India, July 12 -- Raj Kishore Gupta, who has made a stir with his collection of 'Indigenous Accents', a rare representation of tribal art in fine strokes of memory on wood, spent his childhood in Kasauli town among the tall chir pine and chestnut trees, far away from the hustle and bustle of bright city lights. True to a haunting song of yore, his was truly a world of his own in which cool winds blew, branches of trees rustled and birds such as bulbuls made sweet music and the red-billed and blue-necked magpies chattered as he went to and fro from home to school and he made for himself quite a collection of fallen pine cones. Home for young Gupta was in Shakti Ghat, a pristine area close to the woods, just a mile away from the winding main market of Kasauli town. His father lived away from home as he was a school teacher visiting on holidays. But around the bony boy all the time were doting grandparents and his loving mother. The grandfather had already decided that his grandson would inherit his general store which catered to all the villages of the area and the town too. Young Gupta liked holding a brush in hand and painting images he saw around him and putting them on paper, some stolen even from the school notebooks. When he ran out of paper, he would paint the pine cones and this probably was to lead to his interest in painting on wood. Looking back at his childhood, Gupta says, "Besides painting, what interested me most was watching films in the town's cinema hall. I recall that I was just around six when Dev Anand's film Guide came to town. I went to watch it and after that I hummed a song picturised on Anand and Waheeda Rehman: 'Gata rahe mera dil, Tu hi meri manzil, Kahin beete na yeh raaten, Kahin beete na yeh din'. The song spoke of a singing heart, a cherished destination and longing for joyous days and nights never to pass which would take the hill boy on his journey.. The cinema fever was to lead him to make an inspiring acquaintance with a painter called Jiwan Babu whose forte was making hand-painted cinema posters. "I would sit for long hours watching him paint posters of stars and, on returning home, try my hand at it even though I did not have his mastery and hoped that I would achieve it one day," recalls Gupta with a chuckle. But his family had other plans for him and they hoped that after high school, he would join the family business and take it forward. "The pressure was mounting and there were emotions involved as well that the only son should turn his back on the family trade. I was also wavering, not wanting to hurt my elders but wanting to do what my heart was seeking. It was then that I met the prominent painter Vivan Sundaram, nephew of famous artist Amrita Sher-Gil, who used to hold art camps in their ancestral home in Kasauli. It was my conversation with him that sealed my decision and I literally ran away from home to join the Chandigarh College of Art. After the initial shock, the family relented and let me follow the path," the painter mentioned. Gupta's early journey in art began with painting on paper, but after learning woodcuts in college, he moved on. The artist says: "I just transferred my painting from paper to wood and that made me explore the many dimensions of indigenous art, both at home and abroad". Indeed his work speaks for his finesse and passion, be it Indian or African art. The medium he uses is sheesham and kikar wood and finely painted in acrylic paint and sealed with resin. Interestingly, he has been working on this art for many seasons and it was procured by resorts and admirers, but he remained shy of exhibiting it, our modest small-town painter. It took his two daughters to bring it out. A few years ago, his elder daughter Shallu Gupta worked with him in this medium and held a show in the city. Now, his younger daughter Ashita Gupta coaxed him to hold a grand show, curated by Uma Nair, at the Bikaner House in Delhi. "To engage with these works is to witness a profound dialogue with the arboreal form," says Nair. Viewing his work, one is taken to distant shores and forgotten times through human history, and the warmth of connected memories. I glance at his works on phulkari and Kullu art and they bring visions of my late mother's phulkaris and Kullu shawls and a nostalgia I had not felt for a long time. So our runaway friend carry on with your beautiful art...it has the magic to touch the heart. Indeed... Dil abhi bhara nahi!...