A TRIBUTE TO M.F. HUSSAIN: DLF dedicates annual report to 'ex-employee' M F Hussain!

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In a rare tribute, realty giant DLF has dedicated its latest annual report to renowned painter M F Hussain, its 'ex-employee'. Hussain, who passed away last month of heart attack in London, was an employee of DLF till September 1993.

Earlier Hussain did not know what a 'tax return' was and never expected to make enough money to face taxman. Even after becoming a celebrity, he used to record all his transactions in a pocket diary and in his head, DLF Chairman K P Singh said in the company's annual report.

The company has dedicated the first two pages of the report to Hussain. The first page has a picture of Hussain working on a painting and the second is a note by K P Singh on his association with the artist.

Recalling his association, Singh wrote that he first met Hussain by chance at a railway station in early 60s, when he was travelling by train from Hyderabad to Delhi and "a scraggy looking man with an unkempt beard and dressed in pyjama kurta" wanted to enter the AC coupe of the train.

Singh said that he let Hussain in the AC coupe, where he started sketching him, but he was not "impressed" with the drawing. A few years later Hussain came to Singh's house with a guest and again some days later, the painter came asking for a loan of Rs. 600.

 

Full Story at,

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/dlf-dedicates-annual-report-to-ex-employee-m-f-hussain-163567

Post-MFH: M.F. Husain's sand sculpture destroyed in Allahabad!

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• June 10, 2011 
• IANS 
• Allahabad / Deccan Chronicle.

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• 

• File photo - M.F. Husain - AFP.

• 
  

• Even as intellectuals, celebrities and art lovers continue to mourn the death of M.F. Husain, unidentified men here Friday destroyed the sand sculpture created by an Uttar Pradesh artist to pay tribute to the 'Picasso of India'.
  R.K. Chitera, 26, a famous sand artist, was not allowed to complete Husain's eight-ft-long sand sculpture along the bank of the Ganga river.
  "While a group watched me from a distance, two-three men ran towards me and destroyed the sculpture by their feet. It all took place when I was about to finish the sculpture," Chitera told reporters in Allahabad, some 200 km from Lucknow.
  I neither support nor condemn it for, condemnation would give the perpetrators the satisfaction they were looking from in such heinous acts.
  Anyway, the passions won't die this fast, as India is a large country with diverse cultures, colours & creeds and there is always a small fraction of a percentage of foolish Radicals in all sections of the Society, who would never forgive and also try to impose their skewed views on others.
  In any case, like Deccan Chronicle declares 'he lives in his art', for ever.

Full Story at,

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/north/mf-husains-sand-sculpture-destroyed-allahabad-479

MF Hussain: My Final take on MF Hussain!

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PTI / The Hindu.

M.F. Husain in front of M.S. Subbulakshmi's portrait in Chennai. File Photo: V. Ganesan.

Friends and admirers of M.F. Husain were on Thursday at a loss of words at the demise of the painter famously dubbed ‘Piccaso of India’ and angry at the fact that he had to die in a foreign land.

From contemporaries Kishen Khanna and Anjolie Ela Menon to younger artists like Jitish Kallat a sense of shock, disbelief and grief prevailed among the art fraternity which mourned the death of the 95-year-old painter, a long time associate for many who said they found it difficult to visualise an art scene without the maverick.

“I knew he was in hospital for some time but am very sad to hear about his demise. Husain was a very, very close friend. I knew him long before his first exhibition in 1954,” Khanna, a close friend and fellow painter of the Progressive Art movement, told PTI.

My Take:

I am not an art-connoisseur but an objective observer, simple-minded analyst and strategist.

But, I know MFH as much as I know Salim Ali, SM for short, (Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali, the greatest of Indian ornithologist) - I never understood their life-time passions except that I know both have been Indians, born in Bombay, been Indians at heart throughout their lives. Both excelled in their chosen professions - Painting and systematic bird surveys & recording the same. Both were soft-spoken, jovial and conducted themselves with humility, despite their reaching heights of glory.  While the latter has always been far away from any form of controversy, the former always courted them, willy, nilly.

As I watched the debates on MFH, since morning till an hour ago, channels, what I found out on our elite is that none them have ever understood the Society, whether that of Indian or foreign.  The one common characteristic of all societies, from across the continents and throughout the history, is that they have never been homogeneous in their views, opinions, perspectives, beliefs and reactions.

