ART OF THE MATTER
Ten women who are changing the arts and culture space
In November 2017, the song DJ Waleya with Mika crossed over five million views on YouTube in just 30 days. And Minu Bakshi, who collaborated with him on the track was well aware of people’s reactions. “They were amused that the song was done by a 62-year-old woman and not by some young singer,” she says. But this is perhaps what sets Bakshi apart. She dons many hats thanks to years of training, experience and immense talent. She is busy collaborating with pop singers for viral tracks (there’s a remix of DJ Waleya and another collaboration with Mika in the works), has released a set of eight Punjabi folk music CDs, while simultaneously writing poetry, books and teaching Spanish at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi. In the next two months, she will be performing a piece in memory of veteran Pakistani singer Reshma at the Regent Street Cinema in London and also be part of Jashn-e-Bahar in Delhi and Kolkata.
As she sits in the well-appointed, aesthetically designed and art-filled living room of her Kautilya Marg bungalow in Delhi, dressed in smart black trousers and a well-tailored jacket, the disarming ease with which she can speak about her many passions is admirable. Wife of real estate baron and industrialist Kanwaljeet Bakshi, mother of three grown-up children, and a grandmother, Bakshi comes from a close-knit, traditional Punjabi Sikh family and has never shied away from doing what she truly believes in. From learning Urdu poetry and training in Hindustani classical music as a young college student in the early seventies, to participating in mushairas over the years, to going on three Himalayan car rallies with her husband, Bakshi is inspiring.
FROM BEATLES TO BEGUM
It was while attending an evening concert by Begum Akhtar at her college
auditorium in Miranda House, Delhi, that the then bell-bottom sporting Beatles fan realised her love for classical music. “I was mesmerised and couldn’t get that evening out of my head. I was possessed. Then began my search for all her records and recordings and for Begum herself,” she says. Bakshi managed to trace Begum Akhtar and requested a meeting during the latter’s next visit to Delhi; this she says completely changed her life. “That was the end of Western music for me. I traded in my guitar for a tanpura. I was lucky to find a maestro in Ustad Ghulam Hussain Khan saheb and started my training in Hindustani classical music,” says Bakshi. A desperation to understand the finer nuances of Begum Akhtar’s ghazals resulted in Bakshi learning Urdu. Since then, there has been no looking back, and she still says that Begum Akhtar “gave her focus and direction in life”.
PURSUING OTHER PASSIONS
Bakshi got married at 19 while pursuing her masters in Spanish at JNU and had her first child while she was doing her MPhil. Being a mother to a three-year-old didn’t stop her from making a solo trip to Spain for six months to study the language further at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, travelling with all her musical instruments, Urdu poetry and ghazals. She says none of this would have been possible without her husband who was supportive right from the start, as were her in-laws who let her follow her dreams, never stopping or discouraging her. “My husband has made things possible for me,” she says. “Every time I have done something unusual, it has worked for me. When I went to Spain to study further this was my first trip abroad. I was all alone, and I loved the country. I felt I had come home,” she says. Bakshi has now been teaching Spanish at JNU for over 35 years and was recently conferred the Order of Isabella la Catolica by the Spanish government for promoting Spain and its culture, the second highest order given to foreigners. “Teaching Spanish is my life and I have been living that JNU story every day. Teaching is gratifying, a habit more than anything and I have taught students from across the world,” says Bakshi, who makes it a point to travel to Spain almost every year.
AT HER CREATIVE BEST
“There is a constant search in my poetry and there is still something incomplete,” says Bakshi, who writes at night, wrapped in her blanket of quietude. Refusing to let go of any opportunity, multi-tasking is almost a habit with her. “I am a breathless person,” she says, and goes on to add that she has always done things that other women would never even think of doing. Author of two books, she is a prolific writer who pens her thoughts as they come to her. Her first book Tishnagi which means ‘the thirst’, was released in 2013 in Delhi in the presence of poets and filmmakers such as Muzaffar Ali, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi and the late Farooq Sheikh, and was introduced at a packed House of Lords and Nehru Centre, London, and later at the Lahore Literary Festival in Pakistan. Published by Rupa and designed by Ritu Beri, it is a collection of Urdu poems and recounts the story of her personal journey from the early years till now.
Her next book Mauj-e-Saraab which means “waves of illusion” came four years later, in 2017. This was released in Delhi by Shabana Azmi. Launched officially at the Apeejay Kolkata Literature Festival in January this year, the book is a compilation of ghazals written by Bakshi. She is already working on her third book of Urdu poetry titled Justaju which means “the quest.”
EMPOWERING THROUGH ART
Though art and culture dominate her time, Bakshi is also keenly involved in philanthrophic endeavours. She is the founding member and Vice-Chairperson of Savera, an NGO which works towards empowering economically weaker sections of society and providing them with education and medical facilities. “If we can change the lives of people, why not? Uplifting and empowering people is very satisfying,” she says. The funds to run Savera are generated along with other donations through various charitable concerts at which Bakshi performs both within India and abroad.