"MOMENTS OF REFLECTION", A SHOW AT MUMBAI'S AKARA MODERN HIGHLIGHTED MASTER ARCHITECT RAJ REWAL'S EARLY ARTISTIC PRACTICE.

Ever wonder what it is like for a nonagenarian to revisit their early creations after a gap of decades?

- SHAIKH AYAZ

For the 90-year-old Raj Rewal, the recently concluded Moments of Reflection at Mumbai’s Akara Modern was akin to a therapeutic experience. “It was like coming face to face with one’s younger version. Let’s say, I was looking at them as if I was not myself,” chuckles the master architect, reflecting on the early drawings that survived thanks to the efforts of his wife Helene, who luckily preserved all his notebooks. For those who missed Moments of Reflection, here’s a quick recap: The exhibition offered a rare glimpse into some of the formative sketches that Rewal created back in the 1960s, a youthful period in his life when he had just returned from London after completing his studies in architecture. Shortly after, he embarked on a series of peregrinations that took him to New Delhi, Bombay and Rajasthan. “I wanted to understand the society and political dynamics of that era. I looked affectionately at the land and its surroundings. Despite being poor, most people I met were extremely joyous and free. In hindsight, I feel my perspective was very different from someone like VS Naipaul,