A normal office day for Arundhati Ghosh of the IFA includes meeting artists, watching performances, films, and sharing ideas for the future. And she finds it all awesome
Every morning, Arundhati Ghosh wakes up to an urgent excitement. Each day, over 13 years, since she joined India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), has been a blood rush about what the day holds for her. “I know I am fortunate,” beams Arundhati, who, as Executive Director of IFA, spends as much time outside Bangalore as in the city meeting artists and prospective donors. “Normal office days are full of arguments, debates and discussions on trying to see things from various perspectives. Many times artists drop into office and share their work with us – films, pieces of performance work, research ideas, imaginations for the future…it’s awesome,” she beams.
This sense of seamless creative perspectives lingers. “One has no clue when evening has descended outside and it’s time for Mathukathe, where we invite scholars and artists who are passing by Bangalore to share their work with us to an interested audience. So the office transforms one evening into a space for a chamber concert, on another to a movie hall and on yet another day, a workshop space for children,” says Arundhati, adding, “We put up fundraisers and showcases of the work of our grantees for public and donors to view. These are times of great excitement and I feel very proud to see the entire team at IFA put in their best to make these events meaningful and enriching.”
Such is Arundhati’s life, and if there are shows to engage herself in, she is home by 8 pm. “I have a large family of friends strewn around the world. My home belongs to many of my friends and most often, there is someone or the other staying the night. A lot of my own writing and reading happens after 11 pm. A few hours of intensive reading, writing, sharing and then it’s time for bed around 2 or 3 am. I treasure those solitary hours at night and zealously guard that time for myself,” she lets in.
Marks and musings
Into the wee hours, pulling a page out of a book from her shelf, Arundhati finds underlines, marks, musings and calluses on its body from use by friends from different parts of her life, at times by people she doesn’t even know. “Often, those marks are made by me at another time and space, perhaps. They carry more stories than what is written on the page. Some of those stories I cannot even remember,” she says.
Off the shelf, life is a journey and IFA marked the end of Arundhati’s tenure with the corporate world. “When I had finished almost a decade in the corporate sector moving between advertising, marketing and running a tiny company, I had very little to look forward to. The end of that relationship left me feeling like a bonsai, frustrated at the emptiness of life, irritated at its inability to feel either my intellectual curiosity or emotional vacuum. I was always drawn to the arts — I was a dancer once and had done my masters, wrote a little bit of poetry, watched films and theatre by the dozen and read till my eyes hit minus 9s. IFA happened to me quite suddenly serendipitously. I met Anmol Vellani, the founder and then Executive Director of IFA who hired me at one-fourth my current salary as IFA’s first fundraiser in 2001.”
“I have no idea what he saw in a frustrated, proud, young girl who knew nothing of the arts world. Over the years, I learnt so much from him about this complex world of the arts and culture, about organised philanthropy, about the politics and dynamics of funding and how to run an independent funding organisation. He created and led IFA for 18 years and then I was given the responsibility when he retired last year to assume office as the Executive Director of this foundation.”
In step with her role, with a song in her heart Arundhati talks of how, through the arts, we understand our yesterdays, make sense of today and imagine our tomorrows. “Through the arts, we bond and heal.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Features> MetroPlus / by Nirmala Govindarajan / Bangalore – July 22nd, 2014