STAMPED IMPRESSIONS
Queen of arts
Reeta Sharma

You can call her ‘ambassador’ of Indian art in the US. Professionally, a doctor, she is no qualified art expert but has always had a strong interest in it. It is this inclination that forced her to go beyond just admiring art. For the past two decades, she has been gaining knowledge of art, and today she is as informed as any art expert.

Dr Mahinder Kaur Tak passed her MBBS from Lady Hardinge in Delhi in 1970. By 1974, she was in the USA to do her specialisation in radiation (oncology). Soon, she was married to Sharad Tak, an IIT from India, already settled in the US. She joined the US Army and left it after 12 years with a glorious record.

Settled in Washington, Mahinder and Sharad are today counted among the 10 richest Indian Americans. Both have worked hard to reach this position. You see the homes like that of Taks only in movies, where the outer gate opens automatically to a dream house. The house is surrounded by a garden, swimming pool, tennis courts and what not.

Mahinder’s three-storeyed fairyland leaves you awestruck the moment you enter it. All walls of her house, be it of the entrance, the basement hall, the bedrooms or the first-floor, proudly display paintings of great Indian artists. Her collection includes works of Mohan Lal Jain, Company Artists of the 18th century, Raja Ravi Varma, Jamini Roy, Ganesh Payne, M.F. Husain, K.K. Hebbar (from South), Akbar Padamsee (from Mumbai), Jogen Chaowdhary, Manjit Bawa, Anil Revery, Paramjit, J. Swaminanthan, Gaitonde, Bhupen Khakhar (from Baroda), Garddhe and Ram Kumar.

Paintings of Natwar Bhavasar, the first painter of India who went to the USA and settled there, have a unique place on her walls. The works of Rameshwar Broota on adivasis also decorate Mahinder’s magnificent home.

Mahinder has given a special place to paintings by women artists. She has works of Aparna Caur, Shobha Broota, Arpita, Surinder Kaur, Prabha Shah, Meena Deora and Shruti Gupta.

With nearly 300 paintings of Indian artists displayed at her home, Mahinder has made it easy for Indian heritage to reach the American. "The westerners, including the Americans, have not been exposed to Indian paintings. Hence they are not aware of our great art. At least three to four times in a year, I invite Americans to my exhibits. I want them to understand India’s rich art. This is the heritage I shall like to pass on to the next generation and hope to bridge the gap between these two societies," she conveys softly.

Her home has had visitors like Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea, Kerry Jones, John Kenneth Galbraith and Madeleine Albright.

Since Mahinder appreciates the US for giving immense opportunities to Indians, she was approached to play a significant role in the American political life. She began raising funds for the people she strongly felt would make a difference in the American establishment since 1992. So, whether it was Bobby Jindal or Peter Mathews or Hillary Clinton or now John Kerry, Mahinder has been conducting fund-raising campaigns for them. John Kerry has, in fact, requested her to be on the Seven-Member Indian-American Leadership Council. She is also on the Advisory Board of the National Museums of Women and Art, USA. She has persuaded them to open a ‘chapter’ in India in February, 2005.

Mahinder’s wonderful home has been extending a warm welcome to Indian artistes like Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ustad Allah Rakha, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Amjad Ali, Kaifi Azmi, Zakir Hussein, Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi. Not only Indian artistes but also Pakistani artistes like Abida Parveen, Mehdi Hassan, Malika Pukhraj and Faiz Ahmed Faiz have performed in her sprawling gardens.