Satyajit Ray was there at Santiniketan in 19... I think ’39, ’40 or ’40 about. My, I mean Sushila, studied almost in the same year as him, so she knew Satyajit Ray, but I didn’t. By the time I went to Santiniketan, Satyajit Ray already was a well established graphic designer and later he went, the organisation that employed him, sent him to London. Then his interest changed. But it is true that after I had been noted as an artist, Satyajit Ray was aware of what I was doing and he had talked to various people about it, and I knew what he was doing. Of course, all other people knew and that he had made a big impact on me, he had seen. And Satyajit Ray...

In the films?

Huh?

In film.

In film, also in the graphic design scene. He was the first person in the graphic design scene then who had tried to implement various lessons he had learnt in Santiniketan, the brass drawing of a certain kind, the children’s book of a certain kind and all, which he found Nandalal had done what was called the Sahaj Path and done the illustrations for it.

Wasn’t he closer to Benode Bihari than Nandalal?

Yes, I know, he was, he was. He was closer to Benode Bihari and in a certain way closer to Ramkinkar too. That was, Ramkinkar was greatly interested in hearing Western music and he had recordings of that. So, in that sense he was, and on the other sense Benode Bihari’s reading of various things was much more, so he was very close to him. That’s right. But then Satyajit Ray I met only once in a sort of casual encounter on the station. We were introduced to each other, we said hello to each other, after that we haven’t met. So I had to say that when they asked me to do the Satyajit Ray memorial lecture in Calcutta. So that is, without being very close to each other, we knew what each other was doing, hmm.