I was saddened to hear of the passing of my friend and fellow Malaysian Indian artist Kanniah Tangarajoo on Malaysia’s 66th National day, a few days before his own 66th birthday. I only got to know Raj well late in his career but had the honour of being asked to officiate his solo show, ‘The Pulse of Creation’ at the NSTP Gallery in January 2016. The above image is the prized gift he gave me to mark the occasion. While my own approach as an artist involves conceptualism and more indirect forms of expression, my early drawings and paintings were rooted in the same vitalism and mind-body connection that I saw in Raj’s work. I felt a deep empathy but, more significantly, I saw in the exhibition, the fruits of a lifelong commitment to developing a graphic expression of an inner impulse – an impulse so deeply set that the resultant drawings (the works were mainly rendered in line) seemed to visualize vast expanses of the cosmos and the inner workings of matter itself. I was deeply moved by his vision and extremely happy to deliver the opening address. Rest in Peace Thangarajoo.