Late in the evening, under the starry night, my grandaunt, wearing a traditional 'madisaar' sari, bent down to draw Kolams (the Tamil word for Rangolis). The elderly lady in her mid-seventies was drawing these with the eagerness of a seven-year-old, showing off the twirls, swirls and lines that connect the array of dots made with white powder.

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The world-renowned artist watching her with great curiosity was also squatting, with a look of reverence on his face. He was asking her questions, eliciting responses and effortlessly crossing barriers of language, age and culture. Grandaunt (Athai-Patti) Rajam, and Hakubhai Shah created that poetic web of sharing and learning, nearly 28 years ago. It glowed like a Haiku on that summer night with a clear sky, clearly visible in my mind even today.

Nearly a decade later, we spent many hours together as Hakubhai and Viluben came to visit us at Godhra. With precious gifts of colourful, many-hued stories and strikingly simple sketches of a girlchild, elephant, parrots set against a pastoral setting, we spent unforgettable hours in the afternoons and late evenings, under the clear, starlit skies. Our children, Adit and Krupa, eagerly lapped up these priceless presents of songs, stories and sketches as Hakubhai told them the story of 'Anandi Kagado' or the Happy Crow, among many others. The world-renowned artist engaged with superb artistic elegance and simplicity with the seven- and six-year-old. Hakubhai's voice, along with the children singing 'Ame Hoyn Hoyn Hoyn Hoyn karta nathi', reverberates like a sweet Haiku even now in my ears.

A Rockefeller Fellow, recipient of Kala Shiromani of the Lalit Kala Academy, Ahmedabad; Kala Ratna of All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society; Gagan Abani Puraskar of Shantiniketan and the Padma Shri, he carried all of this with a distinct, Gandhian panache characterised by simplicity and sensitivity.

My introduction to Hakubhai was through his son, Parthiv, who worked in PTI-TV nearly three decades ago. I would be there, too, for voiceovers and anchoring various features for the electronic media that were produced by PTI-TV. As we chatted about his father, I could hear a lot of Hakubhai in Parthiv's voice and expressions.

At a workshop for students and teachers in an elite school in Chennai, Hakubhai found the lunch served on banana leaves very welcome. The banana leaves, after lunch, would be disposed of, filling two bins, recounts Parthiv. The following day, Hakubhai announced that they would have a creative session at the end of lunch. After they had finished their meals, he asked everyone there to fold the used banana leaves in different, creative ways. The children and teachers were stirred by this idea. Some rolled the leaves, while others pleated, gathered them or wrapped them in layers and some even created a basket. They perhaps did not waste much food, to be able to wrap it uniquely. They showed these creative expressions and as all the leaves were placed in the bin, only half-a-bin was filled that day, as against the usual two bins after every meal. This made the job of clearing the garbage easier and added aesthetics to this simple 'eating green' exercise.

They had kept one-and-a-half bins empty, by this creative, thoughtful way of disposing of the used leaves. Without any boring lecture or pontificating, the students and teachers learnt many things from their enlightened teacher. They absorbed values of thoughtfulness, expressed creativity, as they also acquired the value of frugality and sensitivity towards the cleaners.

As a mark of respect to Hakubhai, a great son of India, can we breathe reverence into our actions, and human interactions, big or small? Can we have the same mindfulness at the end of a task or event as we had at the start of the job? The Holi or Dhuleti this year, bid adieu to a great friend, who championed the cause of colours. Hakubhai's life was a Haiku that celebrated life. This Haiku spurted colours and fragrances on people of all stations and kinds. Let's mix those hues into our own lives, having the same mindfulness, fun and festival of curiosity as we traipse through the day.

The author is a Harvard-educated civil servant & writer, and has worked in the education sector jayanti.ravi.dna@gmail.com