A carpenter needs wood, a painter needs a brush and colors. Even from a human point of view, words drive people. Structured concepts are embedded in us and drive us. They are poetic concepts. Because if the word is structured in a rhythmic form, it can enter our mind space with a message. That is why the big prophets are people of the word, wording their message in a way that could connect with the human race. Out of those words, a lot of beauty arose. The beauty of architecture, calligraphy, sound, form. Ultimately human beings are receptacles of beauty. That is where the finer aspect of spirituality comes. To see that beauty coming out of truth. Out of a source which is pure, primordial. It’s your own journey. As an artist, as a communicator, you try to put simple things into shape.
How did that quest of yours start?
Of all things, I would say that pain and loss are very important factors in triggering this journey. For me, it was the pain of seeing culture crumbling in Lucknow and in my village.
Also, my father had a very humanistic approach to life. Your parents shape your mind in some strange way. But ultimately you have to decide how to go forward.
Was it a religious home?
My mother was religious but not my father. He was a humanist.
Did he break away from his family traditions?
He was very young when his parents died. He grew up in Scotland and became a Communist, before transforming into a humanist. He then came to India in 1935 and tried to enter politics. His ideas were ahead of his time and stayed in people’s mind. He was anti-communal. He focused on development, advocating family planning, or hydel-power. He felt that audiovisual education was very important and spread teaching through sound. He was using films as a means to an end, which is for a 25 years’ old boy in 1935 quite ahead of its time. He was an idealist and didn’t get much out of politics. He was a free man. I saw him suffer that way.
Did he become a bitter man?
He was not frustrated but very upset.
So what did you mean by pain?
Lucknow is a very important part of the country. Colonial politics were played at their finest and we were a victim of that. After 1857, culture was very much decimated and I tried to document it. But it has been very difficult to preserve it all. Things go wrong much faster than they would ever go right.
