‘To my mother,
to whom I cannot convey my thanks.
I wish I had, so many times. Millions of times.
As many times as I could.
She stood centre stage, as she stands here on the bed of inspiration and motivation behind the early childhood landscape that shaped my destiny.
The photograph above freezes a moment of time that can never be surpassed by a more star-studded opening of any exhibition of mine in this lifetime.
I have only one pic, and that too quite in shambles, but of all the stalwarts together, there for me, in front of a young schoolboy’s seven works selected for the Annual Academy of Fine Arts show.
I was so overwhelmed, as you can see, I just kept looking at my own works on the wall, all bubbly inside, so excited that for the first time they were adorning the walls of that temple of art.
L to R:
Shri Vasant Pandit, my Guru, who gave me a box of crayons at the age of one and went on to teach me the soul of art.
Shri Rathin Maitra, my teacher who taught me the grammar, the basics, ever so gently.
My mother, who noticed that I preferred painting more than playing cricket or for that matter doing anything else, ensured that all along school, I never missed a single class at the Academy on Sundays and religiously took me to my Guru’s house whenever he called or I wanted to.
And last but not the least, standing next to me, the enigmatic Lady Ranu Mukherjee, who we always revered as the Diva, who started the Academy of Fine Arts, and was ever so kind to me always.’