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Prez to host artists at Rashtrapati Bhavan
NEW DELHI: After literature, art and sculpture will be the flavour of the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s in-residence programme, launched by President Pranab Mukherjee to
NEW DELHI: After literature, art and sculpture will be the flavour of the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s in-residence programme, launched by President Pranab Mukherjee to fuel creativity.
Painter Paresh Maity will be at the president’s estate in the national capital from September 21, and sculptor Subodh Gupta will check-in towards the end of the year, said Venu Rajamoni, press secretary to the President.
As part of the unique programme, envisaged to encourage the creative potential of people, the President launched a scheme to welcome writers, artists and innovation scholars to stay in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Last month, Man Booker prize winner Amitav Ghosh was the President’s guest for five days at the world’s second-largest presidential estate after Turkey.
Maity and Gupta, both in their 50s, are residents of Delhi but enjoy a global fame in their respective fields.
“I have lived at a stone’s throw from this building for more than 40 years. Yet this place remained unfamiliar to me. I was always curious to know what is there inside the Rashtrapati Bhavan. I also want others to know that,” President Mukherjee said at a private dinner for in-resident writer Ranjan Banerjee on Tuesday.
While Mukherjee hosted eminent personalities, a student had also left an indelible impression on his mind.
“While staying here, she invented a clock that will say at specific hours, “take your medicine”. I asked the student what prompted her to make such a clock? She said her mother had entrusted her with the responsibility to give medicines to her grand-dad. And it was initially difficult to remember the timings. The watch would give signals for taking medicine,” said Mukherjee.
