Kshudiram Patra aka Younes Fabian (b. 1952), untitled

Kshudiram Patra was born in Tilkhoja in West Bengal, India. He gained a BA in visual arts from the Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta. He had a stable premorbid personality and moved to France. He was known there as Younes Fabian and gained various qualifications in visual arts from Belgium, Italy and France. He had a relationship with a French woman and had two children in France. However, as he was an illegal immigrant he was deported to India. Soon after, he developed schizophrenia and was left to wander the streets of Calcutta. He was admitted to Antara, a mental health unit in Calcutta, suffering from intense persecutory and grandiose delusions and was described as being restless, ambitious and hypervigilant. He was treated successfully and started painting once again. He experienced a full functional recovery and had an exhibition of his paintings (including this watercolour) in an art gallery in Calcutta in November 2003. He is still an inmate of Antara and all his present expenses are borne by the French High Commissioner in Calcutta. Text and picture supplied by Dr Partha Gangopadhyay.