Destiny of an artist – Suresh Awari

Neither astrologers nor those who study philosophy can understand the destiny that Prabhakar Barwe used to mention! This destiny enriches some and torments others for the rest of their lives. After learning the life story of the painter Sureshchandra Bhaurao Awari, one realizes the cruelty of destiny more clearly. Awari, an alumnus of JJ School of Art, is a Dolly Cursetji medallist. Awari did a lot of work throughout his life. But he did not get that much fame. Many minor painters rise to great positions, some achieving world fame. But the question arises as to why fate should have been so cruel in the case of Sureshji. Well, this injustice does not stop here. At the age of seventy, destiny attacked him fatally. Mango is actually a happy fruit but it nearly killed them. One day in the usual routine, while eating a mango, it fell down and as he went to pick it up, he stumbled. Later, when the diagnosis was made, it was found that he suffered a brain haemorrhage. Since then, they he has been literally stuck in one place without any movement. This is a major crisis for his family today. Literally several lakhs of rupees are being spent on their treatment. But the government is not offering any help to this senior painter. Neither other painters who have a say in Government are trying to help him.

 Not only this, the curator of the exhibition ‘Maharaja’s Treasure’, which was recently inaugurated at NGMA Mumbai, did not include Awari’s work in the exhibition. In fact, Awari made a beautiful portrait of JRD Tata for Air India’s calendar. However, that portrait has not been showcased in this exhibition! This is the story of painter Sureshchandra Awari provides a full experience of what Prabhakar Barwe used to call destiny. We hope that after reading this article artists will come forward to help Awari. If we all come together and help him, we will be able to ‘checkmate’ the destiny that has always been unfair to artists.

17^th June 2023 is date to be remembered, especially for him. Last year, Sankasti Chaturthi fell on this day. He was quite a religious person. Believed in fasting too and would habitually fast on Chaturthi day. He was health conscious and would walk a lot and swim too. He used to regularly visit his daughter, living in the adjacent building and would climb to her fourth-floor apartment very easily. He would regularly paint.

That same evening, he met some members of the neighborhood senior citizens’ association. After chatting with them, he came back home. He noticed that his wife had already left for the yoga class. He felt a little hungry and so went into the kitchen. He saw mangoes which he used to relish. He picked one, washed it and grabbed a knife to cut it. Just then the mango slipped from his hand and fell on the floor.

It’s that critical moment in a man’s life that can either make or ruin your life. Painter Prabhakar Barwe would call it “Destiny”. It is commonly said that a man’s destiny goes with him.

He took the mango in his hand and was about to slice it with a knife. Just at that moment, the fruit fell from his hand and started rolling around. He ran to catch it and that’s where destiny caught up with him.

When the wife returned home from her Yoga class, at 8.30 pm, the house was till dark. She opened the door and saw that he was lying unconscious with vomit all over. There was a mango on his one side and a knife on the other. She screamed. Hearing the scream, the neighbors came in. Someone called his married daughter, who lived in the adjacent wing. A neighbor also called the doctor. The doctor upon preliminary examination advised he be shifted to the hospital immediately.

After thorough investigations, it was diagnosed that he had a brain hemorrhage and there was lot of internal bleeding. Surgery was necessary. The daughter gave permission. He was instantly taken for surgery, that went on for four hours, till the next morning.

This happened on 17 June 2022 at around 7:30 in the evening. It came to light around 8:30 pm. Today is June 17, 2023. It’s been exactly a year since. He has not spoken a single word since then. He cannot speak, let alone stand, sit, or walk. He lies still, in his bed!

He was hospitalized for a month with expenses mounting to 8-9 lakh rupees. Unable to revive him, the doctors advised that he be taken home. For the last 11 months, his house has turned into a mini hospital. He lies in vegetative state with all activities done in the bed. Physiotherapy is also being given. There are two daily nurses who take care of him in two shifts. The monthly expense of just this is Rs. 1 lakh.

As I write this, 17^th June 2023 has just passed. A year has passed, and nothing has changed in his life. His family members believe that he fell while trying to fetch the fallen mango and that’s when this happened. No one really knows what happened. And no one will probably ever know.

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This is the story of Sureshchandra Bhaurao Awari, a seventy-year-old painter. Suresh was 3-4 years senior to me at J J School of Art, Mumbai. He belonged to Ahmednagar. He completed his education with great difficulty. While studying at J J, he also received the prestigious ‘Dolly Cursetji’ award. Winning awards was very common for him – he won awards from Bombay Art Society, Art Society of India, Artist Center. Not just these, he is a Lalit Kala Akademi National Award recipient. Till 2004, he had already held twenty-one exhibitions of his paintings. He has drawn numerous portraits for the cover of Illustrated Weekly. He did all this while managing the job of Weaver’s Service Center.

Just 9 days before this heart-breaking mishap, he had celebrated his 70^th birthday. I am sharing a picture of this celebration. Actually I wanted to write much earlier about this hardworking, sincere, jovial and calm person who always gave priority to his work. In last one year, I called him several times, but he never answered my calls. So, I stopped calling him. However, I called his friend Prakash Bhise to enquire about Suresh and that’s when I came to know about this unfortunate accident. While working on Prabhkar Barwe’s book, I visited Biplab Dutta’s Chembur resident many times. Biplab was Suresh’s co-worker at Weaver’s Service Center. He told a lot of things about Suresh’s health. Though Suresh lives around Biplab’s house, I could not gather the courage to visit him.

After hearing all this I was determined to write about Suresh Awari. But I was not finding the right opportunity. The other day, while searching for pictures of Gaitonde and Barwe, I found the Air India calendar. On the front page of that Air India 2004 calendar, there was a large portrait of JRD Tata. The style looked familiar, so I checked the signature below and that was Suresh’s. Air India must have specially got this portrait made from Suresh. What surprised me most was that when the Air India Exhibition in Mumbai can have portrait of Air India’s fictional Maharaja by great applied art painter like Avinash Godbole, why can’t there be a painting of J R D Tata, the chief executive of the Tata group?

Suresh has now gone past beyond any recognition or honor. But had this painting of J R D Tata been at such big exhibition, his family, who has been going through extremely difficult times supporting Suresh last one year, would have felt some relief. The Air India collection has 5000 paintings and only two hundred of them have been exhibited. I am sure among the remaining 4800 pictures Suresh’s pictures will definitely be found. I do not know who has curated this exhibition of Air India. Because the catalog had not arrived on the opening day. The few copies that arrived were distributed among the chief guests. So, I don’t want to comment on it. But I would for sure say that the curator should have studied Air India’s collection more.

Suresh’s family can be helped through numerous schemes of the Central government, but the poor family is so engrossed in managing daily affairs that they must not have got the opportunity to even investigate it. So, I would appeal to his friends and family belonging to Bombay Art Society, his colleagues at Weavers Service Center, that we should all come together and help the family. This is our moral responsibility.

Note: Suresh’s daughter Deepali Jadhav, his friend Prakash Bhise, painter friend Nilesh Jadhav from his society and his colleague Biplab Dutta at Weaver’s Service Center helped a lot in writing this article. I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart.

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Satish Naik

Chief Editor

Chinha Art News

Some of Sureshchandra Awari’s paintings done for ‘Illustrated Weekly’

Selected professional portraits by Sureshchandra Awari