THROUGH MY JOURNEY TO REDISCOVER THE ARTIST MY LATE FATHER, MOHAN RAINA (1926_1983)

The other day I was chatting with my
friend, Autar Mota ji. He enquired about the progress made by me in my pursuit. He suggested to me that
I must contact Mr. G.R.HasratGadda,
who has retired from J&K Academy
Of Art, Culture and Languages. He
is a store house of activities in the
field of Art and that he must be in
possession of some material which
may not be of any use to him.
I met Mr. Gadda in his quarter at
Poonch House, Talab Tillo.
Mr.Gadda was very warm and quite
hospitable.I had a long discussion with him during which he told me,
" I know your father,Late Mr.Mohan
Raina very well.
Raina Sahab was an Artist of eminence. He was not only a prolific
but a versatile Artist.He was not
confined to only one School of painting but did a wide range from
Logos, Monograms, Emblems, Land
Scapes, Water Colour, Oil, Portraits to
Abstract and Modern. You name any
Emblem or Logo ,he has done it !
I have accompanied Raina Sahab on
various tours when he represented
our State to participate in yearly 
Exhibitions held in different states
like MADRAS, CALCUTTA, BOMBAY,
BANGALORE and HYDERABAD.
He has done huge MURALS for
Industrial Exhibitions which were
held every year in Numaish(Exhibition grounds) of 
Jammu and Kashmir.His assistant ,
Keertan Dev Sharma used to be a
part of his team.
Now that you have lost all Raina
Sahab's personal collection, how much will you be able to collect from
his widely scattered works.You will
find his imprints all over. 
His work is an ocean and you have
set out with a bucket to collect it !
I have one Raina Sahab's Oil in my
personal collection at Srinagar. In
addition I may be having somecopies
of journals and magazines which
contain his illustrations. I shall send
you copies when I'll go to Srinagar in
the month of May.
Raina Sahab did cover and illustrations for monthly English
magazine, "KAHMIR TODAY"
publishsed by The J&K Information
Dept.and edited by Mr.Mohd. Amin
Pandit. Urdu monthly magazine
"TAMIR" was edited by Mr.Shamim
Ahmed Shamim and Mr.Mohd.Yusuf
Taing.
Raina Sahab did paintings in Artists
Camp at Ganderbal and other places
in Srinagar and Artists Village in
Madras."
The picture of this MURAL done by
MOHAN RAINA for one of the 
Industrial Exhibitions has been 
provided by Mr.Keertan Dev Sharma.
It was done somewhere in 1977_78
and measures 12feet × 8 feet.
It shows contribution of various sectors in the progress and development of J & K State.
(Sudesh Raina)