Chithravathi Magazine

Murali Cheeroth What is education? The definition changes with the changing times. But it is always based on sustainable progress aiming intellectual and mental development with emphasis on constant transformation, which is the foundation of good education. However, this goal can only be achieved by cultivating among students thoughts and visions beyond the textbook, thus placing academic learning on a new pedestal. The concept of Art Integrated Learning (AIL) evolved from the idea of ​​fine-tuning the ability of children to acquire knowledge beyond the formal academic framework. Since this is a completely new concept in education, it is yet to fully crystalise in Indian schools in general. However, we were able to successfully intervene in this area and our view was that classrooms should also be a creative platform for study and that it would nurture the socio-cultural and philosophical thinking of children. While AIL is a new concept, the prototype of integrating art with the st...

He has published ten novels and a number of short stories, and most of his works are on the theme of the refugee’s disruption Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah has won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gurnah has been selected for this award “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”, said the Swedish Academy in a statement on Thursday. The award is worth 10 million Swedish crowns, equal to around Rs 8.52 crore. Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean but arrived in England as a refugee in the end of the 1960s due to the political turbulence in his native land. It was only in 1984 he was permitted to return to Zanzibar, to see his ailing father. Gurnah has until his recent retirement been Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent in Canterbury. Gurnah has published ten novels and a number of s...

This art festival, being organised physically, as the schools are open now, is in continuation of these ongoing initiatives as part of the Art Integrated learning programmes Schooling is all about the holistic development of every child, and they should get ample opportunities to showcase their creative talent apart from the textbook learning. At The Velammal International School (TVIS), our curricular framework always focuses on the overall development of the students and we liberate them to a wider world beyond the four walls of the classroom and also the textbooks. That is the reason why when we are back to normal functioning after the prolonged lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, we decided to hold the art festival organised by Chitravathi Centre for Creativity (CCC), the expert team handling the art integrated project for the Velammal Group of Institutions. Even during the lockdown days, we had made it sure that art engagements are given due importance, of course using ...

‘Gandhi: Loneliness of the Great’, the show of A. Ramachandran’s recent drawings on Gandhi, at Vadhera Art Gallery, New Delhi, unravels a new face of the tranquil human being with compassion P Sudhakaran There are two images that recur in the creative oeuvre of A Ramachandran – Lotus Pond and Mahathma Gandhi. While the lotus, a prominent image in Asian art, started appearing in his work after he visited Rajasthan in the mid-70s, his engagement with the image of Gandhi began even before that, precisely in 1969, when he made the preparatory sketches for the Gandhi Darshan mural, ‘Gandhi and the 20th Century Cult of Violence’, to commemorate the birth centenary of the great leader. Gandhi, Ink and watercolour on paper Ever since that Gandhi has appeared quite often in his works, especially drawings, and in 1980, he even designed stamps to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gandhi’s Dandi March. Later, in 2012 and 2016, he did two monumental bronze sculptures too. His latest suite of drawin...

Eminent cartoonist E.P Unny, in his presentation on cartoons portraying Gandhi, says that w hen something goes terribly wrong, Gandhi keeps coming back Cartoon is a protest art. However, there are times when the target of a cartoon morphs into a comic character and joins the cartoonist in articulating the content. The life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, or our ‘Father of the Nation’, has that distinction and he was a prominent figure all through his public life, said eminent cartoonist Mr. E.P Unny, Chief Political Cartoonist with ‘The Indian Express’ , inaugurating ‘ Know Your Masters’, the new series of interactive sessions by the Vellammal Group . Unny's cartoon on Gandhi Why he was part of cartooning the world over? Apart from his ideals and political stature, Gandhi was a simple figure in graphic terms and even a child could draw him. How simple one can draw Gandhi is evident from the way eminent cartoonist Ranga portrayed Gandhi in a couple of simple strokes. The drawi...