1. Souza was profoundly struck by Picasso’s art and personality, later describing his encounter with the modern master as a defining moment in his career.
2. In 1944 he began to take part in Left-Wing political activities aimed at bringing the British colonial rule to an end. This made him increasingly the suspect in the eyes of the British staff at the art school. He got expelled from J.J. School of Art for attending the Quit India movement school strike.
3. The US Customs seized a package containing his hand-written autobiography and a collection of 62 nude artworks on charges of obscenity. The autobiography was never published.
4. Souza acquired a bad reputation in his later days and was seen as a reprobate. He also started drinking a little too much, according to accounts.
5. Souza’s mother, who was an ardent believer, prefixed the name Francis after St. Francis Xavier after his recovery from a near fatal bout of small-pox, a trauma that changed his life forever.
6.His big break as an artist came in the year 1955, when his ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’ got published in the Encounter magazine. Souza was introduced to the owner of Gallery One, Victor Musgrave by the editor of Encounter, Stephen Spender.