I believe that this body of work has nudged alive the coiled thoughts latent in many people.

Preferring to smile, rather than brood, abstract artist, Sunil Gawde, delights in breaking through the barriers that confine art. He talks to Maria Louis about his latest series of innovative installations, Blind Bulb, etc. and the ultimate challenges that fire his imagination

I decided to renounce the world. In 1980, I got a jolt and lost faith in the establishment, when I discovered that I had only just scraped through my final year of college despite being a first class scholar student. I was only 19. I undertook a journey on foot towards Pandharpur, a place of pilgrimage in Maharashtra, with Rs 80 in my pocket. Sometimes, I walked with a group of varkaris (devotees), but mostly I was on my own.

Those two months were truly a revelation. They proved to be the foundation of my life, for I retreated into myself and absorbed the knowledge one gains from being without any attachments. Along the way, I figured out that I had left home because I was frustrated and not because I had attained the ultimate detachment from life. When I understood that clearly, it was time to return.

If the idea is powerful it consumes me completely. Many ideas crop up in the mind, but one should be able to differentiate between what will remain an idea and what will translate into art. If an idea has substance, it lives with me day and night – like Blind Bulb, etc. I believe that this body of work has nudged alive the coiled thoughts latent in many people, and hence, even a layperson could react to it.

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