Vinod Anand

THE Three Arts Club, a theatre group founded in the pre-independent India was one of the first to introduce theatre in its present form. Late Shri Om Sharma, Late Shri R.M.Kaul and Late Shri Devi Chand Kayasth came together in the year 1943 and founded the Three Arts Club, comprising primarily government employees.

The theatre group shuttled between the summer capital: Shimla and winter capital: Delhi. Its plays dealt with themes reflecting the mindset of the people of those times. The family, clerk, servant, hawker who one saw in daily life formed the characters of the plays produced by the Three Arts Club.

After Independence, the club worked from Delhi and contributed immensely to the Theatre movement. Three Arts Club presented its shows at the Prime Minister's house in 1954. The shows were graced several times by luminaries like Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Shri Charan Singh, to name a few. Production of Three Arts Club Children's plays by all adult cast was a new and successful experiment that was inaugurated on 11th May 1961 at Sapru House by Late Shri Jawaharlal Nehru.

Working with no theatre auditoriums and in testing times, the Club staged some amazing productions. The Three Arts Club also had the distinction of bringing on stage female artists for the first time in India. Late Smt. Saroj Bhargava was the first woman artist to perform on the Delhi stage.

It was due to far sightedness of the three founder members that the club functioned successfully for 40 years and contributed greatly to the world of Theatre.
Late Shri M.N.Kapur, Late Shri R.M.Kaul and Shri Ramesh Mehta filled in effectively the need for visionary President, a dynamic & competent General Secretary and a versatile Actor/Director. The excellent camaraderie between the three took the Club to great heights.

It was the untimely death of Shri R.M.Kaul in the year 1983 that compelled Shri Ramesh Mehta to wind up the activities of the club. He felicitated the artists associated with the club and donated the remaining amount to the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi's National Relief Fund. This again was a rare gesture by an amateur theatre group.

Shri Ramesh Mehta has been recently conferred with Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for acting by the Hon'ble President of India, Smt Pratibha Patil.

Late Shri R.M.Kaul's daughter Smt. Anuradha Dar, a keen enthusiast in promoting Indian art and culture revived the club on the occasion of 25th death anniversary of Late Shri R.M.Kaul popularly known as Raja Kaul in the theatre circle.

A Three Day Theatre Festival (11th May – 13th May, 2008) was organized at Shri Ram Centre, New Delhi. It received an overwhelming response and the tremendous encouragement during all the days of the Drama Festival. When the curtains went down on May 13, it signalled the comeback of the Three Arts Club after a hiatus of a quarter of a century. The TAC will continue from where it left off in 1983 and work with the same dedication & sincerity of Late Raja Kaul, vision of Late Shri M.N.Kapur and sheer brilliance of Shri Ramesh Mehta in striving to promote amateurs and Hindustani Drama in the city. The standing ovation, the encore and the packed auditorium demonstrated that Delhities still love theatre and now is the time to add our voice to the theatre movement.

The theatre festival was not an end in itself, but a means of achieving an end: reviving a chapter in history of theatre. We can't let the legacy of one of the oldest theatre groups in the capital city slip into oblivion.

On popular demand a repeat show of 'Bade Aadmi' was staged on 15th June at Shri Ram Centre, acclaiming full house and another feather in the cap of Three Arts Club.

The Three Arts Club, an amateur group will continue working for promotion of Art and Culture through the media of dance, drama, music and other art forms. It will strive to work for social causes and to uplift society. It proposes to extend its activities to educational institutes with the aim of promoting histrionic skills among the new generation so that this fine art does not die a slow death due to the ravages of the hectic pace of life.

The Three Arts Club was invited by the NCZCC (North Central Zone Cultural Centre), Allahabad, U.P. (India) on 23rd August 2008 to stage Bade Aadmi. Apart from many other well-known artists, Shalini Anand Singh, who is also a Kathak dancer also acted in the Play. She hails from Allahabad.

