mahirwan mamtani who was born in sindh pakistan but grew up in india is painter graphic and multimedia artist mahirwan mamtanis golden moment came when he was awarded daad german academy of exchange service scholarship to study painting in munich in the year 1966 since then he lives and works in munich in this interview given on email he shared some of the moments of his life situation of art in india and some inspiring note to the youthq what brought you into the field of arta from childhood i had an inclination to draw and paint for me it is a natural inner necessity to express myself through artq according to your statement we are constantly wearing our masks and play different roles we are changing but not removing our masks can you elaborate more on it in context of life of a human beingayes this statement was in connection with our human condition that we are ever busy on putting different masks emotions and play different roles like on the theatre stage there is much more hidden under the mask if we become aware then we see our true self behind the mask the observerq a very famous quote says love has no language and music needs no borders does the same hold true for your work also considering you lived and worked in different culturesa there is a tendency everywhere in the world to understand art art may not be understood but perceivedfelt inside like music unfortunately we put art in drawerscompartmentsborders and try to label it when we do not understand my personal work when not understood is sometimes labeled as must be indianq what do you have to say about your indian roots did it help you to achieve the position you have today and howa my indian roots have some deep spiritual connection in germany in the 70s i worked under the influence of constructivism meeting of four circles mandala form and i called it centrovision in the 70s and 80s i was included among the neotantra art group in india and we had several exhibitions in germany and usa curated by dr lp sihare the then director of the national gallery of modern art new delhiq what challenges did you face in your early lifea i was born in sindh at the age of 12 due to the partition of india in 1947 we had to leave everything behind and came to delhi it was a question of survival my school education was disturbed lying on sickbed i had to study by myself being the eldest i had to earn money at the age of 16 for our big family of 8 members i had several jobs and side by side studied in the evenings i first obtained bachelors degree and then the national diploma in artq how did you overcome them and do you have any inspiring note for youngsters who are feeling stressed with todays fast moving lifea my studies