One person whose name I have been invoking for years, in almost every motivational session and interaction with youngsters across the country, is Husain Saab. I have read and known only about his uncompromising pursuit of his art, his expressions and jest for life. His enthusiasm and passion for the causes he espoused is unmatched and is a great source of inspiration. There are very few risk-takers who want to making movies, with unique concepts, which very few can understand. This he did when he entered his eighties!! Lo be-hold, the top actress of the era wanted to be in the movies he made! I have known only a couple of 95 year-olds in my life who have been so active, especially in the world where most think of how they are going to lead their lives after retirement! I am sure he never thought about age. It was just another number!

In Husain saab, we had a human being, who defied age, who defied all mundane norms. Fed with stories since childhood from scriptures of all religions, his understanding of mysticism and spiritualism is vivid in his expressions. His works are very evolved at the same time child-like. I can very much relate to them as I see our eight-year old daughter expressing in her sketches of her interpretation, of readings of hundreds of mythological and historical stories from Amar Chitra Kathas. Art is not about looking through narrow glass, it is about widened horizons. Very few will have the ability to absorb all sensorial inputs and relate them in ways beyond ordinary to express those not obvious and incomprehensible relationships. Every work of his evokes extraordinary thoughts and emotions, as one sits with them. Naturally, ordinary and narrow-minded mortals could never comprehend the depth of his interpretations, understandings and expressions. Neither did they have control over their own emotions, and vented their feelings in a very unsocial manner. It was irony that he was as much hated by a few ordinary mortals from every religion, for his works. We will not see more secular person than Husain saab.

I was at my wits-end to understand why he had to exile himself, at his advanced age. Husain saab was very distraught being away from his beloved motherland; still he chose to be away. No doubt, very few would have ever got an offer of citizenship from another country at his age, but he was not happy being away. It perhaps has more to do with channelizing his energies into positive pursuits than to keep facing energy-sapping protests and threats. Unfortunate that he was away from his beloved homeland when he undertook his last journey.

We lost one of the greatest sons Mother India has produced. He will be part of the pantheon of greatest artists who have ever walked this mother earth. He will remain in the hearts of every art lover and will continue to inspire world citizens of his ilk. I salute his soul from bottom of my heart.