MEETING HUSSAIN

I must tell you truthfully that I was bored. I had been in the office for eight hours and needed a break. This city offers not much in way of entertainment if you have stayed here for three long years. One month is all it takes to explore and reject most of it. It should be labelled a city of malls. So, that day as usual I walked to the nearest mall from my office, took the elevator and stood in front of the ticket counter for the movie shows. Nothing. I was really sad and just to punish myself, I bought the ticket to the movie with the worst reviews in the press.

Still I had one hour to kill. I decided to walk to the coffee shop and have the usual Chai Latte, but it was then that I saw him. Long spotless white dress matching his beard, a paint brush in hand talking very animatedly to a younger man. A legend was right in front of me. I had seen him many times in the place but everytime he had been mobbed by people seeking autograph or a picture with him. Today, of all days, he was sitting alone and I had my moment. I went to the gentleman with him and asked if Mr. Hussain would be willing to give me an autograph. He agreed and signed "To Rajiv, Hussain". The only paper I had was my payslip. I will have to preserve it forever. Moreover, everytime people see the autograph, they will know how much I earn. Haha.

For those who do not know him, Maqbool Fida Hussain is a 93 year old gentleman called the "Picasso of India" according to the Forbes Magazine, but then why quote a foreign agency to describe a living legend. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest painters ever born in India. He was born in a Sulaimani Bohra family in 1915 in Maharashtra, India. Hussain has been awarded a Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan (India's Civilian honours) for his contribution in Arts. Besides painting, he has also produced and directed movies. He lives here ever since his countrymen decided his brush is mightier than the thousand of years of Indian mythology (or history as they call it).

A question has been raised by many in recent times about who is a traitor and who is a nationalist? In Switzerland, there is a new proposed ban on minarets, in France a ban on the veil, in Italy on the Crucifixes in the class rooms. The debate goes on - Whether religion comes first or the nation. But I think the question should be whether we are brothers in the same human race first or enemies in the name of man made differences. Again, I think I am too immature to ask or answer such questions. Leave it to you guys, the bishops, maulvis and the pandits. Tell me when you know. Do not tell me what your clan wants to hear, but what you accept in private, when you ask for forgiveness after hurting a fellow human being.