My memories of Avinash Chandra: Master chef, restless, relentless artist at work

I fell in love with Avinash’s works before I met and fell in love with him. I came across his works at the house of a mutual friend where he sometimes stayed when he visited London from New York, where he then lived. This friend did his best to arrange a meeting between us, perhaps because he observed the effect his works had on me. We both knew of his efforts and something of each other via our friend. We intentionally avoided meeting, seeing no point in it. He was on a path that was totally different to mine. He was licking his wounds from the failure of his marriage, and I was appearing at the National Theatre and engrossed in the rigours of a stage life. What I saw in Avinash’s works spoke to me, reached me on a level I still cannot explain. As my dear departed grandmother would have said, “his spirit met mine”. Our paths never crossed until they did – and that is, as they say, another story all together.

Life with Avinash was never dull. Our home in Willoughby Road, Hampstead, was a magnet for writers, poets, painters, actors, pop stars and their managers and people…

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