ED: What made you decide on the present series which appears to me to be somewhat different from your earlier works?
MP : I have always gone back from time to time to elements from my own cultural environment. Subconsciously, I have always felt that the western elements never really became rooted in my visual language. Besides, I have always felt drawn towards Calcutta and Santiniketan. My real moorings started in Calcutta. I went to live there in 1965. I was 27 at the time. I had been feeling for sometime that the work that I was doing in Mumbai was not really touching the core of my being. And then Calcutta with its teeming population came as an eye-opener. I was vulnerable at that age.

ED: Are the still lifes with flowers and vases a departure in your work, a move away from the faces, the human. and animal forms and the architectural elements?
MP : Not really. True that I am doing a whole series of still lifes with flowers and vases. But these have been appearing in my work since the Eighties. It began with my first visit to Benares. I had gone to Benares in '79. And I found flowers everywhere. They were a part of the ritual scene. I had gone to Dasashwamedh Ghat and saw newly-married couples worshipping Ganga with a profusion of flowers.
And then I went across to the Manikarnika Ghat and saw the flowers on the dead bodies.

ED: What else inspired you to do the series?
MP : Rabindranath influenced me deeply. There were three things in his work which made an impression on me; faces, landscapes and still lifes. He was so different in his approach to the landscapes and still lifes in the European tradition.
In landscapes done by European artists, the sky forms the background, the water is the foreground and the middle ground is occupied by trees and other vegetation. Rabindranath, on the other hand, gives equal importance to the treatment of the sky. It is the middle that is in shadows in his paintings.
Similarly, in European still lifes, the compositions of fruits and flowers reflect an opulence. The vases in them have a minor role of being a prop. But in Rabindranath Tagore' 5 still lifes, the vase is not secondary. It also becomes a character. There is a more organic quality about the forms. The pots holding flowers become like human figures. These are elements which excite me and I want to incorporate them in my work. All these influences worked on me subconsciously all through my stay in Calcutta. Besides Rabindranath, the Santiniketan artists affected me a great deal, especially, Rarnkinkar.

ED: You have used a lot of bird forms in this series. How do you relate them to your preoccupation with Still life?
MP : I have used the birds to bring the pictorial space to life. Birds are a symbol of life, of movement.

ED : You have a predilection for organic forms in your paintings. There is also an overt expression of sexuality' in your imagery? The depictions of nature by the Santiniketan artists were not quite in the same.
MP : The erotic area in human existence is important to me. I am always involved with growth, fertility, burgeoning life in my paintings. So how best to show it? The rhythms of life, I feel, can be best-expressed in the rhythms of the coupling of two beings. I think it is the best replication of nature's rhythms which I want to capture in my work.

ED : And what about violence?
MP :There are two poles for me. One is the area of organic growth and the other is violence. I want to capture the here-and-now reality in my work. And violence is very much a part of that reality.

ED: And Where does Cakutta fit into the scheme of things?
MP : Before I went to Calcutta in the mid-'60s, I was living and working in Mumbai. The two painters who had some influence on me were Souza and Jeram Patel. At the time, I was painting some imaginary landscape within me. But Calcutta swept me off my feet.
tremendous human tenacity. I was fascinated by the human potential in the city. The struggle for survival was such a powerful instinct there.
Besides, the city was warm and friendly. I have always enjoyed the collective life, always enjoyed group activity. Sharing is important to me.
It was easy for me to make friends with the Calcutta artists. The Society of Contemporary Artists invited me to join them. It was with some Society members like Shyamal Dutta Ray and others that I first went to Santiniketan. It was a mind-blowing trip.
The impact of Calcutta changed my painting style. I began to paint on dark backgrounds of browns and blacks with white strokes. I also started making paper collages with toni-up drawing paper. These collages had elements of accident and geometry.

ED: The sense of place or genius loci, as they say, is very much there in your paintings. Tell us about the other city which has played a very big part in your paintings Benares.
MP : From Calcutta, I shifted to Delhi in 1974. I was a design consultant to the Handicraft and Handloom Corporation of India. I became immersed in my design work and travelled extensively in the villages. Delhi as a city did not inspire me. It hardly left any mark on my visual language.
In 1979, I went for the first time to visit Benares and my spirits lifted. Benares, like Calcutta was full of contrasts and contradictions. I was excited by the signs of organic life and human presence.
Rabindranath Tagore came to my mind in Benares. I looked at the sky and realised that the Indian sky is different. I decided that I would use the various elements that I encountered but I would bring in contemporaneity.
I discovered another dimension to the city - its spirituality. Husain and Ram Kumar had both painted
Benares. I wanted to paint it differently and it became a pivotal city in my paintings. Sometimes I created
Benares as an imaginary landscape which reflected the moods of other real life experiences.

ED : How much has your experience in theatre shaped your visual languages?
MP : Well, theatre helped me to create a locale, a landscape. Besides, lighting fascinates me. These elements surfaced in my Benares paintings.

ED: Would you like to talk about the faces that form a significant part of your ceuvre?
MP : Yes, faces excite me. My stay in Calcutta and Benares and my travel through Indian villages have given me a portfolio of different human faces. There are elements of theatrical language when I do a face against a dark background. When I do a face it is also a landscape and when I do a landscape, I am painting a situation which has many realities.
I also feel that the Indian face is poised between faith and fear. These are two important dynamics shaping the life of the collective. The common man whose face appears in my works is the biggest component of a collective. For me, it offers tremendous human material, big possibility.

ED: How has your work as a designer influenced you?
MP : As a designer, I was not engrossed with the craftsmanship, per se. What absorbed me was the situation that produced the craft. But I learnt in a big way from the respect for craftsmanship, its sustaining power, and the dynamics of repetition.

ED: You have used a lot of different material and mediums. Would you like to talk about it a bit?
MP: Material and mediums are very important to me and any change gives me a kick. I discovered rice paper on which I am doing my recent series of paintings, in the early '90s. I find the possibilities of texture and the interaction with paint extremely exciting. Here again the work of the Santiniketan stalwarts fliscinated me.
Similarly, when I did the series on violence in 1996, I used board and cement to achieve texturisations that would create the sense of wall graffiti. But then again, I go back to my interest in pure oil and canvas.

ED: What has painting meant for you?
MP: There is a concept in Bhaktimarg of Chitraseva. I look upon my painting as a similar commitment. I want to be totally involved. All my life, I have struggled to capture the real Indian figure, still life or landscape. I wanted to create a particular identity suited to my reality. At the same time, I want to remain spontaneous. The subconscious, I feel, has a role to play.