Exclusive Interview Of John Devaraj

A man dressed in black sleeveless tee shirt and grey pants with a hook shaped whale bone pendant in his neck introduces me to his team of nearly 30 members with a warm smile. This was a varied and a special interview as it was not in a closed room of a five star hotel, which has a time limit. But, rather a journey to the little hearts (street children) who have a vision greater than any man and whose master (John Devaraj) dreams under an open sky and builds his castle strong on the ground. Though he has no or less support, his spirit for the good cause lays a strong foundation for his hope and dreams. Explore John Devaraj though an unknown personality to many, strives to make a difference in each and everybody's life.

John Devaraj and his art

What is art for you?
Art is imitating nature. Art transforms ugly things like poverty, hunger, starvation and injustice into beautiful things. Art is power, joy and revolution. Art is about change. Art is radical.

Will you please share something about your farmhouse made totally of granite slabs around two full-grown Neem trees near the Bellandur Lake?
In nature there is no straight line. So my architecture is about imitating nature. I wanted to use very little fossil fuels, as we are running out of it. They are echo friendly as well as eternal. However much you use RCC, it will live for only hundred years, but I build houses from mud and stone that is eternal. Just imagine the houses in glass that you see in Bangalore. Bangalore is an air-conditioned city, but you close everything by glass, you create so much of heat and then try to cool it, it's such a foolish way of building houses.

Many people come and see my house in Bellandur. In fact there was a study made by BBC on 75 special houses in the world. Among them seven houses were form India, in which two houses were from Karnataka and I built both.

Will you please share the story behind the new logo of United Games "Born free" as it is associated with one of your creations? Why have you given it a female figure?
It was at the height of the demolition of Babri Masjid. Then I was very disgusted with the society. So I planned to build a monument along with children for hope. I called it hope sculptor. I wanted people to come together to build something and not to destroy.

So, I went to Austin town with six tons of clay and I asked the children what should we do. They told me many different things like, tiger, lion, Parvathi, Ganesha, Saraswathi...Then one child finally said, " Anna I don't know what you want to make, but it should be that of a girl" I said excellent, what should the girl be doing? Then she stood up with one polio leg and said, "The girl should be flying free. She should be born free" So that is how I built the sculptor.

Later I was telling this story to the united games delegation people who had come to Bangalore. When they were seeing the image, the sun was setting at the back and the image was looking very dark. They said "This should be the symbol of united games of India" I created this sculptor in seven countries like Hungary, Germany, Australia...(cant recollect) everywhere.

Read more about John Devaraj's 'Born Free Art School' for the street kids in the next page.