Our second meeting, was when I went to interview him at his home in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai. While he talked about his life, his domesticity buzzed in the background, children opened and closed the refrigerator, his daughter hummed a song and his cook chopped and cleaned in the kitchen as the pressure cooker whistled impatiently.
It was a normal day in an extra-ordinary life and the majestic canvas with all the paints and brushes placed in the center of the living room was part of it. I have memories of him as an artiste and as a filmmaker. His film Gajgamini released in the year 2000, didn’t succeed because his vision was ahead of his time.
I remember him stopping by my office, narrating the idea, said Gajgamini was born out of the black brick wall of Pandharpur. The muse manifests herself into four different characters. “The wall is the metaphor and the narrative the bridges that binds time, people and spaces”. I heard him in silence, stared at his snow-white long hair and the trademark cane comfortably resting against my desk. Black coffee was served on my desk and Hussain saab continued…