative: An innovative attempt to create awareness of the ancient barbaric practice of dancing bears, the paintings showcased had bear foorprints on them.And how? “The people from wildlife SOS had bears walk on the canvasses, and then we gave them to the artists to paint on them,” explained Maneka.
Whose idea was this? “It was a team idea, but yeah, headed by Maneka,” said Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder, Wildlife SOS. For artists, it was a challenging task, as they did not get an empty canvas. Says Gopi Gajwani, “It was a bit tough, but we managed to do it.”
Art for animals: Exhibiting their passion for this cause, designer Nitin Bal Chauhan was glad to know artists are helping in this initiative. “What more can an artist do than use his skill to help the cause of saving animals. If they are doing their bit, we should do ours,” he expressed his opinion. “Animals can’t speak about their plight, we should have people who are sensitive to their plight, and let these living creatures breathe,” said Neelam Pratap Rudy.
Playing favourites: Nasser Abdullah, Ferdinand Maultaschl, Marian Tomasik and Alexandra Tomasikova, all said that they’ve come specifically to see Arshiya Ahmed’s work displayed there. While Arshiya was all praise for Naresh Kapuria’s paintings.
Click me not: Poonam Bhagat was eating something, and someone clicked her. She was surprised, “Arrey! Don’t click me while am eating na. Just see, my mouth was wide open.”
While on the other side, Maneka Gandhi, who posed for the cameras, said that she was tired of getting clicked. Ab baad mein, we found Poonam with her mouth closed, seated with Monisha Bajaj, so we clicked her, and she went, “You know what, in this pose, we both are looking like sisters!”
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