James Brewer previews a display of magic maritime perception
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Betrothed to a sea-going officer from the mighty Shipping Corporation of India, a young woman from the Shimla region prepared for a life far from the pine- and cedar-fringed mountain ridges which were her familiar surroundings.
As with many dwellers in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, her world was usually bounded by the snow-capped peaks around the hill stations that give shelter in summer to those fortunate enough to escape the hot plains.
Sheila Malhotra viewed the prospect of accompanying her husband on his voyages with some trepidation.
“I grew up in the hills,” she says. “We had only heard about the sea, and there was a fear in my mind about how I would cope with going on a ship. In fact, it turned out I was a wonderful sailor. I did not feel sick and liked the sea.
“I had heard about warships with their tiny portholes, so when I saw the cargo ships with their open portholes it was a delight.”
In all she spent five years alongside her husband Sutikshan, then a chief officer, and amid the mixed general cargo of the last pre-container days, enjoying the views through those “liberating” cabin windows and the port calls across the oceans, and letting her hobby of painting flow.
Capt Malhotra went on to become a regional general manager for the SCI before retiring a short time ago and joining a logistics company. These days the couple live in London.
Mrs Malhotra, a graduate of Punjab University and student of Government College of Arts at Chandigarh, has her second solo show in London at the cultural magnet, the Nehru Centre in Mayfair, from April 19 to 22
It is the latest in a long string of shows where the magic of her maritime perceptions has pleased the public.
Her latest exhibition, From the porthole – Marine Millennia, is part of her series The World through a Porthole. It views the marine world at the dawn of the new millennium through a collection of oil and collage works.
Some are a blend with turn-of-the –century editions of newspapers, allowing the works to encompass time in motion,” she says. Five years on from the thrill of the rising millennium, she aims to keep alive the idea of the convergence of, or the setting apart of the two centuries”.
Her work has a surreal flavour and she has been unafraid of challenging themes.
One of her most dramatic pictures, now in a private collection, is of a floating city on an iceberg. Having polluted cities, mankind has to take refuge at sea. If people pollute the sea, the iceberg will detonate and wipe out civilisation.
Mrs Malhotra’s family has contributed much to India. Her grandfather was Samuel (Satyanand) Stokes who migrated there from the US in 1904 and settled in Shimla, pioneering apple cultivation which helped to turn the then very poor state into the main apple orchard of India.
Mr stokes is said to have been the only American who fought actively for the independence of India and was instrumental in the abolition of bonded labour.
The Nehru Centre show will be opened by Lord (Swaraj) Paul, chairman of the engineering products group Caparo, who has had a success story of a different kind. Born in Jalandhar, he joined the family business, Apeejay Surendra Group, in India after graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He came to Britain in1966 to seek medical aid for his seriously ill younger daughter, who sadly died, and decided to stay and work.
Caparo today employs 4000 people in five countries and has annual turnover of more than £600m ($ 1.13bn ).
Among many appointments, he is a member of the Department of Trade and Industry, Industrial Development Advisory Board and sits on the Foreign Policy Centre Advisory Council.
He is on the board of the London Development Agency, and of the London 2012, the Olympic bid company.

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