About

Sarathi Kala Niketan is dedicated to the philosophy of Dr. O.P.Sharma 'Sarathi'-a thinker, critic and a seer.

Dr. O.P.Sharma Sarathi- a multidimensional personality was born on 1st of April at Mattan, Kashmir. Master of all trades an embodiment of writer, poet, painter, cartoonist, Ayurvedachrya, photographer, music composer and above all human with all traits of love, brotherhood and sacrifice for the fellow beings. His basic initiation towards fine arts was from his home itself as his father Pt. Mansa R

am was a perfect vocalist and poet himself. Sarathi Says- It wont be any exaggeration to say that instead of the lap of mother, I was born in the lap of Tabla and Tanpura. I grew old in my childhood only. You can imagine a boy of 16-17 years mastering complex ragas of Indian Classical Music also remembers works of Ghalib by heart and studies Faiz and had knowledge of Iqbal too. His mother Smt. Ram Dai was deeply religious. Sarathi was initiated in the field of Arts by the great Master Pt. Sansar Chand Sharma. He remembers-the instinct for painting was right from school days. I Devdass, Vidhya Rattan and Girdhari would get pocket money for purchasing eatables. Instead we would buy rubber and pencil and would make drawings on envelopes.

In 1952, O.P.Sharma Sarathi joined Army in the trade of a painter, that five year stint in the army was to later become a launching pad for plunge in to field of creative arts. There a colonel spotted the talent in the young painter and had him removed from the workshop. Colonel Gill assigned him the copying job of great Master pieces of Rapheal, Titian, Tinttoretto etc. for use in Officers mess. Sarathi Says- it was a real practice after my theoretical practice from Masterji. I made about 50-60 copies of great works. It was infact there that I learnt figuration. Then illustration influenced his creative process and he started doing landscapes. However he diverted from landscape also and started doing portraits. Sarathi feels- Landscape is a womens world. I felt there is nothing original to say so I started perfection in portraits. I consider portraits as the toughest job in painting. Later I realized that there is no fun in making what we can simply see. I based my paintings on various shalokas of Bharatarihari, Vedas and upnishdas, yogasbhyas. This transformation came around 1966-67. Since then I am doing the same thing. In the same year he organized his first One Man Exhibition in the state. . It was followed by many more.
Again while in Army he got exposed to yet another field of creative ex-pression literature. It was at initiation of one Hari Chand that Sarathi got the chance of studying the classical Indian Literature like Greh dah of Sarat Chandra and other works of Prem chand and Rahul.This opened wider vistas of ex-pression for him. He started having more affection towards literature than to painting. Immediately he started off with urdu short stories. His first Urdu Short stories collection Umren was published in the year________. Till date Sarathi has written stories in Urdu, Dogri, Hindi and Punjabi, most of them in Dogri in topics ranging from horrors of war (Laam), helpless farmers (Sukka Barood), exploitation of landlords (salamati tain), complexities of modern times (parivartan), selfishness of common man and changing values. It is no surprise that he got his first J&K Academy award in 1972 for his short story collection in Dogri Sukka Barood. It was followed by Lok Gai Lok and others. In 1971 and 1974 he published two nice collections of Dogri poems Tandaan and Partaan respectively. In hindi he published an epic poem Marusthal.
Meanwhile he also wrote plays for the radio and stage alike. His three Urdu plays were selected for the national broadcast. He was also actively associated with theatre in the form of writer and director.
In the filed of prose he slowly graduated from the small format of story to the wider canvas of Novel. He started off with Treh Samudar di. This novel has now been translated into Hindi under the title of Prakash ki ore by one of Sarathis disciple Suraj Rattan. His master piece in Novel was Nanga Rukh published in 1978. For its unconventional exposition of a series of situation that provoke doubts about contemporary reality and values Nanga rukh in Dogri was rewarded with Sahitya Academy award in 1979. Such a soul stirring novel it is in the contemporary Indian Literature that it has been translated in almost all Indian languages. His third in the series Resham de Keeray won him the J&K Academy Award for 1980-81 which was again repeated in 1984-85 for his fourth novel Pather te rang. His two novels in Punjabi Bin paran de Dharti and Rankhetra were higly appreciated and Rankhetra was prescribed for the degree course in Guru Nanak Dev University.

