An 84-year-old’s gallery for Ganesha

UDUPI : Age doesn’t dictate dreams, nor does age drive the discovery of art. For 84-year-old Mattar Prabhakar Kini, weaving his ideas and adding colour to his imagination through art, is a singular way of expressing and displaying his creative side.

Kini, a resident of Ajjarakad in Udupi, is a great devotee of Lord Ganesha, and much of his art surrounds this much-loved deity. After completing his BCom at MGM College, Udupi, in 1959, he shifted to Mumbai to study further. Later, he worked as a company secretary for a law firm, before starting his own IT trading company in 1985. He moved to Bengaluru in 1998, where he set up ‘Sri Ganesha Duniya’, an exclusive space at home for displaying his collection of more than 500 Ganesha statues and figurines. Soon, Sri Ganesha Duniya began to attract many curious and fascinated visitors from the neighbourhood.

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Kini decided to return to Udupi, where he viewed the grim time as being ideal for investing in some creative pursuits. Accordingly, he transformed his flat in Ajjarakad to inspire his work. To keep busy, Kini would purchase magazines and books online. His real dive into art happened when he completed reading those books.