She has had no formal training in the art of painting. But she is a wonderful artist. Her eyes twinkle with the thought of colours and canvas. Dominating in most of her art, it is nature that provides her a centrespread. Bidding goodbye to her flourishing career in Mumbai as a marketing head in Tata Consultancey Services (TCS), Sarmistha Ray, popularly known as Rumi in her field of work, emerged as a painter in 1994. She has been the queen of colours since then. The latest exhibition of this Goa-based artist was in March 2016.
She recalls her first exhibition in 1998 at ANZ Grindlay’s Bank in Mumbai when the critics, collectors and the press loved her work. Today, her paintings adorn even the wall of Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi. She fondly remembers how Cymroza Art Gallery gave her an identity when she conducted her first crazy painting workshop for adults - 'Paint your blues away' here. Colours never ditched her since then.
“It’s been 22 years that I embraced painting and I really feel blessed to have adopted this medium of expression,” shares Rumi who worked as a journalist before joining TCS. She gave up a lucrative consultancy practice to follow her heart and become a full-time professional painter. “People say I have lived a fairy tale life,” quips this self-taught artist.
A political science graduate from Elphinstone College in Mumbai, where she had the taste of activism, Rumi always listened to her heart’s calling. She worked as a journalist in magazines like Business India and Update and then accepting the responsibility as business development executive in TCS, she got promoted as the marketing head in five years. Her life shuffled between her homeland Himachal Pradesh, Mumbai and Goa. It was in Goa that she settled for a while, running a shack at Calangute. “But peace was to come to me through my art,” she agrees.
An experience transformed her completely giving her life a 360 degree turn. “I was outspoken, an atheist and communist, a non-believer. But my encounter with the supernatural dipped me into the ocean of spirituality making me a strong believer,” shares Rumi who had this experience in July 1994 when she was attending her ailing brother in a Bangalore hospital.
Her soul soaked in spirituality Rumi turned to the art of painting on August 1, 1994. Nine years later she embraced Christianity and was baptised in 2003. Her growing passion for painting helped her in spreading subtly the message of peace, hope and love to a larger audience.
As a painter’s radical journey for global spiritual peace and her fight against religion, Rumi launched an ongoing peace programme “ ‘A Voice in the Wilderness’ in 1999 which aimed at spreading peace through various mediums “ exhibitions, workshops, music, speeches, prayers etc. “With a little practice everyone can draw, sketch or paint. Give it a try,” she coaxes amateurs. Through her workshops she also offers colour therapy. “Colours can heal,” she believes.
Art elevated her to international platform. After her interactions with prominent spiritual and political leaders her message went louder. Her meeting with the Dalai Lama in Dharmashala inspired her to paint a series “ ‘Colours for World Peace’. Rumi also met Shimon Peres in Jerusalem who appreciated her efforts of conduction a painting workshop in a war-torn country. Invited to Israel and Palestine, Rumi she painted in the midst of violence and chaos.
“In the midst of fighting and bomb exploding, I could only feel the ethereal beauty of the Mediterranean sea. I can never forget its enchanting blue colour which symbolised peace and tranquillity,” she later recalled. Her exhibition ‘By the Sea “ Glimpses of the Holy Land’ was inaugurated by H E David Daniell, Ambassador of Israel to India in April 2004 in New Delhi. Two more shows followed, ‘Mediterranean Magic and ‘Impressions of Israel’.
As a painter Rumi keeps herself busy. Shows, exhibitions and workshops keep her engaged. She loves to face camera. “I am acting in a feature film, ‘Orphan’ and we just did some shooting in Goa,” she informs. Rumi is working on a script too. She also spells her plan to start a television channel. Keeping her base as Calangute, she travels across.
To art critics, “Rumi is a discovery.” Those who know her personally express, “Her life is not less than a miracle.” An artist with a die-hard spirit, Rumi has been fighting with her terminal illness “ kidney failure for the past five years. Financially she has been duped of her life’s savings by a Mumbai-based financial company. The fights are on, on both fronts. Through her exhibitions, she raises funds for her medical expenses and also awaits a kidney transplant in the future. To Rumi, life may be full of struggles but she continues to paint the bright side of it. The glow on her innocent face has not diminished an inch. “Thank God, life is so colourful,” she says cheerfully.
