Salute to the Indian Army on Post Cards in Lucknow

A postcard exhibition was celebrated at Lalit Kala Akademi to honour the Indian army. It had work of artists from all over the country consisting of about 450 postcards. There were some very pretty and vibrant postcards hanging from the ceilings and some displayed on the walls saluting our army. “This is a wonderful effort by the artists on postcards.Our army has always stood by us and we should do everything we can to support and respect it. Through this exhibition we want to pay a tribute to the Indian army,” revealed Pankaj, an artist in the city.
(L) Atam Prakash (R) Bhupendra Kumar Asthana and Manisha Srivastava (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
The event was curated and organised by Bhupendra Asthana and Dheeraj Yadav. Bhupendra said, “It is wonderful to see how a person can express ones selff so beautifully on a postcard. The creators of the exhibition believe that hosting this kind of exhibition is a wonderful way to remind people of the importance of postcards. The fact that postcards reach the remotest of locations, places where you have signal problems and how people in the army have used postcards extensively as a means of communication."
(L) Gopi Chand Pandey (R) Noor Fatima and Mohd Shakeel (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
The guest of honours included Major General Pravesh Puri along with wife Hemi, bureaucrat Navneet Sehgal along with wife Vandana and Kargil War martyr, Captain Manoj Kumar’s father Gopi Chand Pandey. Major General Puri said, “What gladdens my heart about this exhibition is that it’s a very unique concept by Dheeraj and Bhupendra. These two young boys firstly conceived this idea, then they put in a whole lot of effort for the last couple of months to get this idea proliferated to the country. They managed to collect the drawings on postcards from all over the country and displayed them here. Their endeavour must be appreciated and their work is really commendable.”
Heminder and Maj Gen Pravesh Puri (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
There were some eye-catching postcards which were painted beautifully by the artists and liked by one and all. Navneet Sehgal said, “Its an outstanding effort. Artists from across the country have contributed and expressed their feelings towards the army. It gives a lot of encouragement to the jawans if we all stand together and appreciate what they are doing for us.”
Kanta Sahni and Prem Sagar Sahni (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
The paintings on the postcards were made using watercolour, pens, crayons and other types of drawing material. The exhibition had a large number of people turning up including art lovers, members of the army, bureaucrats, etc.
-Yashi Agarwal
(L) Manjari Pandey (R) Sandhya Mishra and Jyoti Sidiqui (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Navneet Sehgal and Vandana Sehgal (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Pratima Singh, Maj Ashish Chaturvedi and Shalini Singh (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Priya Mishra and Roshni Tek Chandani (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
Ravi Kapoor (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)