A. G. Rufus

My uncle, my dad’s younger brother, whom we call as ‘Bojipa’ was a Drawing master by profession, but was versatile in other forms of  art as well. He used to make Christmas crib set statues.

My interaction with him was not many. But etched in my memory are a few instances, which I narrate. This may be of interest to my cousins and their families.

The photograph posted here is of his family, taken by him about 60 years ago!  Though it lacks sharpness due to technological limitation of the then equipment,  we see here his artistic composition showing his family in full activity and the arrangement of dark and light.

  

Bojipa's composition

Needless to say that my artistic inclination might have come through family blood, for my dad also could draw very well and he was my  first  inspiration, Bojipa was the one whom I adored and was proud of his masterly skills.

My first memory of seeing his painting was when I was 7 years old. He had painted and donated two roll-down canvas paintings of Christmas scene for our church at my home town Thiruvaiyaru. The front roll-down was the scene  of  Angels holding a banner on which was written,” Gloria In Excelsis Deo” and  the Shepard with sheep peeping into the crib through a cut-out at the center. The other was the background of distant landscape and the dark sky with the star shining brightly, which was hung at the back of  the crib.

These were used on every Christmas season almost for nine years until we left the town!!

The next I remember was my visit to his house at Dindigul with my younger  brother during the summer vacation. Those were the most inspiring days of  my life, when he showed the lithograph print of  ’Our Lady of Fatima’  which he had painted and got printed, along with the three color printing blocks of the painting and explained to us the process of color printing.

A Few years Later, in a letter he wrote to my father, he had appreciated the hand painted Christmas greeting card which I had painted and sent to him. It was, I still remember, a landscape  with mountains, clouds and two flying storks. He had commented in that letter, that in that painting he could see a good artist in the making! How glad I was then, to read those lines, no words can describe!

Once, when he visited our house, I showed him some of the ink wash portraits of the then popular cine stars that I had painted. He not only appreciated them, but also gave tips about improving the shading etc. He also commented that I have a good eye for details.

The last time I was with him was most memorable. It was when my dad had expired.  He stayed with us for three days. Everyday morning he and I used to walk to the  church about two kilo meters from home. All the while we used to discuss only  about art and paintings. During one of our conversations, he said that he was very happy that I carried on the legacy of drawing and painting in our family. Of course his son too is carrying on his legacy.

The last thing that remains ever green in my memory; no, not green, remains in ’Raw red blood’  is his tragic death in an accident caused by a reckless van driver.

I grieved his death more than my father’s, (which was a natural death due to aging),  because of the manner Bojipa’s life ended.

But then, these memories will never end.