Husain's beloved city remembers him

AHMEDABAD: For B V Doshi, the city's noted architect, M F Husain was a fakir. "Many a times, I had seen him sleeping on a charpoy with such ethereal lightness that there was no trace of him when he got up from it," he says adding that Husain always worked and lived only by his own standards. Doshi recalls that last time he had met the artist it was at a London hotel."Husain had only socks on his feet! But he was totally nonchalant."
In Ahmedabad, the city which Husain loved, his memories are everywhere. "Husain visited our house quite frequently to finish two works we had commissioned for our Jehangir Mills," says Urmil Mangaldas, wife of Gunvant Mangaldas - the art connoisseur who had brought the artist to the city first.
She adds: "Often, he would come to my office in Paanch Kuva, where I worked as a medical practitioner, sign his name with a little drawing in the register, and then ask me for advice on the best ways to impress a woman."
Artist Amit Ambalal remembers the verse Husain had scribbled on his sketchbook: "Na aaye ki khusi, na jaaye ka gham, kamaye duniya, khaaye hum."
Ambalal says: "On that day, I had to decline his invitation to go for a movie as I had an appointment with a lawyer, which involved financial matters. He wrote the verse as if to remind me how to live life!"