Press Release

Back in the limelight… Business Standard 04th May 2008
Three Arts Club set for a comeback… The Hindu 05th May 2008
Back in business a quarter century later… Mail Today 09th May 2008
65 yrs and ready for the next role… The Times of India 10th May 2008
25yrs, Pre Independence theatre club stages a coup… The Indian Express 11th May 2008
One of Delhi’s oldest theatre groups comes to life again… The Tribune 13th May 2008
The legacy lives on… The Pioneer 13th May 2008
One of Delhi’s oldest theatre groups comes alive again… Asia Pacific Arts 16th May 2008
Back with a bang… The Hindu 16th May 2008
Theatre group revives legacy… The Asian Age 20th May 2008
Stage Presence… The Indian Express 25th July 2008

Upcoming Event
Three Arts Club has once staged “Bade Aadmi’ at Shri Ram Centre, 4 Safdar Hashmi Marg, New Delhi on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 7.30pm.
One of the scenes of the play is given below:

The contact of the Three Arts Club is given below:
13-A/1, Mayur Vihar-1, Delhi-110091 Ph.22757105 / 9810220016
http://threeartsclub.blogspot.com E-mail: threeartsclub@gmail.com

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Life is Maya, an illusion: a tribute to Michael Bullock

Surjeet Kalsey, Vancouver, Canada

ONE can appreciate the value and the warmth of those long held associations only after they are gone. I could not believe my ears when I heard that Michael was gone – something felt broken inside me. A rich, cherished and wonderful association of 34 years was just disappeared like an illusion. I felt like in Michael’s own words:

“From the deepest abysses
of the sky a voice flies towards me
through a barrage of nets
and snares
on pearl-grey wings

Reaching me
it falls exhausted
and with its dying breath
it whispers
a word I cannot grasp...

And I stand here
a tree with a severed root.
(“Word”, Brambled Heart, M.B.)

(Michael Bullock with his Surrealist painting,1980. Reading poetry)

It was spring; I remember vividly that it was Spring of 1974. One afternoon I dared to come to Prof. Michael Bullock’s office in the Creative Writing Department behind the UBC library. I was new in this country and I intended to go back to school while I was waiting for my first baby. I was so determined to get into the Creative Writing studies and work on my script during the remaining months of my pregnancy. My child was due in July and the classes were starting in September. I was thrilled that Prof. Michael Bullock showed so much interest in my poetry which I had translated from Punjabi. That day, after my interview for admission I submitted for the first time some seventy pages of poetry to the attention of a mainstream writer. I was so excited that in a hurry, I forgot my shoulder bag in his office and rushed out. While I was walking out from his office and came almost close to the road, I heard a voice, someone was calling “Maya...Maya... .....you left your purse ...” when I turned back and saw Michael was coming towards me running. I felt sorry and my face turned red, I could only utter “thank you” in confusion and we departed. I was so nervous. I know that the word ‘Maya’ did not have any meaning for me that day. While walking towards the bus stop I was wondering whether Prof. Michael Bullock might have forgotten my name, or... ....” Later, when I was in Michael’s poetry class, he revealed to me the secret of Maya. He told me that somehow my black hair and black eyes reminded him one ‘Maya’ he knew a long time ago. Perhaps, my South Asian appearance had triggered his memories of Maya.

It was our poetry workshop class and my daughter Surti was only three months old. I used to bring her in my poetry class. Surti was such a nice baby that she remained asleep through out the class hours without disturbing the class, and Michael was so generous that he had allowed me to bring her in his class. Another day, Michael asked me, “Do you know what ‘Maya” means?” I said, “Yes, it could be a girl’s name, and in a bigger perspective it could refer to an illusion of this world; it all depends on the context.” He smiled a bit and murmured, “You’re right, it was a young girl I met in India some fifty years’ ago. She was the grand grand daughter of a Bengali poet Rabindra Nath Tagore....” Later he wrote about one of his characters Cranstone “he had vividly recalled the physical reality of its subject, has smelled her skin, felt the sheen of her hair and breathed the perfume....” could not forget her even after fifty years. “Maya, her very name, the Goddess of illusion, symbol of the unreality of the world.”

I became very curious to know more about Maya and her story. Michael indicated that he wanted to write to her but he did not have any address nor did he know where to contact her. He did not even know whether she was still alive or dead. I was surprised and amazed that an English Professor was fascinated by an Indian girl called ‘Maya’ and he intended to write her story after such a long time. Later in 1986 he did write her story when he found a small photograph of Maya. He relived the illusion over and over which he mentioned in his book ”Randolph Cranstone and the Veil of Maya” in the hope that one day she might see the book and recognize her photograph and might contact him.

Michael was teaching poetry and translation in the Creative Writing Department at UBC during seventies. I was the only South Asian student in his class and I was translating poetry into English from my native language, Punjabi. Towards the end of the program I completed my graduate thesis on poetry in translation. Michael Bullock has been described as “One of the most vivid, mysterious, and technically proficient poets writing in English today,” wrote Jack Stewart while doing detailed and profound study of Michael’s all 27 published works in 1990 at his 70th birthday under the name of “The Incandescent word: The Poetic Vision of Michael Bullock”.

