I think it also in a way opened doors for us to go out of Baroda to see, you know, places like Bombay and Delhi. And I think Bombay was closer because we had this Bombay Art [Society]... we had this show at Baroda, a group of artists, and we learnt, you know, about holding exhibitions, you know, we were all groomed into having a one-man show and we looked at this, you know... wide-eyed, you know, in a way we looked at all our seniors, you know, who had done that. Shanti Dave was a major figure in those days. Jyoti Bhatt was regarded as, you know, because he had won an award in the National Academy. And so I think it served us as a kind of a springboard and a lot of people came to Baroda. A lot of artists came to Baroda and in a few years time I realised that though I was very involved, very much involved in what was being produced, I had not found my way of how do I work, what do I do, and I must admit that I felt slightly constricted, so, going out was a great experience. In fact, I went to Bombay and I saw this centre. It was in a place called Bulabai Desai Memorial on, I think, what is it, that area, Warden Road. It’s now called Bhulabhai Desai Road. That had literally, let us say, about 20 artists working, Hussain, Tyeb Mehta, Gaitonde, at a later stage Nasreen, then my friend Prafull Dave, who had studied in Baroda. I frequented that place. I used to go and look at, and they were very open. They would show their work, and I think it opened many avenues for me and I think perhaps it was Hussain whose work must have appealed to me and some of the earliest paintings that I did, you know, were of horses. Quite likely but then my horse was not like Die Brucke horse or it’s not anonymous running horse, it was perhaps, and I think I may not be wrong, it was a horse of a tanga, tonga. It’s a horse carriage. It was perhaps Surendranagar, of that region. In those days we didn’t have any of these vehicles, motorised vehicles, you know. You always travelled by tonga, and I think I was quite attracted to them. I had done a lot of drawings of tongas. Anyway, but that was just a kind of a beginning, you know, but when I had my first show I requested Hussain and he opened it. He even read out a poem at the opening of my show in Jehangir Art Gallery.
That was 1960, I think.
’60,’61, I think. I must have second year or, I mean, or, yes, ’56 to that would come to that. And I met all these artists. Besides them I also met Alkazi. Alkazi came to my show and sort of was... seemed to be quite impressed. Invited me home, we had dinner with him, and then I got, he was conducting classes on modern art in Bombay at the Bulabai Desai Institute. Nasreen was showing her work in a gallery. She, what is it... ’59, whatever gallery, that, Bal Chhabra who was a friend of Hussain and others, opened there. So, it was a kind of a culture centre, you know, Bhulabhai Memorial Institute, and I greatly benefited from meeting those artists. And so I think in a way my work started or took off, from that.
