Sitting on the banks of River Kapila, in the remote Kannadika village of Devar Gadda near Handpost, Mysuru, Paris Mohankumar was sad. The reports on the killing of a tribal youth in Attappady haunted him. A renowned artist, recognised even by the United Nations, Mohanji never ran behind money. Instead he ran behind dogs, cats, tribals, birds, farmers and women in distress, as a healing wind. Many believe that he is a saint with his long white beard and the excessive energy. “In my life, money has a minimal role. I had lived with saints, swamis, the poor, rich and mighty. But this made me sad because I had failed to extend deserving help to many, particularly the agrarian and tribal communities in a way I had dreamt of,” he says.
Returning from Paris, a chosen heaven for him for 34 long years, Mohankumar, fondly called Mohanji by dear and near ones, has been making many efforts to improve the lives of his fellow beings. He sells his paintings and mobilises money for various projects, helping farmers of remote villages to sell their products for a better price, assisting tribal children to have access to learning and families in distress to stabilise, through small amounts of financial aid.
Opening his mind, Mohankumar said that nature, women and farmers are three factors most endearing to him. In his opinion, a woman is the most beautiful symbol of love that soothes each soul even amid grave human tragedies, as a mother, sister and wife. But at times she turns out to be the most dangerous being. “My mission is to humanise men for the sake of nature, women and children. Women always attracted me. There are only few paintings of mine sans nature and women.
Both of them are inseparable. Most of my friends in Paris and elsewhere are women. It does not mean that I had love affairs with them, not at all. When a relationship with a woman involves sexual activities, it spoils others’ serenity of relationships,” he points out. It was one such love story that led him from Mahe to Paris. They first met at a playground in Mahe in 1969 after the French Revolution.
Devar Gadda
“She came with another woman on a cycling expedition. In those days, there were no good lodges in Mahe. So I took them to my home. We talked a lot and continued the relationship through letters.” Later, Mohanji went to Paris and tried his luck as an artist. The rest was history. The life there was cool, rich and safe. “An artist is honoured by everybody. But something haunted me. Art and artists are honoured across society. But, as an Indian, I felt it is my duty to do something for my brethren and Mother Earth,” he says. So Mohanji returned leaving behind his wife and children.
Mohanji now buys land in the Western Ghats, allowing the jungle to come in. He has several pieces of land in ecologically sensitive spots across the hills. Recently, he received a call from his poor neighbour that someone got his piece of jungle fenced claiming that it is his land. Later, it was found that the person thought that the owner would not come back and he asserted his claims much before others. That is the way Mohankumar treated nature. He neither owned pieces of the earth nor allowed his kith and kin to assert ownership over his land. “I believe the earth is not for sale. There is no other go for me, but to buy the land and give it back to the earth. I am sad that even then there are people who try to impose ownership over such pieces of land that I have returned to the earth by buying from humans,” he says.
Mohanji believe that the remedy for the ongoing destruction of nature is to buy land and give it back to nature. “Living in the jungle zones of three southern states, I had been exposed to massive destruction of forests, hunting of the wild for meat, rock blasting and sand mining,” he says. “The sins of our fellow men need to be redressed by our efforts by healing the earth,” he adds.
