A final year fine arts student of Delhi’s well-known Jamia Milia Islamia University (JMI), Tabrez Hassan Ansari is on cloud nine following the inclusion of his oil canvas titled Women-I in the 79th All India Art Exhibition 2007. Staged in early March by the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, the exhibition was inaugurated by eminent artist Satish Gujral. Ansari is more than pleased about this honour because only 92 of the 480 canvases submitted countrywide were selected for display. Although perhaps his most notable achievement to date, this is not his first award. In 2003, Tabrez won the Worli painting competition of JMI and was honoured in the same year by the National Institute of Disaster Management for his untitled painting on disaster mitigation. The following year (2004) he was awarded Rs.30,000 by a multinational fleet management company, Lease Plan India Pvt Ltd for a sculpture titled Vision of Motion. In 2005 Ansari staged his first solo exhibition which was well received by art lovers and critics. Now this young artist has set his sights on the Lalit Kala Academy award, the most coveted in the field of art. Ansari’s achievements in the competitive field of fine arts are particularly impressive in the light of his underprivileged background. His father owns a small grocery shop in Jharkhand, which earns barely enough to put food on the table for his family. Therefore after admission into JMI, Ansari had to concurrently work long hours to finance his studies. For over two years he worked with a small scale embroidery firm and later with a well-known television content production company. “I had to take a break from the study programme to finance my education because tuition fees apart, I had to purchase art materials which are expensive,” he explains. Now in the final year of his undergraduate studies, Ansari wants to press on to acquire a Masters degree. “I expect finance will be a problem, but I’ve acquired considerable problem-solving skills during the past few years,” says Ansari in whose work the evils of female foeticide and HIV-AIDS are frequently depicted. This young and promising painter also depicts mundane household items like taps and washbasins on canvas, transforming them into imaginative still life. Ansari has the will to reach the top of his profession, while continuing to depict the ills plaguing Indian society on canvas. Sanjay Pandey (Patna) Sreelakshmi Suresh She is the youngest ever member of the Association of American Webmasters and has bagged national and international honours including the prestigious Global Internet Directories and the Golden Web awards instituted by the US government. At age eight she is an expert web designer who has just put together her school’s official website. But that’s the least of Kozhikode-based Sreelakshmi Suresh’s achievements on the worldwide web. The daughter of Suresh Menon, an advocate, and Viju, a school teacher, Sree’s association with computers and the new wonder science that is information technology began when she was four. She would tinker for hours with Microsoft’s paint and brush software program…