Michael Bullock along with teaching poetry encouraged me to read his earlier works – “Green Beginning Black Ending”, “A Savage Darkness”, “Randolph Cranstone and the Pursuing River” and “Sixteen Stories” along with imagist poetry and symbolism in literature. When I came to Canada and joined the Creative Writing studies, I did have degrees in English and Punjabi literatures, but I was not familiar with surrealist literature and art. Michael’s books and art work opened up a new world of literature and art for me. His poetry was so soft and studded with colourful images from the nature. I found his poetry was closer to Indian poet Tagore’s Poetry. Later I translated some of his poems into Punjabi and published in a Punjabi magazine “Watno Dur” in late seventies. The project I started to translate Michael’s poetry into Punjabi was later carried on by Ajmer Rode and he compiled a book called “Ikotar So Prayatharthwadi Kavitawan”, the Punjabi translation of Michael’s poetry.

The University years of seventies were the most enriching time when I was encouraged by the mainstream writers to organize bi-lingual poetry readings in the Creative Writing Department so that we could exchange our poetry with each other. At that time students and budding writers and professors and visiting Punjabi poets such as Dr. Harbhajan Singh, S. S. Misha, Ravinder Ravi and Dr. Gurumel and local poets participated. I translated Punjabi poets such as Bhai Veer Singh, Prof. Puran Singh, Santoksh Singh Dhir, Dr. Harbhajan Singh, Mohan Singh, Amrita Pritam, Avtar Singh Pash, Amarjit Chandan, and Lal Singh Dil; and some Canadian Punjabi poets such as Gurcharan Rampuri, Dr. Gurumel Sidhu, Ravinder Ravi, and Ajmer Rode. During these readings I introduced Ajmer Rode and his brother Navtej Bharati to my Professor Michael Bullock. Later Bharti published some of Michael’s books through his press, the Third Eye publications, London, Ontario.

After I completed my studies at UBC in 1978, we (Ajmer and I) often used to meet Michael at poetry readings or art exhibitions. We kept respectful and supportive contact in the literary culture until last year when Michael agreed to publish one of my books of translation under his Rainbird press. The book is called “Shadows of the Past: selected poetry of Dr. Gurumel Sidhu” a professor of Genetics at The State University Fresno, California.

Last year, when Michael decided to move back permanently to his home country – England, his health remained a great concern during this period. While working on the book with one of the directors of the Rainbird Press, Lori-ann Latremouille, who often called Michael in England and updated him about the book. It was our wish if we could get this book published sooner.

I pay my deep respect and homage to my mentor, teacher, guide and wonderful person to talk to. Under Michael’s supervision I completed “The Glimpses of Twentieth Century Punjabi Poetry – An Anthology in English Translation” that included works of 55 Punjabi poets from India, Canada, America, England, Pakistan, Kenya and Sweden, with a forward written by Michael Bullock. Michael Bullock was a learned and knowledgeable professor in diversity and was intrigued by the beauty of different languages. He had the capacity to see a word in ten different languages at once. He had the capacity to catch the differences between the sounds of the different languages. He was the magician of the words, sounds and colours, and could paint a word as well as hear the music of it simultaneously.

Michael Bullock, a great writer, artist and translator will be greatly missed in South Asian writers’ community as well as our bi-lingual poetry readings and multicultural events. Michael Bullock not only embraced multiculturalism but also encouraged many writers and translators from different languages to accomplish their bilingual works. The following is a poem dedicated to Michael Bullock, a great poet, painter and a teacher.

Day and night are passing by
sobbing and shedding tears.
Sometimes the moon walks
in the layers of the silver clouds.
Sometimes the sun walks
behind the grim and grey clouds.
Everything and everybody
have their own fate
inscribed on their forehead,
only we are unable to read those lines
and unable to decode those words.
Life is passing by quietly
moment by moment we are dying
and we don’t even know
as the days and nights fall on us
an illusion of life we keep on living.

The following poems were translated into the Punjabi from his book “A SAVAGE DARKNESS”, and were published in “Watno Dur” in late seventees.

(1) Dreaming Leaves
(2) Memory
(3) The Voiceless Women
(4) The Memory of a Poem

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