#Bismarck Dias

 Priya, a British sindhi acquaintance asked me to design a logo for one of her wellbeing projects and I messaged my friend. She briefed him about it and within a day or two a beautiful logo was in her mailbox.                

Another friend common to us, who has started a museum in Goa, requested this friend of mine to design his website and a fine design was ready within days, not just the website but the entire marketing kit! In both the cases the designer didn't speak a word about his fees. There was absolutely no mention of remuneration. Both the jobs were done in practically no time although he lived in the Middle East then, running an ad agency. The designs were, as I had expected, superb!

 The name of this friend of mine is Bismarck Dias. 

We went to the art college and though he was my senior by a couple of years, and our disciplines were different, we always felt an affinity towards one another. As a student Bismarck was a topper and we regarded him among the best in our times at The Goa College of Art. It was situated on the beach at Miramar, in Panjim and housed in residential flats. The department of painting was across the street from where the Advertising department, the office and the canteen were. There, in the canteen, we met everyday. 

Bismarck was diligent, meticulous and precise. Those were the days of pencils and crow-quills, paints and brushes, T-squares and easels unlike today when You punch in a command and your computer gives you the desired design within minutes, with much greater finish than something made with human hands! 

Bismarck is a decent man. He smiles readily - a fine sympathetic person, helpful, competent, well dressed and someone who has no issues about too many things. Easy going, but with boundaries for himself. He drinks at functions but almost a teetotaller ; he had chillum smoking friends around him but Bismarck didn't smoke. Respectful of all but not one who would take shit when pushed. Well liked by all, particularly young women which is no surprise! Bismarck has a charm and a fine sense of humour. 

And then one day he finished college. The year was 1982-3. Goa was still the Goa that we love in our memory even today. Being his junior by two years I waited for my turn to finish the course and eventually did. 

As was a practice then, if you had majored in applied arts You went to Bombay (Mumbai), the Mecca of the ad world. We, the painters on the other hand, had many a choice: most either took up jobs in primary schools, or they continued their family legacy —farming, or business or toddy tapping or whatever it was. Rarely in those days, one or two painters did go for further studies in painting or graphics, to Kala Bhavan in Bengal or to MSU in Baroda, on a scholarship. You got "rupees four hundred only" at the end of every month with which to manage hostel dues, semesterly tuition fees, food and art material. The painter's lot was made even more miserable by the simple fact that art supplies cost a bomb! But we managed. Some of us found it easier to quit because in the field of fine art in the years before 1990, there was very little money in India. Meritocracy has not much  meaning even now just as it was then. M F Hussain, India's most famous painter, sold a painting for about ten thousand rupees! Some of them went abroad and lived in France etc. Even there Indian art wans't recognised unless some intellectual like Jeffrey Archer saw something and recommended you to friends. Tate has bought a Christ of FN Souza, ( a Goan!) on a recommendation of one such intellectual sympathizer. But I am digressing... 

Although Bismarck did well as an adman he was drawn to painting and painter friends. He had deeper things to tell about rather than just sell some tycoon's shampoo. He was awarded quite a few prizes in advertising. He climbed the steep ladder of hierarchy, became a creative director and then went to the middle East where he did well too. Recently he stopped advertising completely, he told me. 

Now he paints. Plying between Goa, the state where he belongs and Mumbai where he has gained wealth of experience for years, Bismarck Dias makes it to a blank canvas on a regular basis now. He paints and draws. Bismarck's drawing is excellent. He draws with a clear head and a practiced hand. When he draws he is the person in complete control. However, you may find him confessing to his trusted friends that he is dissatisfied. He sees a certain unconditional freedom in the way a painter paints. He would like to be carefree, draw what he intends drawing not like someone who knows a thing by heart but rather improvise perfection, search for definitions in lines. This is something which a progressive soul alone can observe. It is a good sign, a dear friend of his told him. 

Bismarck is showing at Carpe Diem. Carpe Diem is a private gallery in Majorda, Goa. He will have both, canvases and drawings on display. I wish I could stand before his work and trace the journey of my friend Bismarck Dias in his canvases. From Tanzania where he was born, to Ambora in Loutolim, the quiet village of Mario Miranda; his Mumbai life or the assimilation of the middle East in his work. Perhaps it might not all be there in one place but I am certain to trace its hints in a particular curve here, or a peculiar hue there or even an entire canvas full of identifiable stories, and when I discover it say to myself, " Ah! there it is! ", for I know  Bismarck : he is visually astute. 

Even otherwise, I would love to simply be there in Goa with my friends, meet over tea and snacks and relive the strongest aspect my memory – Goa. I have longed for it for a long time now, for I belong there!