Edmundo, himself a poet, brought the garden and its memories alive with a number of multimedia events. And now, leaving India on June 15, the last event in his tenure takes place. It is an exhibition of the works of Satish Gujral, the Indian artist who had himself been apprenticed to great Mexican artists like David Alfaro Siqueiros. Siqueiros' restless creativity is evidenced by his residence in Equador, where he was under house arrest, which Gujral describes as: ``One large art gallery where the floors, walls, ceilings and garden were all fused into amagnificent aesthetic composition, part painting, part sculpture, part architecture.'' Now this leftist artist's inspiration has flowered in India in a very different way in Satish.The other artist chosen for this farewell gathering is Jyoti Ranjan Panigrahi, whose tribal-style art highlights the simple pursuits of man--the hunt, the dance, the first inklings of production, of herding. These are powerful expressions of our Indian ground reality. But do we really have to go so far back to find common ground with Mexico?

M N Roy's liberating Mexico from US tutelage is a powerful link between Independent India and Mexico. Octavio Paz's term as ambassador in India, on which a book is to be released at the exhibition, is another important link. And of course, the common heritage we share of the masses seeking to assert their existence as the rulers of the land they live on and not just migrant labour. It is as true for the Chiapas as for Central Bihar. It is the feeling of all these that made Edmundo Font's stayin India memorable and his going away sad. But then, he will carry the memory of India's people with him wherever he goes, like Octavio Paz.