Celebration of life

Meet Jagdish Chandra and Florence Rastogi, whose mission is to live in the present with a purpose and make life meaningful for themselves as well as others...

Anjali Nauriyal

They are a couple who fell in love with each other and with life long ago. She is of French origin and he from an orthodox Bania family. But they were destined to marry. They met in Delhi where he was teaching History of Art at Sharda Ukil School of Art and she would frequent the school to do sculpting that she had come all the way from France to learn.

The two believe that their love is greatly defined by their sense of social responsibility that makes them contribute their bit to the betterment of their surroundings and condition of people they may meet and interact with.

The duo lives in the middle of lush green surroundings in Rajpur, and run a regular afternoon tutorial class for children of their area. They help the children with their homework and learning, and also allow them to play games in their campus.

Together they have initiated many efforts to cleanse the environment around them and protect its sanctity. Jagdish Chandra recalls how they were besotted by Doon when they had come to live here just for a short span to escape the heat of Delhi. "We lived in a rented accommodation for two months and never went back. The area where we lived was surrounded by fields and orchards and mesmerised us and we decided to stay here forever."

While in Doon Jagdish Chandra went to the Supreme Court to fight a PIL against MDDA, UP Calcium Carbide, Searsole and Aditya Chemicals that were inadvertently or otherwise damaging the environment of the salubrious valley in some way or the other. But as luck would have it, all these polluters on their own shut down their enterprises, even before the case could come to its logical conclusion. But Jagdish's mission was accomplished and he was a happy man.

When the couple were younger they would involve themselves and others in a lot of art, bronze casting, sculpturing and the like. "We would hold regular exhibitions and batik on silk was our main source of income," informs the lady. This apart the two initiated the idea of The Rajpur Cultural Festival in the 80s and 90s and formed the society Rajpur Group with a group of artists and musicians and friends like the well-known Veena player Ajit Singh.

"We happened to watch a group of talented local children putting up a show at a tea stall. We decided to encourage them," informs the duo. "We invited our friend Ravi Baswami to conduct workshops with them. Later classical music, dance, ghazals were included and we ended up organising a big village community level programme for many years. With time the sale of crafts too became an integral part of the festival, giving it a mela touch."

The Rajpur Festival discontinued after 10 years or so, as the two were growing in age and could not do the running about anymore. The quality was high but financial means were small. But the memory of those years is treasured in the minds of the couple. "The festival was a work of love and was good as long as it lasted," avers Florence.

Jagdish Rastogi is also a painter of repute. About his passion for art he states, "Art like life itself is difficult to define. We cannot and do not take any fixed stands on Art. Art covers all that is creative. We don't promote this art or that art, but only wish to give it an occasion to happen. And this is what makes our lives meaningful."

In keeping with the above tenet Florence has not missed any chance to learn. Once in India she was soon hooked on to playing the Vichitra Veena. She travelled all the way to Banaras to learn from her Guru Barendra Kumar Sen. Ajit Singhji of Doon took nine months to make her first Vichitra Veena in '89. Even after the demise of her guru she endeavoured to carry forward her learning and carrying her big instrument on her shoulders she travelled regularly to Delhi to learn from Gopal Shankar. He was a guru who would teach her by the watch each day - this much and no more. But that did not in any way dissuade or deter her and she continued her riyaaz with dedication and is today an accomplished player of this rare instrument.

Florence is also a poetess and loses no opportunity to pen down her thoughts. She is also working with the Leprosy Mission at Laxman Jhula and has also worked with Chidanandaji. She taught French at Doon School, but left when the call for music, Buddhist meditation and painting became stronger.

In other words life for the duo is Art. And art is an ongoing process. In their life there is a wonderful lesson for all of us.