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Artist couple Tushar Jaog and Sharmila Samant will presently shift from Mumbai,their home for over 40 years,to NCR.

For almost half a century, Tushar Joag and Sharmila Samant have seen Mumbai grow up,and contributed to that through their artistic endeavours. If,in 2004,Joag recreated Mumbais 141-year-old Crawford Market through flamboyant illustrations in pop-up books,in 2011,he looked at the Bombay High Courts decision to demarcate hawking zones and created Bombay to Shanghai Post Box,vending carts that metamorphosed into post box. At the same time,Samant,saw the city as a muse of desires and dreams in Recycled Utopias : Crisis/Praxis in 2011,yet as a city of disrepair in Listen to your Eye in 2012,where one bumped into a speed breaker or a pothole on the floor in the gallery.

On June 25,as the two shift their base from Mumbai to Delhi to introduce the two-year Masters in Arts programme at Shiv Nadar University,they look back in Mumbai with nostalgia. I have been dealing with a lot of things that happen in and within this city. And now when I go out,I sort of take it all in a new light, says Samant,with a laugh.

Joag and Samant were invited by Sumantra Sengupta,the director of Shiv Nadar University,last year and have been busy ever since. The course,still in its earlier stage,will also have artists Vasudha Thozur and Atul Bhalla,and theatre person Maya Krishna Rao among others. I will look at art that is participatory and interventionist in a way, says Joag,while Samant will look as art as a communication device.

The duo are known for their involvement with art and activism,especially with Open Circle,a forum they had set up in 1999 (till 2008) that engaged artists from all over the country and abroad with contemporary issues and art. Graduates of Sir JJ School of Art,

the artists will be moving to

Greater Noida.

Its difficult to extract yourself from the city after all these years. But there is a lack of this kind of education and when youre given a chance to change,its hard to resist, says Joag,who has taught before at Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Samant,says,a little hopefully,I dont think its going to be permanent. Just like we used to visit Delhi two-three times a year,itll be like this with Mumbai now.

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