Nelson Mandela, Indira Gandhi, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Manmohan Singh, Mother Teresa, Omar Torrijos, and Rajiv Gandhi – if you had them all in the same room, it would be a major summit! Ambassador Placido P. D’Souza pulls off this coup, if not in the flesh, at least on paper. Some of his inspired sketches of world leaders, artists and writers – each personally autographed – were seen in an exhibition organized by the Spice Club at the United Nations. It was attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who noted, with a smile, that one of the sketches is “someone quite similar to me, someone quite familiar to me. I’m really humbled!”
D’Souza, who has served as a career diplomat in many countries from Indonesia to Zaire and Panama to the US, has always used culture to expand the role of diplomacy, publishing three journals during his tenure to bring the many facets of contemporary India to foreign shores.
He has done over 150 sketches of people from Amartya Sen to John Nash to Han Suyin to Zubin Mehta. “Jean Bedel Bokassa signed my picture of him twice,” he recalls. “First as President of the Central African Republic, and then as Emperor when he proclaimed himself as such.”
The most memorable was his sketch of Nelson Mandela which the leader autographed for him at an airport. D’Souza recalls how moved he was to see the great man walk back to thank the waiters who had served him. His favorite sketches are of his own father and mother, who he feels showed him – through their own example – the power of love. And perhaps that is why the biggest pleasure for D’Souza has been auctioning off several of the sketches and donating the proceeds to charity.
