/> "Husain Saab would always have a place in my heart. I learnt a lot from him. As for his flamboyance, why not? Why should a true artiste always be expected to be in rags? Husain really looked after his entire family, his children and grandchildren.

If you tell me to describe M F Husain in one sentence I'd say he's a product of India's composite culture. He grew up in a deeply cosmopolitan household. His mother used to wear a traditional nine-yard saree. He made Madhuri wear the nine-yard saree in Gaja Gamini.

All the aspersions that were cast on him for being anti-Hindu were so completely baseless. I am deeply saddened and surprised by Husain Saab's death. It's hard to associate old age and death with him. He had such childlike qualities about him that I had somehow convinced myself he would remain a child forever. I remember he had got a cheque for Rs100 crores for his paintings.

He had come running to my house to show it like a child who had just got the Playstation ...He was an inconoclast and a genius. But more than that he was a wonderful humanbeing. And in spite of being so much older than me he was a very close friend. First he was my father (the late poet Kaifi Azmi)'s friend, then mine.

Husain Saab was in the habit of walking in and out of my house at any hour regardless of whether we were home or not. He did a portrait of Abba (father Kaifi Azmi) and two huge paintings that occupy a pride of place in my homes...In whichever city we met up he would take to the inner-side of the cities, the dhabas etc.

In Kolkata when I was shooting for The City Of Joy he announced he was coming to pick me up. He made a painting of me as Kali because I was shooting in Kolkata. That too is up on my wall.

Every time he visited and we were not at home he would write one or two lines and sketch something. So I'd always tease him that I didn't know whether we should be happy or sad that when we were not at home when he visited. Because we got those precious notes and sketches. They're more valuable than the actual paintings because they're personalized.

I've kept all of them...I'd request Husain Saab to please explain art to me. Main art nahin samajhti hoon. He used say, 'You've to do nothing. Dekho aur mahsoos karo. ' He had this small psychedelically-painted car. He'd put me into it. He would take me to Grant Road and Bhindi Bazar. And he would say, 'Yeh dekho. Zindagi ko dekho, samjho aur mehsoos karo. '...He had taken me to Dubai for an exhibition. He had painted down from the first floor to the ground. The effect was so dramatic.

The series he has done on Kerala was amazing. We had these fantastic conversations on surrealism. He said in surrealism the idea comes before the painting and that would always be de-limiting.

He said, for the painter a painting was about throwing pain on the canvas and then trying to create contrasts. That line has lived with me. You know, people said Husain Saab was a very savvy man, that he knew how to market himself. But I feel his wisdom came from the knowledge that he had about the art of living.

He came from a very humble background. He used to paint film posters. He was about 11 when his father discovered that very special talent in him.... I've had long conversations on art cinema and life with him. The one thing that Husain and I agreed on was the film today continues to depend too emphatically on the narrative of story.

But film is such a strong audio-visual medium. It needs to go beyond narrative into an area where an experience can be created merely through visuals.

In Gaja Gamini I didn't even try to understand what he was trying to do. It was enough for me that he was trying to take cinema to another level and that I was part of that experience.... Husain loved this country so much and yet he inhabited the world of international art. The amalgamation of the Indian and international sensitivities was so perfect in him that he started a Husain language in modern art. That was his biggest strength.

What a sad loss for India that someone of Husain's calibre had to be exiled and had to die away from his home. For someone who loved his country and brought so much honour to his country to be exiled just on the basis of the ire of one small section who were using his name to further their own political propagandist agenda, was sad.

I absolutely believe that any artiste should not hurt the people's sentiments. But one has to make a difference between hurting sentiments and politicizing the issue. It wasn't the aam aadmi who wanted Husain out of the country. I know what a true lover Husain was of India.

Looking back I wish people like me who believed in him should have spoken much more strongly against his exile. We of course made a noise. But not enough.

We should have pursued it more single-mindedly. It was a huge huge tragedy for all of us that an artiste who brought so much glory to our country should have to spend time his final years away from home. Husain loved the fragrances and the festivals of India. He shouldn't have been forced out. I'll have to live with the guilt of knowing he died away from home. "