M.F.HUSAIN AUR GANPATI KI AJEEB DAASTAN

Maqbool Fida Husain was a bundle of controversies till the very end of his life,and one of them was his tussles with religion - ALI PETER JOHN

He was a Muslim born in a orthodox Hindu city like Pandharpur and was a idol breaker and spoke out his views about religion and God in public places and holi places without any fear .

He was threatened, humiliated and insulted in the worst possible ways but he refused to change his views on any subject that he held close to his heart .

He took both the Muslims and the Hindus by shock when he became the first Muslim painter ti sketch the image of Lord Ganesh as an image of a strong male image with four hands and strong head.

His original sketch became a craze all over the world of art, but he was condemned and criticized in his country of birth,but he refused to bow down before the high priests and teachers of religion and dogmas and continued painting his sketches which became popular all over the world....

His fascination for Lord Ganesh was so strong that he made miniature sketches and distributed them free and even made expensive sketches which he sold at the weddings of millionaires and billionaires abroad.

I was present when he struck a deal with a diamond merchant from South Africa which was supposed to be the highest even deal for gold rings painted with images of Lord Ganesh on them .

I had talked to Yash Chopra to let Husain paint his version of the history of Hindi cinema on one of the wallls of his YRF studies and when the 86 year old Husain climbed the 60 ft wall to give the first touch to his painting ,he surprised the small and distinguished audience by painting an image of Lord Ganesh before he could start painting the wall,which stands in all its glory and as a witness to the talent of one of the greatest painters of India who never thought about things like religion when it came to great art .