It has been a story of pleasant ironies for this 43-year old calligraphist Kamaljeet Kaur. An illiterate in Punjabi language till the age of 33, she is all set to represent Gurmukhi script at International Calligraphy Fest in Moscow, Russia. A born artist, Kaur started with paintings and other art forms since his school days but was not known to art of calligraphy till her friend gifted her a set of fountain pen nibs in school. Even then she started with the art in English and Hindi only. “I was brought up in Meerut and did my college from Ajmer. Both the cities have no connection with Punjabi. It may sound odd but being a Sikh, I did not know how to read or write Punjabi. My father started writing letters to me in Punjabi, making efforts to make me learn the language but it did not work,” says Kaur. The love for Gurmukhi script happened much later in 2004, when she was 33 and came to Ludhiana after getting married. “I was amazed as to how I fell in love with the language while earlier I used to run away from it. I started learning Punjabi alphabets from the internet. Then happened my first calligraphy artwork in Punjabi with Gurbani moolmantra (Ek Onkar, Satnam..) and there was no looking back,” says Kaur, who recently shot to fame with her calligraphy on calendars and swords for Chaar Saahibzaade. Acrylics, oil paints, watercolors, textures to gold leaf intricate artworks, Kaur is now a perfectionist in all forms of calligraphy that too on various base such as T-shirts, photo frames, mugs, stoles, lamps, greeting cards, paintings, wall hangings, wedding invites, scrolls etc. The international exposure through internet has made her versatile, she says. “Internet has been my guru of sorts. Interactions with calligraphy artists from Russia and US has made me aware of multiple techniques which Indian artists are generally unaware of. For instance, gouache technique of art under running water is hardly practiced in India,” says Kaur, who has customized Gurbani shabads in English and Hindi for clients overseas. Kaur makes sure that head in covered, shoes are off and water is pure while calligraphy of Gurbaani or any religious recitals is done at her residence cum studio in Dugri. “At Callifest-2014 in Mumbai, I took workshops to teach Gurmukhi script calligraphy to various artists. Now I shall be representing Punjabi in Moscow. It is hard to believe that I was estranged from Punjabi for 33 years,” says Kaur, who is also participating in Delhi International Film Festival this month. “I have been invited to participate in Moscow Calligraphy Fest in March and represent Punjabi there. All other languages will be represented by various artists,” said Kaur adding that ‘30 years of hardwork in calligraphy has finally paid.’ “I have many clients in Ludhiana but demand is definitely more from NRIs who want Gurbani calligraphies in their homes, offices etc,” she adds.
