Where was I on 11th September 2001? I asked myself yesterday and the entire picture unfolded. I was in Paris. I would like to share my experience here.

It was quite hectic for three days; all of us were engrossed with serious issues such as safeguarding cultural heritage, crucial issues related to modern architecture, the effects of earthquakes on ecological changes, the underground transport system and the surface networking of modern cities etc.

We had assembled at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris to participate in the UNESCO Millennium Congress on Safeguarding the Architectural Heritage as part of the Bethlehem Project.

September 11 was the most significant day in my life as I represented my country in the Millennium Congress on World Heritage. At the same time it was a day of great dismay to humanity. 

 Not really knowing what was happening outside our conference hall I made my presentation and it was much applauded. I collected my material and with a sense of gratitude, came back to my seat.

Suddenly there was an interruption; a senior colleague from UNESCO was on his toes waiting for me to complete my paper. With a sad voice he broke the news of the disaster along with a video clipping on the gigantic screen which was used earlier for our presentation.

The colossal attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon— symbols of World contemporary architecture and economic power— shook the people assembled in the hall and for some time we were in a state of speechlessness.

Recovering from the shock, the situation turned tense as the first news conveyed a Palestinian hand behind the attack. The organisers of this Congress were Palestinians (in collaboration with UNESCO). Anyone can imagine the graveness of the situation and the risk we were undergoing.

Tense situation
Rumours of attacks on the Eiffel Tower, Charles De Gale Airport, Heathrow Airport and the Big Ben spread fast and all our deliberations were postponed for the following day. 
However on the same evening, I had fixed an appointment with Raza, a senior artist of international repute, who had settled in Paris for over five decades. I was not sure whether to stick to the appointment after such a disastrous event.
When I called him to cancel the appointment, a profound, deep but strong voice asked to stick on to the schedule. I had no choice. Fortunately my driver, Busher, an Iraqi— conversed in good English and was well versed with the city streets. He drove me straight to the doorstep of Raza’s Villa.

I entered through the first floor of an old building.

A passage leading to the corridor was dotted with a few originals and prints of Raza. The ambience was gripped with the ‘avartan’— a circular waving movement in Indian music with a rhythmic sequence spiralled into a cosmic bindu and the movement emerging out from bindu merging with the spirit of eternal— the ananta.

The pre-occupation and commitment of Raza to Bindu was immediately experienced through the irrepressible colours and the sensuousness expressed through those visual images.

Before I could press the door bell the Master of the house and the Indian Art Movement opened the door. He led me straight to his studio indicating that I was not supposed to sit in the drawing room.

I encountered a big size painting still on the easel with a blue scheme ‘kundalini’ on white background— awakening the latent energy. He said he had just given the last stroke to the painting before opening the door. The brush, dipped in blue paint, was still in his hand.

He sat on a low chair and the first sentence he uttered was about the inhuman action that took place that morning in New York. He expressed his concern about his nephew and few artist friends residing in New York.
To quote his own words, “Why this disastrous action? What are they aiming at? I am hurt, it is the human soul, it is not Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Mexican or American; it is humanity and can’t we preserve the human soul?” Who can answer his questions?

Probably Raza completed the picture, the last of the Kundalini series, as an act to calm the traumatic experience he underwent due to that ghastly event and through that painting offered his prayer for the awakening of right spirit.

(The author is an art historian and art analyst)