Chennai: Tragedies and setbacks are an inevitable part of people’s lives. It’s how they respond to it separates one from the other. Some people break down and lose hope while others battle all the odds and emerge successful and leave a mark.
Manohar Devadoss, an artist from the city belongs to this second group as despite suffering from a degenerative eye condition that has now left him blind completely and other personal tragedies he took everything in a positive stride and continued his passion towards drawing that has now got him the prestigious Padma Shri award.
Manohar Devadoss, though a scientist by profession, due to his immense love towards art, started sketching right from a young age. He has chronicled many historical monuments and places of landmark. Despite suffering from vision loss, the octogenarian has not only continued sketching until five years ago but is also a writer who is still active.
Speaking to News Today, Manohar Devadoss says that he never learnt the art and it was something that came to him naturally. ”I was always drawing and sketching from a young age. However, I once drew my college chapel by seeing him and from then on I decided that all my drawing had to be original.”
When everything was going well he suddenly faced one tragedy after the other in his life. First in 1972, a car accident left his wife Mahema, paralysed below the shoulders. Around the time of the accident Manohar’s vision began to detoriate as he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition and lost vision on one eye.
Speaking about that traumatic period, he says, ”It was very difficult, I was losing my eyesight and I had to look after my wife as well. It was only during that time with the support of my wife, I decided to draw with a kind of urgency. My wife used to sit next to me and read books and our bond also became stronger that created a positive vibe. Despite all the odds we led a happy and courageous life.” His beloved wife passed away 12 years ago.
Most of the art work that he did was with very limited vision in one eye and he has mostly done art with an ink pen. ”To my fortune when I started drawing, ink pens became available in India and I found that drawing with ink came out better to me. Also when I started losing my eyesight it became a boon as even in dim light, I was able to see black ink on a white paper so ink drawing was easier,” he says.
He believes that every negative thing will bring with it a positive one. ”I suffered cataract in 1981on the other eye and I was unable to see until the surgery was done. That was when I decided to write a book. Had the cataract not come, I wouldn’t have become a writer,” he says.
His first book was Green Well years which explains in detail about his childhood days in his hometown Madurai based on his drawings. He has now written seven books and he says that all of that has got rave reviews and was received well by the people.
For his excellence in art he has finally got the well-deserved Padma Shri and speaking about it he says, ”It’s a very nice feeling that I got it when I was not even expecting it. It is only because of the efforts of the people around me who pledged me and took all the efforts in order to help me get the award. My only sorrow at the moment is my wife is not here with me to share the joy after I was conferred Padma Shri.”
About his upcoming works, he says, ”I am co-authoring a book with Sujatha Shankar called Madras Inked, that has collection of monuments and other landmarks in Madras that were drawn by me. It will be realeased soon and I also have a collection of short stories which are very realistic about strong women since I admire them. I don’t know when I am going to publish it. I am also learning carnatic music from Prabhu, a student of Kalakshetra and I also practice harmonica very earnestly,” he says with a smile.