SRINAGAR: Zahoor Din Lone who hails from a small village of Pattan Singhpora in north Kashmir is the brain behind not only India’s but South Asia’s first international snow sculpture team.
Zahoor has pursued Masters in Fine arts from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi after completing his Bachelors in Fine arts from University of Kashmir. Zahoor has led Team India known as ‘Callisto’ to the Breckenridge International Snow Sculpture Championship being held in United States consecutively for two times in 2017 and 2018. The team consists of members from Kashmir ad other states of India is all set to participate for the third time this year in united state international championship.
The championship is being organized by the International Snow Sculpture Organizing Committee (ISSCOC) form last 28 years in Breckenridge, Colorado, United States. The ISSCOC receives hundreds of fantastic submissions across the world to the event among just sixteen teams are chosen. This is the first ever snow sculpture team from India or South Asia to represent in any International snow sculpture championship since 2017 consecutively.
In 2017 the team led by Zahoor won “Spirit Award” at the 27th International Snow Sculpture Championship, held at Breckenridge, USA. While talking to Kashmir Patriot, Zahoor din Lone, a young Kashmir artist and the captain of the team said they are proud to represent India on an international platform.
He adds that when his team were selected for the first time in 2017, this was like a dream come true to represent country in Snow sports championship as India has never participated in this sport.
However, he said since his team is chosen consecutively for last three years from amongst these fine submissions for the world class snow event at Breckenridge in US, they receive no support from anywhere.
He says that the Team manages their requirements by their own, besides arrangements by the championship organizers. “Once we made headlines in the televisions and newspapers by qualifying for the championship, people were promising support, but once we approached them, especially government authorities, they keep passing the buck,” he said.
Lone adds that the even he himself awaits any logistic support from the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council as they assured the same earlier. “We were supported and encouraged by the organizers and other teams a lot. We won hearts with our hard work, passion, dedication, nature and positive attitude. We tried to promote India as not only a warm country but a perfect destination for snow based tourism too and we could do that through qualifying in this international Championship,” he told Kashmir Patriot.
He said, “We didn’t receive any support or logistic help. We managed out tools, uniform and other miscellaneous expenditures ourselves.” He said that to represent India at international stage, the Team had to pass through many hurdles to manage the expenses for the participation in the event.
“Last year, we submitted a proposal to Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India and many other ministries, government offices, art galleries, MNCs and philanthropist etc for financial support, but didn’t receive any help from them. We managed to take part in the competition on partial sponsorship of the event organizer, loans, personal savings, family and relatives support. This year Team again approached different departments and organizations for support in India and in our respective states, but are still waiting to their responses”, Zahoor said.
https://kashmirpatriot.com/2017/01/25/indias-unsupported-first-ever-snow-sports-team-makes-championship-united-states/
He said that India gets snow every year but they don’t find culture, recognition and appreciation for snow sculpting in India, unlike many countries of the world. He said his team hopes to create entirely a new culture of youth engagement in snow art.
“Also, we’ll use our experience to promote snow sculpting and snow-based tourism in India through training of snow Sculpting and organizing national and international snow sculpting Championships in India if given proper support,” the team leader adds.
Meanwhile inspired and trained by the Zahoor, few members of ‘Callisto’ recently founded a separate snow sculpture team ‘ABHYUDAY’ and got selected for the international competition held in China. Not only this another group from Ladakh also participated in a similar championship recently. Zahoor’s attempt to found sports in Art seems inspiring many to take part in the snow sport, but there is need to recognize and support the snow art and sport.
