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Pink City says adieu to Fida

— Photo: Rohit Jain Paras

Recollections of a Master:M. F. Husain seen picking up a shirt from a showroom outside the Indian Coffee House in Jaipur. Owner Sanjay Sethi gifted the shirt Husain liked, though the artist insisted on paying for it.

JAIPUR: The Pink City's Indian Coffee House has lost one of its celebrity patrons in the death of eminent painter M. F. Husain. The barefoot artist used to walk in with gusto, his white hair flowing and all that, every time he made an appearance at the Coffee House, situated on Mirza Ismail Road, without prior intimation, creating a stir among regulars and casual visitors alike. He used to talk to all, including the waiters and the manager.

“Forty-five years ago Husain Saheb walked into the Coffee House and sat in that corner almost kept reserved those days for the culturally inclined. We were already there, three friends, and all of us used to hate his paintings. And we did not hide this. Citing the words of a resident painter [of the Coffee House, who was a contemporary of Husain at the J.J. School of Arts], we told him that we thought he had a problem with human anatomy. He did not react but patiently explained to us various schools of paintings and made a sketch for us, which is still with one of us,” reveals senior journalist and old patron of the Coffee House, Om Saini.

“My memory of meeting him first goes back to the early 1990s. I remember going shopping with him, wandering through the lanes of the city. After a few meetings we became friends. I used to visit the hotel room where he stayed and read out to him from the books,” recollects architect and Coffee House aficionado R.P. Sharma.

“Between drinks [Husain did not drink] I read out Agony and Ecstasy [the biography of Michelangelo] and the biography of Leonardo Da Vinci. He used to occupy any comfortable chair and the reading sessions used to go on till three or four in the morning. He was a very good listener, though I thought he did not have the patience to read books himself!” Mr. Sharma says.

“Whenever he visited the city, he invariably would come here. He talked to all of us, though we hardly knew much about his status those days,” says K.K. Kuriakose, a former manager of the Coffee House. “I can count half a dozen occasions when I met him personally. Once he cancelled a flight ticket to Bombay to ensure his visit to the Coffee House prior to returning to Bombay,” Mr. Kuriakose notes proudly.

If Husain photographs enjoy pride of place at the Indian Coffee House there are regulars who can boast of Husain memorabilia. Sanjay Sethi, who used to have a showroom just outside the Coffee House, is one of them.

“One day we were having coffee when he appeared suddenly. He joined us with consummate ease and started chatting. We asked him all sorts of things, including his habit of walking barefoot. He replied that by not wearing footwear he could remain attached to the soil.” This is how Mr. Sethi remembers the all-time master who defied norms and seemingly enjoyed his own eccentricities.

“We asked him also about the four feet or so long brush he carried with him that time. He said that came handy — as in the case of his instant painting of Benazir Bhutto when she took over as Pakistan Prime Minister — for moments of inspiration. He was also candid to admit that at times he used it as a walking stick as well!” Mr. Sethi recollects.

Husain also painted his trademark horse for Mr. Sethi on a T-shirt.

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