In 1976, Harish Kumar Bhanushali came to Mumbai to survive the drought of Kutch, Gujarat. At present, he stays in Asalpha in Mumbai with his wife and son. His daughter is married and lives with her husband in a nearby bustee. Harish sells his art on the street adjacent to Jehangir art gallery, Kalaghoda.
Back in the town of Naliya, his father was a farmer and his mother was daily wage labour. As a kid, Harish used to make toys out of hay strings and waste material. His initial days in Mumbai were spent in extreme poverty and in desperate search of a job. Once he saw a man on the footpath making puzzles out of wire and realized that he himself can do a better job of wire bending. He picked up junk wire and started making puzzles out of it. Slowly the newfound work started fetching him money, which made him shift to good quality wires and better-finished products. Harish also started experimenting with the forms by observing daily life and creating models of bicycles, rickshaws and motorbikes etc. Sitting in front of Jehangir Art Gallery also helped him a lot, as he used to study the artists and their methods of creation.
Always fond of Bollywood films, Haresh’s primary motivation to sell his art was to be able to buy a movie ticket and then brag about it. Today he takes pride in telling that celebrities like Lata Mangeshkar, Raj Kapoor and Asha Bhosle have bought his artwork. He is famous for his 40 variants of the bicycle. His creations include popular faces like Buddha and Jesus Christ, key chains, bicycles, bikes, flower vases and puzzles etc.
