MUSBA HASHMI speaks with YOGESH SAINI, the brain behind the beautiful paintings on the Capital’s walls, about how he came up with the idea
Birds, trees, faces and what not. Once in a while we all must have walked past these beautiful paintings on walls and pillars under the flyovers of Delhi-NCR and wondered who made them and why? Meet Yogesh Saini, an engineer-turned-artist who founded the Delhi Street Art, an initiative that brings together artists and volunteers to clean and paint parts of the Capital.
Art always interested Saini and may be this was it that brought him back to his motherland.
“I was living in the US for over 20 years, but it was only around six and a half years back that I decided to return to Delhi. The reason to come back was primarily a personal one rather than professional. After returning back, I was looking for things that I can venture into in the country. I was always passionate about colours and art, but the idea struck me only when I was roaming in Lodhi Garden and thought that how the public places in our country, Delhi in particular, lacked colours. It all started with picking up the usual and boring garbage cans and giving them a new look, not only to draw more public attention towards them, but to also set an example that anything can be your canvas if you have an artistic mind,” Saini tells you.
Since then Saini’s team is not only painting and redoing different areas for the better in Delhi-NCR but in other cities too. “Till date we have beautified the walls of almost 15-20 cities in India. Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Bhopal, Shimla and Lucknow to name a few,” he tells you.
The idea behind each and every painting is derived from its vicinity. “The walls that we pick ourselves we try to keep it relevant to its local context. Be it a school, a basti or any other public space, we just try to incorporate all the elements that are relevant to the audience of that place. If a particular community is living in a place we ask for their advice of what would they like to see on the walls and accordingly we paint it. If a client has given us a project then we play with his ideas and come up with designs,” he says.
The type of colours and duration of completing the work depends upon the kind of walls that are being painted. The walls with simpler designs can be finished in a couple of days with a team of three to five people. Even the kind of colours and techniques depend on the type of design one wants to create. “All the paintings are hand-made only, but there are different techniques to paint. One can use rollers or compressors or even utensils, depending upon the design one wants to make. Exterior wall paints have been extensively used in painting Delhi-NCR’s walls. For metallic surfaces, oil pastels are widely used,” Saini tells you.
However as easy as it may sound, there are certain challenges in everything one does. “I don’t see them as challenges, but minor issues that need to be tackled. Once we were painting a busy flyover in Ahmedabad, the challenge over there was running traffic all the time and the height was around 20 feet so we had to take a lot of safety measures as well. Then the other issue was during the day time the temperatures were high, therefore we had to complete a lot of work during the night itself. There are certain places where getting the access to becomes difficult, mainly in the slums. But, all of these are surmountable problems,” he says.
Saini’s work earned him Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s praise too in one of the episodes of Mann Ki Baat. “It was surreal for us and came as a huge encouragement for the whole team. We never looked forward to any kind of awards or recognition and the Prime Minister’s words of praise came as a surprise to us,” he recalls.
Next big thing on Saini’s cards is to paint the BIG FM’s office in New Delhi and the whole team looks forward to it. “We are looking forward to this association. We will try to bring in the flavours of Delhi in BIG FM’s New Delhi’s office. We will try to showcase the heritage of the Capital on the walls and make it a colourful and pleasant space for the entire team,” he says and tells you that there are other ongoing projects as well including the work in the jails and slums of Delhi and also some corporate projects too.
There is still a long way to go for Saini. Since many walls of Delhi-NCR has been painted, but not all, Saini thinks that the people should start giving a little bit more attention to the environment and should come forward and talk about the large scale need of beautifying the surroundings.
“We have construction projects that are lying since February. We have newly built flyovers where half the construction material is left behind by the contractors and no one is bothered about it. If only people start paying attention to even the smallest things in their surroundings, we can have a better future. Instead of questioning others, we have to start thinking that what can I do as an individual to improve my surroundings. Only this can make a difference in the near future,” he says.