Artist Raj Nandini Quest Of Himalayas Lands Her In Manali

Manali: Raj Nandini is an artist, photographer, sculptor, painter and art camp organizer / curator. Raj Nandini quest of  Himalayas finally landed her in Manali to full fill her life goal. She lives in a rented house in village Sajla in Manali valley 10 kms from here.

The Mumbai based artist has been getting recognition in the Indian contemporary art scene since 1994. She was born in Ahmadabad in 1977 and she is an artist from birth.

She while speaking to Hill Post said that during my summer vacations in school i use to visit my village and paint out the scenic beauty of the place and had fun playing around in the mud. The life there was simple yet beautiful with clean air and water and juicy fresh fruits. All that always fascinated me. But as soon as I grew older I was away from this beautiful village’s life and went to town. 

In 1992, Shejoin Fine Art College, during her college life she participated in many exhibitions and art camps. After passing her final year she took mentorship from her father and worked alongside him as a commercial photographer, artist and a merchandise designer.

From 2014 to 2018, she received many awards from state, national & international backgrounds and events. She participated in many art shows; exhibition & art camp events in 2016, March She had great opportunity of organizing a five days international art camp in Manali.

She added before this camp, when she first visited Manali with my friends i was mesmerized by the beauty of this place. Those 15 days were beautiful being surrounded by nature. This felt like a calling and the nature felt as if it was pulling me to it.  I wished that time that I wanted to live in this place.

After that I went back to Mumbai. And my life turned around. I was faced with a struggle but i tool that as a challenge and an opportunity thinking that maybe this was my second chance. May be god had given me a chance to think about myself? 

And that day me & my daughter left Mumbai for good

Manali is very peaceful place bequeathed with mesmerizing scenery, lush greenery wide forest and miraculous flora and fauna, surrounded by elegant pine and cedar trees which simply add glisters to the landscape, beauty and tranquility of this place and bring great relaxation to my mind. The bubbling sound of water amongst the serene silence of the place feels like music to my ears, it gives me a new feeling and joy. It is always overwhelming to see the sight of valleys, mountains along with forest as it offers everything worth taking breath away.  And every time I fell in love with this place I wished many times “ kass yaha rahene ko mil jaye”. And really god has given me a chance to think about.

She revealed that she made many paintings, landscape, portrait, and nature and here’s village life. I like to paint here’s old houses and culture. Life has totally changed here from the big city life. But today I enjoyed lots; it’s a very simple down to earth daily life with nature & animals. People here work hard day and night for family and animals, they all are very depended on forest, and forest gave them living.

She further said the Himalayas are most travellers’ first love and most sought for. It is a whole different world altogether offering you everything differently, be it food, culture, people, adventure or wildlife. But there are some things that a traveler connects very closely to travelling, in order to get inspired, to stay motivated, that would enable one to travel miles after miles for days and months.

 She said Sven Hedin is one of the most renowned and respected explorers in the history of mankind. This is a historic work which has blurry photos and hand-drawn maps. This book was regarded as an authority by explorers who went to explore Tibet and the regions around because Hedin was the first one to have given to the world a comprehensive description of the hidden Tibetan culture and this makes it all the more important for a traveller to read this brilliant work and then go because it will make you understand life in the Himalayas better and you will not have a mere touristy experience.

In this legendary book on Himalyas, Helena Norberg writes for a prose-lover, an economist, an environmentalist, an anthropologist and a geologist of Himalayas for more than a decade and reveals to the world, the way of life in this place. Most travellers and tourists go there without knowing anything and what you come back with, are common knowledge, not usually knowing the WHY behind things people do there. If you are a lover of himalyas and you are looking forward to go there, you must not miss this book since this book will turn to be the reason you remember and feel Ladakh way better than you would have had without it.

Sanjay Dutta

Sanjay Dutta, an engineer by qualification but is a journalist by choice.

He has worked for the premier new agency Press Trust of India and leading English daily Indian Express.

With more than a decade of experience, he has been highlighting issues related to environment, tourism and other aspects affecting mountain ecology.

Sanjay Dutta lives in a village close to Manali in Kullu valley of Himachal.