Muthu Kumar

Muthu Kumar
@muthutabla
Approx. 10×16 inches
Acrylics on canvas
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I met Muthu over a decade ago when he would come to my son’s school to give the kids Tabla lessons. He plays the flute (bansuri) too. I was really taken by his skill and his verve. He has that something special when he plays the Table. We stayed in touch over Facebook – by that I mean we knew the other still existed but not what was happening in each other’s lives and that’s about it.
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Recently while cleaning out some shelves in the studio I came across a half-done portrait of Muthu that I had started almost 12 years ago when I was first trying my hand at portraiture. With time and distance, I could now see why I had felt frustrated at that point and abandoned the project. After all these years it was easy to see and of course, I found myself completing it.
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Muthu came to the studio this morning and we met in person after a decade. I still like the man he is! And there is a lot of catching up to do. And God willing that will be soon. Art does bring people closer – sometimes literally 🙂

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I always take a token of one rupee as I promised my art teacher (guruji) that I would never give away my art for free even as a gift. And this is definitely a gift toh ek rupiya toh banta hai. Guess what? I got a framed beautiful image of Goddess Saraswati from him. How lucky am I?

Note – Over the years I have saved pictures of friends and their families on Facebook or Instagram as a possible reference. A few weeks ago I decided to dive into that folder and start. I put out a post on FB letting everyone know what I planned to do. I completed a total of seven and barring one – every one of those is now with the person in question.