Tracing MF Husain’s footprints in Ahmedabad

Walking on Ahmedabad's scorching roads in summer was never easy, but in the 90s, stories of a silver-haired international celebrity artist's barefoot walks through the city's by-lanes were legendary.

Ahmedabad is where MF Husain's grandfather rests and, initially, that was one of the main reasons why he visited the city. But over the years, he made very good friends in the city and developed a deep connection with it in the form of Husain-Doshi ni Gufa, later dedicated to the city as Amdavad ni Gufa.

Husain's links with Gujarat begin with his mother who belonged to Sidhpur in north Gujarat. Forty years ago, he met architect Balkrishna Doshi at Gunwant Mangaldas's house and, later, art curator Anil Relia, and became very close to them.

His visits increased as he designed the first-of-its-kind underground art gallery - Husain-Doshi ni Gufa. The gallery houses Husain's largest painting, the 100-foot-long, 'Sheshnag', which merges into a metal sculpture.

"He wanted to have his own gallery in Ahmedabad as he had in other cities. We decided to do something challenging and experimental. That is how we came up with the Gufa (an underground art gallery) designed by us together; we shared everything on the job.

The design is the epitome of freedom of expression. He controlled time and space," Doshi recalled on Thursday afternoon after receiving the sad news that Husain had passed away.

Later, when Husain was under fire from saffron fundamentalists in 1998 over his paintings of Goddess Saraswati, the gufa was vandalised and damaged. "This had pained him but he did not have any misgivings about the incident," Anil Relia said.

The last time he visited Ahmedabad was in 2005 for the wedding of city's eminent artist and Husain's friend Amit Ambalal's son Anuj.

For a man who walked barefoot through the city, the tea of a nondescript wayside tea stall named, 'Lucky', held a special attraction. Lucky tea stall is situated opposite Sidi Saiyed ni Jaali in Mirzapur.

The kitli (as tea stalls are known locally) was a ramshackle structure constructed beside a graveyard. Husain was so smitten by the place that he gifted the tea stall a painting which is prominently displayed there even today. Since then, the small-time kitli has gained international fame and gone on to become an elaborate restaurant.

Those who interacted with Husain closely during his spontaneous trips to the city recall that he often went to the Roza to sit by his grandfather's grave. "He was very close to his grandpa. In his later years when he couldn't come back to India, he often mentioned that he wanted to come back to visit the grave," said Manan, son of Anil Relia, who regularly interacted with him.