Gurugramwale: Painter on the pavement

Pushpendra Kumar says his family ‘totally backed’ him in his choice of ‘arts’ as main subject in college.

It takes a long time, and a demanding struggle, for people to turn their passion into also a way to earn a living. Many of us never do. But Pushpendra Kumar thinks “I’m nearing that objective.”

Pushpendra Kumar painting on a wall in Gurugram Sector 15 (HT Photo)

In his early 20s, Mr Kumar is an artist. This afternoon, he has turned a city footpath into his canvass. He is painting a mural on a roadside wall in Gurugram’s Sector 15. The drawing appears to be an amalgamation of flowers and leaves.

“Just as a drunkard likes to drink daaru, I like to paint, and then paint some more,” mutters the artist.

Mr Kumar was focused about becoming a painter. Recalling his previous years at home in UP where he took up “arts” as his main subject in the college, he says, “My family backed me totally.”

While our sweating painter might be like one of those fine original artists you often read about in flattering newspaper profiles, it cannot be so easily surmised from his work of the moment. The mural is actually being painted by dozens of men spread across the pavement, each working on the same design “which has been finalised and approved by the district administration and by the person who got us this work,” clarifies Mr Kumar.