Underlying this statement is the arrogance of a man who has been a bestseller for close to half a century and knows the value of his signature. In his 88 years, he has braved countless storms — from accusations of resorting to plain gimmickry to rigging prices at auctions to misinterpreting Goddess Saraswati to sucking up to the rich and powerful, including politicians.

But in his trademark style, hands flailing and voice lowered to almost a whisper, he declares that art is the only religion he knows. "When I paint, nothing else matters," he says. "For me, it is a kind of yoga. It is one of the only exercises I indulge in, besides walking."

Given his celebrity status, walking is a luxury he cannot easily indulge in, even as he is still known as a ‘barefoot painter’. He has discarded that epithet long ago as he appears in public dos, nattily dressed and fully shod, at times with a walking stick designed as a paint brush. Husain travels in a black Mercedes that doubles as his studio. "I have my colours, canvases, paper and brushes in my car," he informs. "I even carry a change of clothes. For the night, I can choose from many homes to sleep in as my sons and daughters have houses all over Mumbai. I have no need for a ‘home’ after my wife, Fazilabibi died ten years ago."

Four of Husain’s seven children live in Mumbai. Recently, he closed a deal on a plush apartment in upmarket Worli for his daughter Ahila, who is back from Saudi Arabia. The brokers are happy not to be paid in cash, but in kind. After all, a Husain painting sells in millions — the last one, ‘Sitar Player‘ fetched Rs 17,00,000 at a Christies’ auction in Hong Kong!

And yet, he insists that there’s nothing special about him: "I don’t believe that a painter is special or gifted. The only gift a human being has is his passion. Without fire he’s just... normal. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with being ‘normal’. Just as long as you are a good human being, nothing matters."

The transition from ‘normalcy’ to a ‘passionate painter’ began in Pandharpur, a temple town close to Solapur in Maharashtra, where Husain was born and trained to be a calligraphist. He lost his mother as a child. "Since then I am in search of a Shakti and Ma, but I can’t claim to have found her," he says.

The search for a ‘mother figure’ took him to Mumbai at the age of 27 and there he started out as a billboard painter. Braving starvation and homelessness, he worked his way up till he could afford a one-room tenement and marry. By then, master painter N.S. Bendre took him under his wings and Husain remembers selling his first painting for Rs 10!

From then on, the journey up the ladder of success has been dizzying... with no full stops. MF