BY MIHIR SRIVASTAVA
Self-assured, Beena, is never in a hurry. Things happen around her. There’s a certain calm in her persona that’s contagious. And the words she utters are considered and have gravitas. She doesn't, therefore, have to try hard. She has a strong yet benign presence.
Stillness. She’s soaking more than words can express. She knows. And you accept. Then, it’s easy.
Energy. That’s another dimension in which conversations are happening all the time. Like a parallel channel of wireless communication.
She transcends normative boundaries and binaries and explores the world with an open mind. She’s driven but she never lets her ambition get on her nerves.
She’s not holding on to things. She’s not a hoarder, that's why things come to her and happen.
I get a feeling it has to be a labour of love for her, and yet she approaches things and people with an element of detachment but is curious. This curiosity to explore herself makes her experience people openly. And while she does it, is not competing for attention or influence.
A healthy curiosity about others is a way to learn about oneself, and she has always surprised herself with her own tryst with destiny, and in the process create art, which is organic, and yet has the flavour of age-old philosophy–Advaita or non-dualism.
Beena celebrates life, and, therefore, food. If cooking is an art form--which it is--her's is a family of maestros. To her, it's liberating to be able to cook. And cooking is not a particular gender's domain, even in a family setting. Therefore, both her brothers and both her sons are trained chefs in multi cuisines. "I thought when my sons get married, they can accept a girl with different talents," she explains and her son's ability to cook will make their life easy.
Her younger son recently got married. It gives her great joy to see them "huddled together attending day-to-day chores." She always wanted to and she has found a good friend in her daughter-in-law. She knows, "I need to be their friend before expecting anything from them." And she adds after a pause with certain affirmation, "me and my daughter-in-law can discuss anything and everything under this sun."
Beena lives in Chennai with her husband who served in the armed forces with distinction. She wears many hats. An artist. An "art-preneur" as she describes herself and a spiritual traveller (www.beenaunnikrishnan.com) So much is happening in her life and is multitasking most of the time. A doer, and has done varied things at the highest levels, and have so many projects in the pipeline, but never is she in a hurry, just creates the necessary will, that makes things happen.
Seated in a five-star hotel late in the afternoon we have a laid-back conversation. She’s already had many meetings, including the one with a senior minister, and a few are scheduled later in the day. People like spending time with her. Her calm presence is therapeutic.
She is a hard taskmaster as well. People who work for her know that she has an eye for details.
“I don’t ask people for favours, as I have realised, the moment you ask the relationship changes," she says, instead, “I think about how much I can give to people.”
Suffering in others communicates to her. She is a healer and practises Reiki.
It’s already raining cats and dogs outside at sundown. She’s undeterred and is ready for the next meeting.
“I’m a luxury traveller,” she says, that's the kind of energy she attracts and life's a beautiful journey.
In one of her avatars, she’s documenting energies: 64 paintings of various manifestations of Shakti. It is an eight-year-long project that she finished a few years ago.
Each of these paintings is intuitively drawn, a divine inspiration guiding her brush strokes. And if you look at them, which I had the privilege of, represent a certain distinct aspect of your own being, you can identify with each one of them in different ways.
I like the Ardhanarishvara– the androgynous form of Shiva with his consort Parvati. It’s about doing away with dualities. It’s about energy. And how they interact with each other. And yet remain part of the composite whole--the unity.
These are stark, bold paintings that are assertive and categorical. Eyes are alive. And if you take a longer look, you feel an underlying commonality–the eyes. Representative of Beena’s own peculiar way of looking at things. Eyes that feel, not necessarily see.
Beena is a bundle of paradoxes as well. Spiritualism can become worldly. And worldly affairs may be driven by spiritual energy. Is there a real divorce?
Intuitive Beena doesn’t know the way forward, but she knows she will find the way when the time comes. She knows herself, which also entails that there’s a lot to know. Passion with an element of detachment, which may seem like an oxymoron, has the power of the universe.
She has a loving family and she’s a lone traveller too.
मैं अकेला ही चला था जानिब-ए-मंज़िल मगर, लोग साथ आते गए और कारवाँ बनता गया......
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