An Artist

Whenever I go to Wai, I go to our Padmavati’s temple in our village Ozarde, sit at a quiet corner and concentrate on this tree when various thoughts come in my mind in rapid succession. This tree knows me and my mind for many years, since I was a boy. This tree reminds me about a great artist whom I know personally very well and whose friendship I cherish.

I do not know when I came in contact with him first. Since I remember, he is always there. He is a born artist. The best part (and sometimes the worst too) of the born artists is that they do not believe in self-propagating themselves as artists. That is required for those who are not born artists but who have to earn a livelihood as an artist.

I remember the cold January last year (2013) when we were in Vesta Bikaner Palace outside the Bikaner City in Rajasthan, just returned in the evening after seeing the Camel Breeding Centre and were discussing about the Artist’s journey till today. It was 23^rd of January and he had just turned 60! How fast the time passes!

It is said that a money-hungry man cannot become an artist. He is always interested in numbers and behind that concept (or those papers) what we call as money.

There is another set of people, who are normally saints or artists. Their traits are quite different and they have nothing to do with this existing materialistic world. They prefer their own path – if not early, later on. But they try to live their lives the way they desire, the way they want.

We, the mortals, always fall in between, and since we are unable to do many extremes in our lives, we call living such a life as a balanced living. Now and then there may come a comparison between this artist and myself – I want to become like him, but can’t. He has a great deal of patience to wait till perfectness whereas I expect everything within a few minutes after it gets conceived.

I saw a latest Hindi movie:”Rockstar”. The theme of this movie attracted me. It is – ‘one has to experience lots of suffering to become a matured artist’.

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Is it a universal pattern that an artist has to go through all the torturous phases of the life till their extremes? Also is it a universal pattern where there is a same type of creation, though places are different, mediums are different and time frames are different? I remember a visit a few years back to Karmarkar Shilpalaya, Sasawane, during a trip to Alibaug. One sculpture, a mother feeding a baby, attracted me.

And now you see the same expression, but in different form, a picture given by this artist to his daughter when she was pregnant.

After he passed SSC, coming 50^th in the first 50 in board, he wanted to join J.J. School of Architecture in Mumbai. His parents wanted him to become an Engineer or a Doctor. But they, being in the Education Field, also knew that it is not correct to impose their views on their children. The old university rules came in between and it was told that he has to take Geography as another subject since Arithmetic (even with 100/100 marks) do not count. He was not ready to spend another 6 months or a year for doing this - It never occurred that actually he should have exactly done that.

He joined P.D. (today’s 11^th Standard), appeared for IIT entrance exam and got selected. But he was getting “Civil” and he wanted “Mechanical”. He lost the chance - and India a Civil Builder…

He took B-Group at FY level (today’s 12^th Standard) with Biology as a major and again made a mistake. Due to less marks in Chemistry Practical, he got aggregate 69%. Again there was a waiting list, which was gradually getting reduced. He again joined A-Group for FY by changing the medical stream to engineering stream, went for a few months and then unexpectedly got admission to B.J. Medical College in Pune. That was after 6 months since the admission process had started. He couldn’t compete with the other students for the immediate exams and had to give both the semesters’ exams in one semester only – which he did successfully. Here his persistence and patience came in hand.

As one begins his journey in a direction, suddenly he realizes that all the roads lead to the same destination. Then a good mathematician becomes a good physicist or a good astrologer --- same is with what we call as “ART”. An artist is an artist almost in all the fields, he devotes most of his time to the things he likes most, but that doesn't stop him in exploring the other avenues. Then a painter can be a good singer or a stage artist associated with acting can be a great sculptor.

At B.J. Medical College, he found that he can write, he can act, he can direct and he can also give music. He tried all these techniques at various foray – either Purushottam Karandak One Act Play competitions or in Dropper’s Organization (formed by energetic youth in 1970s). That period in B.J. Medical College was a good one and he got lots of like-minded friends.

He learned Sitar during this period. He also attended many music programs and got totally engrossed in it.

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Nothing lasts for a long period. While studying, he realized that he has made a mistake of choosing this path and now he do not have the courage, at least at that time, to choose his path differently. He became a doctor – a Gynecologist.

He opened dispensaries in Pune, joined a famous Nursing Home, and did whatever is required to be done for earning money. This was the first time when he realized that even if he likes it or not, even if he is not behind it and even if it is suffocating him, he had to earn money.

After a few years, with wife and children he shifted to his native taluka place where his uncle had an established general practice. His uncle felt better and took risk of opening a Nursing Home, which flourished well within a short span of time. His gynecology skills and his uncle’s pediatric skills were very much complimentary to each other.

Every passing day create challenges in front of us. After the sudden demise of his uncle due to heart attack, and the things that followed, there was nothing but a continuous mental torture that he had to face. He knows money as a tool for everything – acquiring, spending, expanding, even buying peace. But why did it not get in to his head that money is everything - be it related to any external factors or our own? Here our wave lengths do not match. As I have told earlier, I am a mortal being and he is an artist.

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I am very much interested in movies. They are various fascinating entities and they create a magnetic atmosphere during their creation which catches the best of best artists in various fields to their fold. Like me, this artist is also interested in movies and if I boast a library of say 2000 movies, he has got a library of 10,000 movies. He once shared a movie “La Belle Noiseuse” of actress Emmanuelle Beart.

Once I saw it, the actress, even though one of the best, got faded out and I got linked with the main actor, Michel Piccoli, who is ‘an artist’ in that movie. His agony, his restlessness, his creation as well as his destruction, and his devotion to get involved in his project with full force … everything seemed familiar to me. I have seen the same zeal in this artist too quite often.

He is a combination of both – exceptional brilliance and patience! I have seen him doing something of his interest - leaving all of his surrounding and entering in to some new world – for hours together. He has those hand movements through which when he touches the pencil on the paper, the shapes on paper are defined by his hand.

Super Perfect!

My pencil always drew a triangle when I wanted to draw a circle!

He has handled many mediums. He has carved in the wood, in stone.

He drew many landscapes in water colours, oil paints and pastel colours. He created story books.

Latest creations of his are done with collage technique.

His house too has got an artistic touch.

One particular picture (shown below) is so special that it does not lose its charm even if it is held upside down.

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Through his advises to his patients, he tells about the healthy living. One day he felt, “Why not start an institution?” The thought immediately got converted to action. His wife helps him in this endeavor. As part of his mission, he now takes many lectures in schools and colleges on the basic theme of stress free living. How does this fall in his overall picture, I do not know. But I think it is necessary and mandatory.

He has gifted many of his creations to many people. The concept of “selling” never occurred to him. Now he is preparing a picture for me. Though I have told him the subject – ‘serenity’, it is his artistic freedom which I do not want to encroach and whatever he gifts me, I am sure I shall like it.

I am most fortunate enough to have such a great artist as my elder brother. His name is Dr. Rajendra Prabhune.

Date: 25-04-2014
I published the above article about 4 months back. As demanded by me, he has given me a beautiful picture on the theme 'serenity'. I would like to add that the more appropriate new title for this picture shall be 'Evolution towards Serenity'.