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  melting pot: M.F. Husain's 'Tale of Three Cities' and (above) Usha Mittal

The final paintings done by M.F. Husain, before he died aged 95 in London on June 9, 2011, have gone on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). They are vivid and have the wonderful feel of evocative Hindi film posters of the old school.

Divia Patel, who curated 'M.F. Husain: Master of Modern Indian Painting', was brilliant in explaining the eight monumental triptychs, each 12ft wide and 6ft tall, but drew attention to the 'Tale of Three Cities' that features Delhi, Varanasi and Calcutta.

'Delhi is the city of democracy and Varanasi the city of spirituality,' began Divia. 'But Calcutta is particularly fantastic in the way that he brings the city of culture alive — you have Rabindranath Tagore standing over the Victoria Memorial; you have Subhas Chandra Bose, a freedom fighter in the middle with protesting figures, and Satyajit Ray was from Calcutta; (there's) Mother Teresa — then he brings in the Bengal Tiger and the figure of Kali and the Bengali Babu being driven by a rickshaw-wallah so you have poverty and prosperity in one image.'

Lakshmi Mittal's wife, Usha, who has given the paintings on loan to the V&A — she would be prepared to consider requests from other reputable museums — turned up at the press view last week and spoke of the genesis of the project.

Usha, who was born in Calcutta, thought MF had succeeded in 'capturing the soul of Calcutta'.

She had known MF since 1986 when he did some paintings for the Mittal residence. More recently when he was visiting London, she asked him: 'Mr Husain, would you paint a history of India?'

He was delighted and said he would need to paint 60 panels. But after doing only one, he said he would need to do 96 — 'you have a free hand, do as much as you want,' Usha told him.

'Unfortunately he could complete 25 per cent before...'

Usha's voice trailed away.

MF once did a painting of Ganesha by getting the Mittals' daughter, Vanisha, when she was 15, to put a tilak on a blank canvas. When the painting was completed, the tilak was on Ganesha's forehead.

'This is a Hindu tradition that the daughter of the house starts the beginning of anything nice so he knew a lot about all the cultures of India,' Usha pointed out. 'He loved India and his desire was that one day he will go back to his country... he saw India as a multi-religious, multi-cultural society.'

Desai's maths

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  India calling: Meghnad Desai and wife Kishwar

Now that the general election in India is over, my 'man of the match' for coming closest to predicting the right result goes to the economist Lord Meghnad Desai.

At a panel discussion organised by Rita Payne's Commonwealth Journalists' Association in the Chancellor's Hall, Senate House, University of London, on April 24, Meghnad declared: 'No point in putting money on the election — it's a done deal.'

He said Modi would definitely win but Meghnad also suggested that the BJP might get a majority by itself.

'There are lots of scenarios of (the BJP) getting 170 and Narendra Modi not being able to be Prime Minister,' he went on. 'There are about 15 people in the BJP having that dream but none of that is going to happen.'

'It's almost certain that come May 16 by about lunch time there will be a government in India — it will be a BJP-NDA government,' he said.

He predicted 'at least' 270-280 seats for the BJP and its core allies: 'You heard it here first.'

Though Meghnad says he cannot be given a ministerial job 'because I am not an Indian national', I think Modi, who needs credible friends in London, should make use of him.

If foreigners can be brought in for cricket, why not for the new IPL (Indian Political League)?

Doon days

Incidentally, Lord Meghnad Desai, who has been spending a lot of time in Delhi, said last week: 'If Modi succeeds he will change the nature of Indian politics forever from the Doon School, St Stephen's and Oxbridge to a much more homely idiom.'

So, are Doon's glory days over?

This is a subject I will be able to take up with the headmaster of the Doon, Dr Peter McLaughlin, who is due in London on June 13 to discuss collaboration on teacher training with Britain's Institute of Education.

Cal returned

Now back home in Suffolk, the actor Madhav Sharma has been filling me in on his recent tour of Kochi, Bangalore and Calcutta with his one-man Shakespeare play, Bharat, Blighty and the Bard.

Especially emotional was his return to Calcutta, where he was born and where he first took to the stage as a physics student at Scottish Church College. He was much moved by the way he was looked after by Dr John Abraham, the rector at Scottish Church, and by Maina Bhagat, of the Oxford Bookstore.

He was also touched by the response of the boys and girls at La Martiniere — 'one girl aged 11 to 12 remained behind and said she loved Shakespeare — she had a shining face and tears in her eyes'.

Madhav caught up with old friends, was amused by the kurta rule at the Bengal Club (fine with dhoti but not with trousers), relived the past in Hastings where his father, K.S. Sitaram Iyer, had once lived ('his old house is now a block of flats'), dropped in at the Victoria Memorial and 'had phuchka on the Maidan'. The 'high point' was an 'exquisite dinner' at a private home hosted by 'the most urbane man' in Calcutta — 'the wines were excellent and the tea made to perfection'.

Madhav and his director, Miranda Lapworth, who went to Kochi and Bangalore but couldn't make it to Calcutta, are now finessing the play with a view to a UK run.

Madhav is much taken with my suggestion that he should spend three months of the year in Calcutta as a sort of drama teacher — 'Yes, I would love to pass on the beacon'.

Cheeky click

Returning to London from Cannes means having to deal with the serious international issues that really matter — no, not the Ukraine civil war or the European elections but a cheeky photograph of Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, published by the German magazine Bild.

British tabloids are in a tizzy for they dare not run the picture which reveals that Kate is, horror of horrors, shaped like any other woman. Odd thing is that this keeps happening to Kate so often that some are wondering if she is practising for Bollywood.

Tittle tattle

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  Miss Pavilion: Atreyee Talapatra with Ray's sand sculpture by Sudarsan Patnaik of Odisha

Now that Cannes is over, I pass on a tip — this is the perfect festival for taking forward the best of Bengali cinema. I suggest next year's Indian delegation should include the new MP for Bankura and her two daughters.

My 'women of the match' at Cannes this year are Atreyee Talapatra, a director with the Confederation of Indian Industry, and her colleague, Amita Sarkar, deputy director-general. Atreyee sets up so many pavilions abroad, promoting Indian cinema, that she has been dubbed 'Miss Pavilion'. She doesn't believe in travelling light and wears 'saris only'.