Ahmedabad's art fraternity under one roof to celebrate Chinu Modi's 75th b'day

A galaxy of eminent personalities from art fraternity, including writers, poets, artists, and litterateurs, come together to celebrate the 75th birthday of renowned Gujarati poet Chinu Modi on Sunday evening .

An exhibition ‘Chinu Modi on camera and off camera’ was organised by Urmila Kanoria, founder of Kanoria centre, to mark the occasion.

Addressing Modi as ‘Amdavad no atithi’, she said, “As Chinu bhai has been a regular visitor at Kanoria, some artists showed an interest to paint him. So, we thought that as his birthday is approaching, let us convert it into an event and invite the art fraternity of the city to paint or click or write something about him which can be displayed in the exhibition and then will be gifted to him.”

After inaugurating the event, noted architect BV Doshi, said, “Chinubhai is a very lively and cheerful person. Our city, Ahmedabad is filled with creative people including film-makers, artist, writers, poets, photographers and more but we hardly gather together at one place to celebrate and share our artistic views.”

“ I think it is a good attempt by Kanoria to bring in such people at one place and I would ask them to continue this ceremony for other noted Amdavadi people,” he added.

The event was hosted by noted writer Madhav Ramanuj, who knows Modi for over four decades.

Talking about the friendship, he said, “We met through literature, we both used to write together and that’s how we became good friends. Today, the main theme for the event is Ahmedabad as suggested by Chinubhai. We have gathered here for his 75th birthday celebration, but frankly, it doesn’t feel, he is 75 and I am sure most of the people will agree with me on this.” Ramanuj spoke about the history of Ahmedabad and its existence which included stories of Dadhichi, Sultan Ahmed Shah, Gandhiji and Mahajan.

Gujarat Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela, who was also present at the event, said that he and Modi have studied together.

Another renowned poet Raghuveer Rao, a college mate of Modi, recited a poem about Ahmedabad which he had written in 1961 to grace the occasion.

An interesting poem was recited by a budding poet Prashant Yadav, who has been a student of Modi. Personifying Ahmedabad as a living being, he talked about various incidents and happenings of the city.

 Other renowned people like artist Amit Ambalal, Bansilal Dalal, V Ramanuj, Vrindavan Solanki, Rajesh Sagara, Mahendra Kadia, Hindol Brahmbhatt, Jayesh Shukla, Vivek Desai, Kanu Patel, Anil Majmudar, Sanjay Vaid, Zaverilal Mehta, Girish Khatri and more were present at the event and spoke about their relationship with Modi and Ahmedabad.