In 1996, when eight National Front Chief Ministers came to me with the offer of the post of Prime Minister, to avoid a face to face refusal on my part, I left my bungalow and went on a drive on the Ring Road and finally took refuge in Haryana at the Sona tourist resort. I stayed there till the candidature of Deve Gowda for Prime Ministership was announced. This was the only way I could protect my time for painting and writing and also to rebut the charge of my critics that I am power hungry.

One day Maneka Gandhi turned up at my place and from the door itself said “Raja Saheb hum apki ‘billi’ le ja rahein hain” (I am taking away your cat). I requested her not to take my cat, but she could take my goat instead. My very close friend Sompalji had come to see me. I requested him to take my goat to Maneka Gandhi. He said that he had brought the Maruti car and would go home and bring the van to take the goat. Then I realized that while I was talking of the painting of my goat, he was thinking of the actual goat which I had kept.

Maneka rang up in the evening and said that the painting was lying in the hall to be put up when a lady turned up and offered Rs. 50,000 for it without knowing who had painted it. At that time I did not want to part with the painting and declined. However, the incident gave me great encouragement that my work was recognized because of its art content and not because of my signature.

In 1999, Harsh Goenka organized an art exhibition on “Bombay”. He had invited seventy top artists for the show. He also asked me to put up some paintings. I had done a crow with the back-drop of Marine Drive and another one of a defiant beggar who was about to be crushed by a well-heeled foot. I named them “Bombay Crow” and “Bombay My Foot” respectively. I added one more painting and gave them for the show. Initially I did not want to sell them.

My friends advised me that this will look very snobbish as the top-most artists are all selling their works. Then the issue of pricing came up. My friend Nayan Momaya’s father is a very discerning art collector. I requested him to price the paintings as I had never sold any paintings and had no idea of their price. I also requested him to price them on the art content because I do not want to hear the criticism that I am charging a price for my signature. Of the three that I displayed two were put on sale. They sold promptly.

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