MEET YUSUF ARAKKAL

He was born with the proverbial silver spoon - into royalty that is. But at the age of 15, he ran away from home, as his dreams of being an artist were simply not being nurtured. It didn't help that life's tough lessons were made tougher still by the loss of his parents. Though he clearly is not one to be deterred by adversity.

Meet painter, print maker, sculptor, writer, art critic and poet Yusuf Arakkal. When he tells the story of his early life, you can almost see parts of 'Shantaram' come alive. Arakkal has been there, done that. Lived in the slums, worked on construction sites, survived on water, but lessons from those days, he frankly admits, have stood him in the grandest stead.

Today, when he conceptualises and presents something as deep as 'Children of Conflict', he draws on just the conflicts of our time, the conflicts of the past come up as well.

In his skilled hands, 'The Book' goes from the visual to the narrative.

Not one to shy away from the constant experimentation within the defined form and the space, Arakkal's work has made its way into several collections all the way from India to the United States to Japan and Singapore. It is, as always his intimate revelations and forceful outpourings through his various art forms that scream for attention and make you sit up and take notice.

Definitely an artist whose life's work is as rich as his life itself.