Manohar Devadoss – a life of indomitable courage and cheer

December 07, 2022 08:43 pm | Updated 11:59 pm IST - Chennai

An artwork by Manohar Devadoss.

An artwork by Manohar Devadoss.

It is hard to believe that Manohar Devadoss is no more. He was so full of life. Born in 1936 in Madurai, Mano was blessed with a natural sense of perspective that led to art as a hobby. He found his métier in ink-on-paper, a tough medium but a fortuitous choice. While in his thirties, he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable eye disease that progressively led to blindness. As his colour perceptions faded, the black and white of ink-on-paper became his means of expression. He devised methods to draw and kept at it till almost the very end of his life. Thanks to him, much of Chennai’s and Madurai’s heritage is preserved on paper.

A chemical engineer by profession, Mano married the talented Mahema in 1963. What ought to have been a fairy tale of happily-ever-after was marred by an accident in 1972 that left Mahema a quadriplegic for life. It was a shattering blow for a young couple with a child, but they rose to meet the challenge. For years, Mano and Mahema kept each other going – he making sure she was taken care of by a team of helpers, and she reading to him while he worked late into the night on his art. It was a unique team. And there was not a social event they missed – Mano proudly wheeling in Mahema immaculately dressed in silk and a circlet of jasmine in her hair. A wave of cheer would go through the room on their arrival – lit up by her smiles and his infectious hugs and laughs.

Any other couple would have saved for themselves, but not so Mano and Mahema. Each year, he prepared greeting cards featuring his sketches, and they would be sold by Mahema, with the proceeds going to various charities – chiefly those that researched eye ailments. When Mano turned an author, the royalties, too, went the same way. Mahema passed away in 2008, but Mano continued with life, writing more books, making more friends, giving more to charity and sketching till he could do no more. He still made it a point to go out and travel, despite being completely blind. Last year, the Government of India conferred the Padma Shri on him. What he ought to have got was a Param Vir Chakra, for the courage with which he led his life.

(The writer is an author and historian)

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