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Retired teachers in Pune use art to overcome Covid pandemic blues
An exhibition of paintings ‘2nd Innings’ by three retired teachers in Pune is on display at the art gallery in Yashwantrao Chavan Kaladalan, Kothrud and will continue till June 5
PUNE “I took to painting in the last two years to deal with stress during the Covid-19 pandemic. It helped me feel relaxed while expressing my emotions,” said Geeta Chitnis (77), who along with two of her colleagues - Chanda Kolhatkar (72) and Shailaja Pathak (72) painted more than 350 paintings.
An exhibition of these paintings ‘2nd Innings’ is on display at the art gallery in Yashwantrao Chavan Kaladalan, Kothrud and will continue till June 5.
“It was the first time for me to hold a brush and paint, I was an English and Mathematics teacher. But during the lockdown period me and my colleagues were in touch and Pathak encouraged me to start painting. Accordingly, I joined online classes and started painting, and today around 40 of my paintings are displayed at the exhibition,” said Chitnis.
All these three teachers are retired from Seth Dagaduram Katariya High School, while Pathak who is an arts teacher is the mastermind behind the initiative.
“Painting is a relaxing way to express one’s emotions. We all went through a lot of stress during the lockdown and this activity kept us busy. There was a time when we didn’t have canvass or plain paper to draw, so we used newspapers and today more than 350 paintings are on display at the exhibition,” said Pathak.
The preparation and execution of the exhibition was done by the ex-students of the Katariya High School. While the exhibition was formally inaugurated on Friday at the hands of senior artist Prof Milind Phadke and superintendent of police at state CID Unit Shrikant Dhivare, who is also an ex-student of the high school.
