‘Gujarat riots showed the good & bad sides of humans’

A smiling Nabibakhsh Mansoori relates his experience during the 2002 riot: “Kya batau? Maine manushya ki burai aur achchai dono dekhi (What do I tell? I saw both sides of human behaviour - his good and bad side, during the troubled times)”.

Agreeing to pose for a photo-shoot with a painting that he made for DNA’s riot series, Mansoori recounted how his Hindu friends and neighbours kept reassuring him that his works and his wife and children were safe even amid the turbulence.

“My hometown is Oda, near Idar. There were some 10 Muslim homes there, including mine. It was my grandparents’ home, a place where I was born and every inch of it was dear to me,” Mansoori said.

Although back then, the artist was residing at a rental house in Gandhinagar with his family, he was informed about the issues in his hometown by his friends. “We were warned of the consequences as there was uproar and communal disturbance in Ahmedabad and Vadodara,” he said.

“At Oda, Hindu families informed the Muslim families about advancing mobs coming to attack them and were asked to pack whatever valuables they could with themselves and flee to safety,” said an emotionally surcharged Mansoori, who said that he came to know only when the house and materials kept inside were charred, since he was in Gandhinagar at that time.

In the ‘inferno’ that gutted his ancestral property, Mansoori lost his paintings and over a 100 sketch books, which he had worked on during his college years at MSU Baroda.

“On visiting my home at Oda, months later, I only found a black mansion. I had lost everything but my neighbours and friends, mainly Hindus helped me recover whatever I could from there. While I lost most of my daddu’s memoirs, the house is still there, thus reminding me of my grandparent’s love and care,” Mansoori reminiscence between sips of hot coffee and staring at a blank whitewashed wall of his new pad at Gandhinagar.

However, the scenario at Gandhinagar too was traumatic for Mansoori. “Since ours was a rental property, my neighbours turned helpful. They kept my paintings in their houses and ensured me minimal losses. Friends from the art fraternity and others kept my money and valuables with them in Ahmedabad,” Mansoori said.

Since at that time Mansoori was working as a teacher in CN Vidyalaya, he was advised by his friends to not step out of his home for nearly a month.

Situation turned worst when after a month he was left penniless to buy even the bare necessities for the family.

“I didn’t know what to do and was worried for my wife and children and how I would feed them. But I was lucky as friends not only sent me money via media but also sold my paintings,” Mansoori said.

Mansoori said, how a friend in Hyderabad after learning about riots and situation in Ahmedabad decided to sell his paintings.

“My friend asked me to send smaller-sized canvases with paintings through courier, which he then sold in Hyderabad. Whatever money he used to get from the sales, he would send it to me. So the riots, on one hand, showed the gory and dreadful side of humans, on the other hand it brought out the other side -love and affection- of humans,” Mansoori said.