At the age of 45 when he was a fully matured adult painter, he started painting those nude pictures of Hindu Goddesses, which attracted national wide outrage only among the miniscule percentage of prudes of the Indian Society comprising Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and all, just in 1996.

In 1998 Husain's house was attacked by Hindu groups like Bajrang Dal and art works were vandalised but this group again constituted far less than a very small fraction of percentage of the Hindu Community, which percentage is comparable with that of any other community in any part of this World  But still there were voices, since this morning, insisting that the whole of Indian Hindu community has hounded him out of India.  Of course, as can be expected, India being a Hindu majority state, its elite too is dominated by the Hindus, most of whom have been critical about the whole of India conspiring to make matters hot for MFH and forced him to self-exile since 2006, accepted the citizenship of Qatar and died this Morning in London.

Whatever, I see that he lived his full life, nearly 96 years and how many of us can expect to live that far?  While in exile too he repeatedly expressed his nostalgia for India especially for Mumbai and even declared that he never relinquished his Indian citizenship and that he would return to his home, one Day, which never happened.  True, as someone said no force on this Earth can take away India from his heart, nor any force can snatch away him from India, emotionally.

And almost all elite, uniformly, blamed Indian government (I do not hold any brief for this government on this or any other issue) for having failed to provide him assurance to protect his life, if he returns, though there was no such request from him or his family or his legal advisors, ever since he left India.  I also do not remember any of these weeping elite has ever made any such request to the government.  However, government representatives confirm that they would have given him 'Z' category, the highest level of security provided to anybody in India.

But as someone who still carries the graphic memories of late 90s attack on him, I am convinced that he would have been assassinated by the Hindu Radicals (whose brief, I do not hold, either) like those who were planning to bomb the offices of that Danish newspaper, which published obscene cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

This would become all the more a reality due to the MFH propensity for his absolute personal freedom; he was not a person to allow the security to control on where to walk, to lunch or whatever.  Like he stuck to his 'freedom-of-expression' he held equally dearly, his freedom-of-movement.

Having said that, I, now, reconfirm that MFH took an adult decision of staying out of India on his own volition, lived abroad at his free will and chose to die there.  On his death, Today, we must accept that fact and respect his 'Freedom-of-Movement' if not his 'Freedom-of-Expression', on which everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.

Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2090397.ece

MF Hussain's Mourning on Twitter!

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01)  When I watched the news, in this Morning, I thought of just keeping quite and pray for his soul to rest in peace.

As I watched the reactions on Twitter, many just expressed their condolences and wished his soul to be rest in peace.

02)  Some however, have started accusing India of being intolerant to allow him to go out of India and die in exile, as if he were an infant.

I along with many wish to remind all that M.F. Hussain has not been exiled by India but, he himself has left the country, on his own volition, sought Qatari citizenship and went to London to die there at a 95.

03)  When I first heard of an obscene cartoon of Christ or Mohammed, being published in a foreign  Newspapers, I wrote to them that there was nothing funny in insulting the idols of others nor any decency.

When Hussain painted nude pics of Hindu Goddesses, I wrote whether he would paint the pics of Mohammad and his Family or that of Christ, etc.

04)  In the name of freedom of expression, he chose to paint only nude pics of Hindu goddesses and not of the idols of his own religion or others.

The same surprise was expressed by many, but none of us are Radical Hindus, whom nobody could prevent from avenging the insult as those planned the bombardment of that Danish New Paper.

Read what our Cho had to say then, http://bit.ly/joUjA7

04)  Hussain made his own home a hot-bed for himself and self-exiled and nobody has expelled him from India.

05)  I hate discussing some of the above, on the date of his death, much against the South Asian tradition of not speaking ill of a dead-person.

But, after watching the selective outrage against India of its inability to allow him his 'freedom-of-expression', meaning continue to protect him against the threats of Hindu Radicals despite his paining nude-pics of their cherished goddesses.  

06)  This type of hypocritical criticism came mostly from across the border and from the Muslim world, more than from anywhere else.  To them my question is would they protect the 'freedom-of-expression' of Salman Rushdie or Taslima Nasrin the same way they did of Hussain, in their countries???

07)  Why only Hindu Society is expected to be tolerant especially by the Muslim dogmatists!!!

India by and large is a tolerant county all communities that live in here are largely constituted of moderate elements, but they being peaceful in nature wouldn't be able to protect anyone from the onslaught of the radicals - be they are from Hindu, Muslim, Christian or any other community.

What a dumb-headed bigotry?