Sometime in late 1950's a barefoot artist with long flowing beard would suddenly appear at a popular tea shack located opposite Ahmedabad's landmark Sidi-Saiyed-ni-jali. He would spend hours sipping tea and chatting with people amid the graves that dotted the roadside shack floor.
On November 25, 2004, the regular tea-sipper though not as young but now an internationally acclaimed celebrity painter MF Husain, walked in to the same grave-dotted tea-joint now metamorphosed into thriving restaurant and known as "Lucky Tea Stall".
The relationship that started in 1950s during Husain's visits to the Saraspur Grave Yard to pay homage to his ancestors reached a climax on that night as Husain gave a specially made painting to the shop owner.
City-based art dealer and Husain's friend Anil Relia, says: "He made the painting in my house; I had accompanied him when he gifted the painting to Lucky's owner."
After Mohammadbhai passed away, the stall was ran by Kutti Nayar, who kept his promise to Mohammadbhai that he will never sell the painting. "It's a gift from an old friend," says Nayar. As a customer who never missed an opportunity to have a cup of tea accompanied with bun-muska.
"I have been working here since 1970 and was then introduced to Husain saab by our late first owner, KH Mohammad. They were the closest pals I had ever seen. Back then, Husain saab, like any other customer would sip tea and relish his bun-muska sitting on the wooden bench in front of the counter over the graves," Lucky Tea Stall manager Siddiqui Ansari (60) recalled.
Ansari added, "He would come bare foot to our stall, sip tea, have his snacks, and if people recognised him and approached him to chat up, he would do that too. In the four decades that Husain saab visited Ahmedabad, he never missed a chance to visit us. If required the tea would be parcelled to his hotel room if he could not make it owing to other commitments."
Having seen three generations of the Lucky family, Husain could not refuse the then owner, who had asked him to paint something for his walls. "He gifted this painting made on November 25, 2004, to our owner KH Mohammad at 11.30 in the night. He apparently also showed him on where to set it up and that is how we have the master artist's one of the master pieces. As a memory we have clicked many pictures of him with staff members," Ansari recollected.
Husain would generally visit Lucky in the morning and was very people-friendly, claims Ansari and other old staff members. "There were two things I remember quite distinctly about him, he never gave an autograph on a currency note and would also refuse to sketch anyone's portrait even if requested. I guess he did not like that," Ansari concluded.
While one of his forefathers was buried in Ahmedabad, in a graveyard in Saraspur, his mother hailed from Sidhpur. Husain had also developed his 'mazhabi taleem' from Baroda on insistence of his father.
• The painting is 3 feet x 3 feet
• The waiters, who sleep in the stall, take care of the security of the painting
• The painting depicts a scene from the Arabian Nights. There are two camels and a castle-like construction in the foreground, and a desert in the backdrop. Relia says: "The painting reminds of an oasis in the desert. I think Husain must have found Lucky Tea Stall like an oasis of peace."
(With inputs from Kinjal Desai)
On November 25, 2004, the regular tea-sipper though not as young but now an internationally acclaimed celebrity painter MF Husain, walked in to the same grave-dotted tea-joint now metamorphosed into thriving restaurant and known as "Lucky Tea Stall".
The relationship that started in 1950s during Husain's visits to the Saraspur Grave Yard to pay homage to his ancestors reached a climax on that night as Husain gave a specially made painting to the shop owner.
City-based art dealer and Husain's friend Anil Relia, says: "He made the painting in my house; I had accompanied him when he gifted the painting to Lucky's owner."
After Mohammadbhai passed away, the stall was ran by Kutti Nayar, who kept his promise to Mohammadbhai that he will never sell the painting. "It's a gift from an old friend," says Nayar. As a customer who never missed an opportunity to have a cup of tea accompanied with bun-muska.
"I have been working here since 1970 and was then introduced to Husain saab by our late first owner, KH Mohammad. They were the closest pals I had ever seen. Back then, Husain saab, like any other customer would sip tea and relish his bun-muska sitting on the wooden bench in front of the counter over the graves," Lucky Tea Stall manager Siddiqui Ansari (60) recalled.
Ansari added, "He would come bare foot to our stall, sip tea, have his snacks, and if people recognised him and approached him to chat up, he would do that too. In the four decades that Husain saab visited Ahmedabad, he never missed a chance to visit us. If required the tea would be parcelled to his hotel room if he could not make it owing to other commitments."
Having seen three generations of the Lucky family, Husain could not refuse the then owner, who had asked him to paint something for his walls. "He gifted this painting made on November 25, 2004, to our owner KH Mohammad at 11.30 in the night. He apparently also showed him on where to set it up and that is how we have the master artist's one of the master pieces. As a memory we have clicked many pictures of him with staff members," Ansari recollected.
Husain would generally visit Lucky in the morning and was very people-friendly, claims Ansari and other old staff members. "There were two things I remember quite distinctly about him, he never gave an autograph on a currency note and would also refuse to sketch anyone's portrait even if requested. I guess he did not like that," Ansari concluded.
While one of his forefathers was buried in Ahmedabad, in a graveyard in Saraspur, his mother hailed from Sidhpur. Husain had also developed his 'mazhabi taleem' from Baroda on insistence of his father.
• The painting is 3 feet x 3 feet
• The waiters, who sleep in the stall, take care of the security of the painting
• The painting depicts a scene from the Arabian Nights. There are two camels and a castle-like construction in the foreground, and a desert in the backdrop. Relia says: "The painting reminds of an oasis in the desert. I think Husain must have found Lucky Tea Stall like an oasis of peace."
(With inputs from Kinjal Desai)
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