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Still on the dot
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Acclaimed artist Syed Haider Raza, who turned 86, talks about his life
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VETERaN SPEAK S.H. Raza
He walks cautiously. He wears a thick kurta-pyjama and jacket to keep himself warm since he is susceptible to cough and cold too often. When he comes from Paris to India, there are a bunch of people who surround him all the time.
So much so, that when he signs an autograph or wants to write a few lines for a young and talented artist, they often stop him. And like an obedient child, he takes their instructions. But Raza understands this all. He may have gone physically weak but his mind is sharp as ever.
He smiles, cracks jokes, teases young women and his speech is full ofashar (couplets).
“I have grown old physically. But at heart, I am still young,” he says smiling. “I am missing my wife (Janine Mongillat) who died seven years ago. We led a happy life for 42 years. She was French. She is buried in our family graveyard in Gorbio where I live. It is a small village of 7,200 people. She is my French connection that will never break. I feel lonely without her. She was my support in my bad days. My works were not selling for a good price earlier. It started happening only for last five years — the times that Janine couldn’t see.”
The veteran comes to India every year “to see and touch the soil I am made of”. To keep India alive in his heart, he speaks in Hindustani with Indians in Paris. “I read Bhagwad Gita every day to polish my knowledge of Sanskrit and Acharya Vinova Bhave for Hindi.”
The painter gets edgy when one talks of art as an investment. “Why equate art with money? Art is an act of love.
I am not saying that a painter or a buyer should turn a saint but they should first take art as an object of love. I didn’t go to Paris for money. I went there to learn art as at that time (early 1950s). After having seen Indian art, I wanted to learn French art. Chala ja aql ke aage ke ye manzil nahi hai.…(go beyond the visible knowledge, for destination lies somewhere else).”
Would he like to return to India forever now? “Sure, if I get a good Bengali girl for a wife…” he smiles mischievously.
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Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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