Fida

In a way, my choice of the Hindi words Baanvra Mann, to describe the deewanapan, the fortunate world or attitude of an artist, is also influenced by Husain's exuberant art and his own complete rootedness as he wended his way in the bylanes of India. Let's hear him talking now of his early days in Bombay; exciting days of discovery and growth.

"My memories of Chetana date back to 1947 but it is just as if it happened yesterday. It was around that time that I entered the art world. Ara, Souza and others had just formed the Bombay Progressive Artists Group; though I had been in Bombay since 1936 I had never met these people. I joined the group and attended their meetings at Chetana, which was the hub of artistic, literary, creative activities at the time... History should take note of this —Chetana was the nucleus of cultural life not only in Bombay but in India. Writers, painters, theatre people all beat a path to Chetana. Our group included Ara, Souza, Padamsee, Palsikar and even Alqazi who was a painter before he became more involved in the theatre. Our meetings would involve writers like Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, senior actors like Balraj Sahni or a socialist leader like Masani. They were exciting times! Nowadays Bombay has becomes so commercial...

In 1948 I remember the Bombay Art Society used to hold exhibitions but our paintings were rejected because we were not following either the Royal Academy School or the Bengali School. We used to exhibit our rejected work elsewhere or we would paint posters all night in the street. Due to the movement we started in 1948, we succeeded in wiping out these more conventional schools of art by 1960.  Though back then there were very few buyers for our work, even for 50 or 100 rupees. The first Indian collector to recognize our work was Dr Homi Bhabha who started buying contemporary Indian art for the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. There was a hue and cry in Parliament as to why the Institute was spending money on art but Pandit Nehru stood up and defended it — saying art and science are very close to each other.......................I have always maintained that without culture, there is no identity of any nation. It is culture which remains."

As told by MF Husain to Dr Roopen Arya, for the Chetana 60th Anniversary Commemorative Volume (2006) Source Link