To Raja Ravi Varma

Oh, Ravi Varma, you are a legend! When I look at this Indian postage stamp (brought out in your honour), a miniature of your self-portrait with the inset of your painting of the legendary Damayanti with the mystic swan, I am of course reminded of the well-known little narrative, the episode from the grand epic—the Mahabharata: Princess Damayanti interacting with the soothsayer-swan, which, at the moment, is suggesting to her to take King Dushyanta as her spouse— in the ensuing swayamvara, the moment of choice (of a husband from among the suitors), and Damayanti listening, with bated breath, to the mystic bird. My stream of consciousness takes me to the originals—oil on canvas: the strikingly common feature in both the portraits, I must observe, are the observant eyes— Your bright, beady, artistic eyes And Damayanti’s glittering eyes that nearly give away the excitement surging in her, the bhava; and her bhava, too, her posture. My thought stream takes me further to the other eyes in your enchanting array of portraits— of the celestial Mohini with her bewitching eyes And the legendary Shakuntala with her alluring, lovelorn eyes— to mention just two. Your artistic mind visualized the scenes and your eyes didn’t fail to capture the bhavas, and the bhavas, that is, the feelings together with the complementary postures. Oh legend, you have had your accolades— national as well as international; You also had to face turbulent criticism; you still face it. But, as we know, it’s not the grounded aircraft, but the flying plane that faces turbulence! ***