A colonel?s art from waste!

HIS HOBBY is to ?pump life? into the ?lifeless?. Colonel NB Pathak has a unique way expressing art-through the waste and unwanted. ?I was posted in the desert in Rajasthan. I came across a piece of wood that may have been lying for years in the dry heat and sand,? he said and pointing at the piece, ?There it is lying now?. ?That? piece of wood has been converted by him into a beautiful showpiece which is now the main attraction in his verandah.Colonel Pathak has recently retired from the Army and has decided to devote sometime to his art .

HIS HOBBY is to ‘pump life’ into the ‘lifeless’. Colonel NB Pathak has a unique way expressing art-through the waste and unwanted.

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“I was posted in the desert in Rajasthan. I came across a piece of wood that may have been lying for years in the dry heat and sand,” he said and pointing at the piece, “There it is lying now”. ‘That’ piece of wood has been converted by him into a beautiful showpiece which is now the main attraction in his verandah.

Colonel Pathak has recently retired from the Army and has decided to devote sometime to his art before taking any job offer. “During my tenure as a young officer I seldom got time to collect precious pieces,” says the officer. “But after having served for over several decades, I started giving shape to my hobby”.

It’s not that he found his art only in deserts and rivers, but even on trains. Once while travelling by train, he collected food wrapper foils, and brought them home, much to the chagrin of other family members. The same foils are now a decorative piece in his drawing room. The foil finds place in the concrete translation of his imagination of the Ganga flowing on a canvas. While in Nagaland, the officer brought fond memories of the Nagas. The officer captured the beauty of farmland on a piece of board. Here he planted the grains in rows and gave colours with paints of various shades. “With this, I could tell how people in the remote North East State live,” said Col Pathak. And, in the same breath, he showed a ‘house block’ that he created out of wood. The difference between other houses in Indian and that of the Nagas is that the latter has a broader frontal, while in other places, it’s the other way round.

While in Maharashtra, the officer came across a group of labourers trying to crush a piece of stone that was coming in the way of making roads. The inquisitive mind of an artist stopped them and asked for a few pieces, as any person, even the labourers were surprised at his demand. But they obliged him.

Col Pathak then sent these pieces for carbon dating to one of his scientist friends.

The results surprised everyone as it was the piece of wood fossil which went back to 25 crore years. The wood is now lying in his transit bungalow. “I am not trained for art,” admitted the officer. But he says, he fulfills his love for art without money. Till date, Col Pathak might have created some 100 artistic pieces, which would soon find place in exhibitions. Another set of art with him is collection of driftwood from various places in the country. “These are beautiful pieces of wood which depicts nature’s work on them,” he said showing the collection. His love for nature can be known from the fact that he is still pained at the chopping of a huge tree in a former bungalow owing to termite invasion.

“I used to place flowers round the tree every day, and since it was cut, I am left with the memories that me and my family spent around it,” said the Colonel.

His collection of art represents the length and breadth of the country, right from Jammu & Kashmir to Kanya Kumari.