Description

A multidimensional personality, an axiomatic master of all trades, an embodiment of writer, poet, painter. cartoonist, photographer, ayurvedic doctor, music composer. a seer and above all a human with all traits of love brotherhood and sacrifice for the fellow being more so his affable and amiable disposition.

Books

S.No Name Language Creation Year

(I) Umren Hindi Short Stories 1965
(II) Lakeeren Urdu Short Stories 1967
(III) Sukka Baroo Dogri Short Stories 1971
(IV) Lok ge Lok Dogri Short Stories 1972
(V) Tandaan Dogri Poetry 1972
(VI) Partaan Dogri Poetry 1974
(VII) Pagal da Tajmahal Dogr Short Stories 1974
(VIII) Treh Samunder Di Dogri Novel 1979
(IX) Nanga Rukh Dogri Novel 1979
(X) Makaan Dogri Novel 1980
(XI) Resham De Keerey Dogri Novel 1980
(XII)Tantu ( Hindi Translation of Dogri poetry Tandaan ) 1981
(XII) Pather te Rang Dogri Novel 1984
(XIII) Bin Pairan de Dharti Punjabi Novel 1984
(XIV) Rankheter Punjabi Novel 1984
(XV) Bin Pani ke dariya Hindi Novel 1990
(XVI) Marusthal Hindi Poetry 1990
(XVII) Yatra Dogri Short Story 1999
(XVIII) Manthan Dogri Essays 1999
(XIX) Agyaat Hindi Darshan 2000
(XX) Chintan Hindi Darshan 2000

Born               1st of April 1933
Awards	Honours & Awards: (1) Sahitya Academy Award for Nanga Rukh in 1979. (II) Jammu and Kashmir Academy Award for Sukka Barod,  Resham De Keerey and Pather te rang  (III) D.B.N Senior Citizen_Robe of Honour. (IV) Dalit Sahitya Academy Award.
Personal Information 10. Achievements: (I) One man Show of Oil and water paintings in 1967 and 1969. (II)Organised drawing and painting workshops for students  Amateurs many a times. (III) Public performances of classical music and musical workshops for  Amateurs. (IV) Seminars on Aesthetics(Aesthetical Knowledge and Aesthetical  Sense) (V) Seminars on the structure of Ghazal and Arooz. (VI)Seminars on the philosophy of Srimad Bhagwat Geeta and Upnishdas. (VII) Punjabi novel ‘Rankhetra’ has been prescribed in the degree course  of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (VIII) Organised demonstrations for portraits (in oil colour) and  landscapes (In water) Translations 1. Nanga Rukh -Sahitya academy award winning novel by Sh. O.P.Sharma Sarathi has been translated in Oriya by Pratibha Satpathy and published by Sahitya Academy in the year 1992 2.Nanga Rukh -Sahitya academy award winning novel by Sh. O.P.Sharma Sarathi has been translated in Malayalam by K Krishanan Kutty and published by Sahitya Academy in the year 1991 3.Nagar Manthan -Sahitya academy award winning dogri novel Nanga Rukh by Sh. O.P.Sharma Sarathi has been translated in Bengali by Prabhir Gosh and published by Sahitya Academy in the year 1991 4. Churning of the City-Sahitya academy award winning dogri novel Nanga Rukh by Sh. O.P.Sharma Sarathi has been translated in English by Col. Shivnath and published by Sahitya Academy in the year 1983 and reprinted in 2004 5. Nanga Rukh-Sahitya academy award winning dogri novel Nanga Rukh by Sh. O.P.Sharma Sarathi has been translated in Punjabi by Chandan Negi and published by Sahitya Academy in the year 1984.