LOST

 Name: Karthik H Shetty

Register No: 20SJCCC326

The need for creative expression becomes essential, especially when drawing inspiration from the skillfully crafted short story of Manto, where he compares the state of mind of people and the condition of both the countries at the time of partition. The chaos, confusion and fear are vividly conveyed with his comparison between the then present state of partition and an asylum, which I believe that no other work on similar topics has done it to the same extent as Toba Tek Singh.

The partition has not received the Historical importance that it deserves and the struggles of the people, who had shifted from their places to a new space, leaving behind all the things that they loved, cared and had earned throughout their lifetimes, just based on decisions of opposed political ideologies prevailing between the political parties and the extreme beliefs of some people. The decision to divide a country based on the religion is a flawed decision from its inception, and that is evident in all the bloodshed and crime which was led by the same. Even till date the relationship between the countries is in friction, and the most obvious reason will converge to partition.

Toba Tek Singh was used to explain the situation of being lost or losing our place and the only way I could process his ideas of such loss was through an image which consisted of something erect in the middle, I use the word ‘something’, all that could be identified was a silhouette, which seems to be of a man, showing me the things that had happened as if in real time through his lens. He smiled, while I tried to comprehend the narrative, he had seen it all.

I believe that Toba Tek Singh was not just some person or a mere place; rather he was an experience, an experience that existed within the people of partition and all the emotions of those people, boiled into one. He was our only source, a beacon to the past while footed in our present to understand the events that had happened and look forward to our future with an open mind.

 It was not just Hindus and Muslims that suffered, people from all the other communities had also faced similar situations of struggle and loss, when countries are divided on the lines of a few religions, it leads to ethnic cleansing of the minorities and make their lives harder to live. Also, there are certain references in the story with respect to such minorities

 This Digital Poster has been made based on the image which I used, to understand the narrative. The Black Silhouette in the digital artwork has been inspired from Kerry James Marshall’s work as I felt that his style of using the black figures in his paintings closely corresponds to the image I had imagined.

LINK : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OPuSx9kF45eDZydFAkJ2XQAQ2jhYTqNk/view?usp=sharing