Wheelchair-handed Shamshudin Mashood celebrated Fort Kochi through his first solo exhibition ‘Machu Kochi: Art and Heart of Kochi’.
Brightly colored images are neatly suspended on fishing nets placed creatively between two bamboo poles. Other paintings illuminate the walls of YWCA, Fort Kochi. ‘Machu Kochi: Art and Heart’ Kochi’, the one-day exhibition, held on November 28, was a dream come true for 46-year-old Machu aka Shamshuddin Mashood.
Machu is quadriplegic (a condition in which there is muscle weakness in all four limbs). He lost his father early and the family struggled to make ends meet. He was raised by his grandmother and by the age of 15 he did not have the confidence to move out of his house. He had no formal education. Machu’s sister used to read stories and he used to draw pictures from her school books. He taught himself to hold the pencil between his thumb and forefinger.
“Sometimes I have to use a cord to pull off the pencil.” Despite the challenge of getting around, Machu does his job with a big smile. “He sheds light on every problem, including being different,” says Vipin Cyrus, a social entrepreneur who organized the exhibition of Machu’s works during the pandemic.
small canvas
Machu remembers sitting under a large mango tree near the beach in the 1980s, when he first started out. “It was hard to pull off anything bigger than a small page. That’s why my canvases are small,” he says. He would sit on the floor and move the canvas with great difficulty. Later the government gave him a wheelchair and it made life a little easier.
His life changed in the 1990s, when tourism promotion brought passenger ships and cruise liners to Kochi. A Swiss woman staying in Fort Kochi opened a cafe called The Melting Pot. He began to exhibit his paintings and then opened the Art Gallery of Machu in space.
Gradually, his works sold out, giving him the opportunity to contribute to the household. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, has continued to support him. A group of his friends also stand by him, who have taken him in their arms at all the events.
They also arranged for her marriage, allowing Machu to move out of their joint family to settle down. He has two school going children. “My daughter has an artistic mind and my son helped us put up this exhibition.”
Foreigners and tourists alike saw him sketching on the side of the road and gifted him paints and paper, and slowly Machu began to explore different mediums. He tried watercolors, moved to oils and now works in acrylics. His inspirations are “nature, Fort Kochi scenery, Chinese fishing nets, elephants and rain”.
Every work in the exhibition is a testimony to Machu’s never giving up spirit.
,