Long back during my college days, there was an article about an artist in Mathrubhumi weekly magazine. What captivated me was the images that were dark. Like Bhikash Battacharjee's paintings, there was this haunting loneliness and a sense of despondency looming in those darkness and its portraiture. I had some sort of an instant liking for his images and his imaginations. That was my first introduction to Yusuf Arakkal. Long after, I met him at Delhi Pallete art gallery, where he had a show of those large canvases in a beautifully crafted gallery by couple of fashion designers. Most of those canvases were completely black with diagonal or straight red lines and few small images in the corners. In the crowd I had a brief interaction: a stranger to stranger.
Then in 2009, when I had a show with Surendran Karthyayan at Chitra kala parishad, one sunday morning as I was sitting behind table in the gallery, Yusuf Arrakal turned up. At that time I was in Ahmedabad and Surendran was from Trivandrum and as outsiders of Bengaluru we have invited many artists whoever we knew by name or through contacts but many chose not to turn up, but Yusuf Arakkal surprised me by coming. He spent almost an hour chatting about many things including our paintings. He had a suggestion to my painting where white colour was predominant, that it needs to be mellow down towards dark.
It was strange that he talked to me that day as if I am known to him for ages! While going back smilingly he said " we met in Delhi in my Show right. When I saw your photo in news paper, I could immediately recollect". It was shock to me that he can recollect an image of a brief interaction after long years.
He left in his black car and he was wearing a black safari suit. Today morning when I came to know that he is no more, for a moment I was shocked. I will certainly remember that one hour rest of my life. Respectfully .
Mr. Yusuf Arakkal at our show in Chitrakala ParishadA
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