As a little girl, I loved to doodle at the corners of my Math exercise book because I was bored and my tutor told my mother about this. Latiff Mohidin often stayed with us after his return from Berlin. Pakcik Latip, as I used to fondly call him and still do, advised my parents to let me discover my talent rather than reprimand me. My parents took his advice. So, I was put in an International Art Class organised by the American Expatriate Women in Kuala Lumpur. This class was held every Saturday in a school. I loved it as we got to experiment and play with paint, charcoal, clay, etcetera. Our subjects were still life, nature, figures, patterns from leaves, fruits and so on. I even won a main prize in an art competition — a portrait in charcoal, my favourite medium. I have moved on to classical dance and eventually writing. All thanks to Pakcik Latip’s intervention. In 1969, Latiff Mohidin received a grant from the French Art Cultural Ministry to attend the Atelier La Courrier in Paris and another grant for a Rockefeller Scholarship to attend Pratt Graphic Center, New York. In 1970 he returned home to a different landscape in Malaysia after the grave May 13 incident in 1969. By then he had exhausted his Pago-Pago series. At the same time, Malaysian writers and artists came together and became more vocal and stronger in their fight to realise a stand for the right and identity of a better multi-racial Malaysia. In the midst of this influence, Latiff was staying with us once again. He started a new series. The first piece was done at our house and it was titled Rebirth. In appreciation to my parents who he came to love as his brother and sister, he gave the painting Rebirth, signing at the back of the painting before he moved on. He then went on to do more of this series. In a television documentary interview somewhere in 2013, Latiff mentioned that there were about more or less thirty pieces in this series after he concluded it. Sadly, it was all lost after an exhibition in the Commonwealth Art Institute, London, in 1973. After some time, he found out that a friend in Dublin bought a piece from this series. In that 2013 documentary interview, this painting was shown.  It has the same technique, structure, similar motif and form as Rebirth. LARALUKA 21/10/21