Nepalese artist captures love for trains, Bollywood on canvas

Trains of the bygone era, Hindu deities and popular Bollywood posters - all come together as one evocative story on the canvas of Nepalese artist Uma Shankar Shah.
Presented by Gallerie Ganesha, his first solo show in the city titled 'Roti- Beti' comprises paintings (oils and acrylics) and etchings is set to be exhibited at the Visual Arts Gallery, from April 18 to April 24.
Shah is also exhibiting an 18-feet long, three-dimensional train installation - in fibre and metal - which with its roof and compartments, platform and human figures, aims to being alive the whole rail experience for the viewers.

Says 51-year-old Shah, a Fine Arts Lecturer at Tribhuwan University,"Nepalese have been astonished by trains ever since their introduction in India by the British and it became a symbol of a search for new life in the hearts of Nepalese people."
The establishment of the Indian Railway, which was to be an asset for the British economy at the time, brought about a variety of changes to the sub-continent.
In the Rana regime, trains primarily served a purpose of transporting timber, wheat, jute as commanded by the British. The public was so intrigued by this system that people would climb on top of the goods that such trains carried.

People would often travel from Raksaul to Amlekhgunj via train at the time, and crossed the hill Bhimphedi to travel to Kathmandu to get to the temples of Pashupatinath.

The Railway system from Jainagar to Janakpur too started carrying people and was called the Nepal Janakpur Jainagar Railway (NJJR), which later extended all the way to Bijalpura.
"While all this was happening and the railway system was becoming a center of attraction for the Mithila region people, I was also fascinated by trains as a kid and every day I would go to the railway station to watch the trains pass by," says Shah, born in Janakpur.

"My happiness had no limits if I ever had the opportunity to touch those trains. In the 40 years that I have grown up with these trains, I have developed a sense of empathy with them where it feels as if I understand the moods of happiness, sadness, uselessness, loneliness of these machines and this is what I have presented in these works" he says.