The communal joy of India’s chawls

RAJESH P Kargutkar grew up in a chawl, a large tenement house in the working class neighbourhood of Lalbaug in Mumbai. There were seven family members squeezed within their single-room flat, which measured 3 by 4.9 m. Kargutkar was, for all intents and purposes, a very happy child. When the family slept at night, cheek by jowl, some on the floor, he would stay up and paint. “No one complained about me keeping the lights on,” he says. “They just wanted me to pursue my passion.”

Today, Kargutkar is a professor of art at the International School of Geneva in Switzerland, teaching abstract and figurative painting to international students. So when he heard that the row of chawls he grew up in is set to be demolished to give way to new and more expensive developments, he was swept by a wave of nostalgia. He picked up his paintbrush and began painting various scenes from his childhood.

Soon, dozens of scenes began to emerge on his canvases: women going about their daily chores, men playing cards or getting in fights, and children playing in whatever small corners they find. The paintings masterfully capture the essence of life in chawls, with its unique blend of hardship and joy, colours and emotions.

“Joy is what I really want the viewer to get from these paintings,” Kargutkar says. “I’m not trying to milk sympathy from the viewer. I want them to see the resilience and spirit of these close-knit communities, how they consistently find ways to make do and celebrate life.”

The paintings are on display at The Culture Story, an art space started by father-daughter team Chong Huai Seng and Ning Chong. The senior Chong has been a fan of Kargutkar for years, collecting a number of his works. He wanted to bring Kargutkar’s latest series to Singapore, so that others may also revel in his art. The works are for sale, with oil-on-canvas pieces starting from S$3,200. The paintings on paper, priced at S$1,600, were sold out within the first few days of the show.

Kargutkar says: “In Hindi, we have an expression called jugaad, which captures the spirit of frugal innovation… Joy can thrive even in the most confined spaces; the human spirit finds ways to flourish regardless of physical limitations.”

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The exhibition runs at The Culture Story in Leng Kee Road from now till Oct 4. To visit, call +65 6924-9742.