Gentle Strokes

She is a Dagar,the surname that is synonymous with dhrupad music. Maybe that is why even when she wields her thin bamboo pens to create elegant Devnagiri script,the letters seem like fluid musical notes. Forty-something Qamar Dagar is displaying about 25 calligraphy works at an exhibition.

Her works are arty — one blazes like a fire against a dark background,another seems like a dagger drawn across water. But there is more symbolism. In a Qamar work,both Urdu and Devnagiri scripts co-exist. For instance,when she writes “kshitij” (pinnacle),“sh” and “t” are written in Devnagiri and ‘j’ in Urdu. “I feel fortunate to be born in a country where several languages and scripts co-exist like all of us. So it is only natural that these two scripts co-exist in my works. This is our true identity,” says Dagar,who uses vegetable or natural dyes and watercolours to create the strokes.

Show is on at The Attic,Regal Building,till June 3