JADU HUSAIN, MADHURI, AUR YASH CHOPRA, KA

I had never heard of what the term "when the universe conspires" till Naseeruddin Shah, my good friend and a greater actor talked about it at a function arranged by college students for which I had invited him to speak to the students. I am still on a pointed and sharp horns of a dilemma about forces like destiny, bhagya or luck. But as I sit in my cosy corner in my favourite cafe - Cafe Multea and ruminate over my long life over cups of tea, I wonder if my life has not been a result of the conspiracy of the universe and the mysterious forces called destiny,bhagya and luck. And the more I think, the more I am assured that I am a result or even a victim of these forces. Let me tell you the story of the illustrious painter, Maqbool Fida Husain and me ...  BY ALI PETER JOHN

I don't know what attracted me towards him when I was not even able to travel to Churchgate and had to take the risk of travelling without a ticket almost every afternoon, only to follow Husain at Flora Fountain (which is still called Flora Fountain, in spite of forces of Hinduism and other forces naming it Hutatma Chowk). Only to have a glimpse of him walking barefoot in the heat of the sun without caring about what was happening around him. For months, I just followed him like a bad shadow without even trying to wish him, forget talking to him. I,the great village pumpkin could never even dream that I would one day not only wish him , walk with him, talk with him and be accepted by him as one of his own, a few weeks before he was forced to leave India for good by some wild political party, he gave me one of my greatest gifts when he like Dev Anand called me his son.

It all started with some casual meetings at the Jehangir Art Gallery where I went only because there was canteen called Samovar where one of my uncle's was a waiter and the owner, Mrs. Khanna was a friend because she was the wife of a film maker called Rajbans Khanna, who was known for his Communist leanings and who was to be later known to me as the neighbour of my mentor, K.A. Abbas in Philomena Cottage which is now Philomena Apartments and stands bang opposite the JW Marriott hotel.

I had my first Cup of tea with him at the Samovar where I was told his tea was prepared specially according to his directions with the number of tea leaves, the spoons of sugar and the quantity of milk approved by him. Little did I know that his love for tea would be one of our common passions someday ...

Our real meetings began after he had seen the Madhuri Dixit film, HAHK more than ninety times, sitting in the same chair at the Liberty Cinema in Bombay. He was in his early 80's those days and had changed his way of dressing completely from his white trousers and white shirt, he had started wearing some of the most colourful clothes and on one occasion where Madhuri was being honoured with all the paintings done by him, he took everyone by surprise when he wore a complete leather black outfit with cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and he told me that it was only to impress Madhuri as he had fallen in love with her in his own way and not according to the ways of the World. He had made friends with Madhuri and her family and there were days when he prepared his own favourite biryani and carried it in his Black Mercedes all the way to Iris park where Madhuri lived.

His love for Madhuri made him make a special appearance and playing himself in a B grade film called Mohabbat and that was the time when our friendship grew stronger and I was now a part of every event, exhibition, function and celebration he was associated with.

It was also the time when he decided to make his own films and made "Gaja Gamini" with Madhuri and "Meenakshi" a tale of two cities with Tabu. He had Santos Sivan as his cinematographer who he paid more than any star was paid during those days just to capture the scenes as he wanted. He also wanted to make a film about three sisters, one blind, one deaf and one dumb and even paid actresses like Amrita Arora and Sonali Kulkarni the kind of money big actresses were not paid only as the signing amount, but he couldn't make the film because of his leaving the country.

We were on a flight coming back from Delhi where he had another Madhuri Dixit exhibition and somewhere during our conversation, he talked about the Yash Raj Studio belonging to Yash Chopra and said it was his dream to paint his version of the history of Indian Cinema on one of the walls of the studio which he knew was vacant. He asked me if I could talk to Yash about his ambition. I did and Yash Chopra jumped with joy at the idea. I had the privilege of arranging a meeting of the two legends.

Husain was very determined to spend all the money for the painting of the wall as he would have to get the kind of paints only he knew and from where he could get them. The only thing he asked Yash Chopra was to allow him to build a kind of tent outside the studio where he could have his work station. However, when Yash asked me to invite him to see the work station, Husain expressed sheer disappointment and it had to be demolished. He decided to paint the wall the way he wanted to.

The afternoon he was to start painting the wall, Yash's wife, Pam, his then right hand man Mahen Vakil, Husain's daughters and his sons and I were the only ones invited to watch him painting. Husain asked for a sixty feet tall wooden ladder to reach the top of the wall and Yash who normally got panicky very easily came up to me and said,"Arre, yeh kya kar rahe hain Husain Sahab iss Umar mein. Agar inhe kuch hogaya toh main bahut Badnaam' ho jaunga aur zindagi bhar guilty feel karunga ". And his family were equally panicky but he climbed up the stairs with a tin of paint and a brush and reached the top within a few minutes and painted a picture of Lord Ganesh and that was the mark of his beginning to paint the wall which still stands and will always stand as a pride of place at Yash Raj Studios.

It was a great moment for this one time village pumpkin when both of them thanked me profusely and I had tears of joy in my eyes.

He had now become a very good friend of Yash Chopra and as was his way of life, he walked into any house or office of people he knew and one afternoon, he landed in Yash Chopra's office which was then at Vikas Park near the Juhu beach.

Yash was not in his office and Husain called me to join him in the office. The staff made it a point to be very good host and served him his tea on a silver tray with the most expensive cutlery. He had once sip of the tea and stood up and said, " bakwaas chai banayi hai, chalo Ali" and we left the office. He was now on a wild hunt to find tea the way he wanted it to be. He reached the bungalow of Nadira Babbar where he said that he could find tea the way he wanted but Nadira was at the gate of her bungalow waiting to go for her rehearsal. He then reached the house of Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi and was told that they had gone to Delhi.

He asked me to get into his car and just told his driver, Mohammed, who was working with him for more than forty years and knew all about his whims and fancies and he asked him to take him to his favourite place. Silent all the way till we reached the domestic airport outside which there was a Udupi hotel called Aahaar and he went in and asked me to follow him. He sat with his feet on one of the benches and there was a huge crowd outside like they are when a star is around. And an elderly waiter brought him his tea without even asking him. They all knew his kind of tea. He poured the tea from the cup into a saucer and sipped it with great relish. He then got out and asked me, " Ali, Mere paas chaar ticket hain Delhi ke, Indore ke , Calcutta ke aur Bhopal ke, main kahaan jaun ?" He then took a decision himself and said he would fly to Delhi and asked me to take his car and go wherever I wanted to and use for next two days till he came back. I had seen him at many of his maddest bests, but this was the crowning point of his madness- All over a storm over a cup of tea.