After All These Winters

This painting is about companionship. While i was making this painting, i used to think a lot about my both set of grandparents. All four were displaced migrants from undivided Pakistan who eventually found their way to each other through arranged marriages. I don’t know if love was there initially between each of the couples but i could see that it had developed over time each time i met them. That love was visible through small gestures like making food, buying groceries together and caring for kids together. There is a difference between the love our generation experiences and the love their generation experienced. Their love was born out of a mutual sense of responsibility. It grew and became stronger over time. When my grandmother was sick in bed, she used to keep calling my grandfather while he sat outside reading the newspaper. He used to get irritated. BUT, when he went into the room and she didn’t reply to him or speak to him, he spent a full hour trying to have a one sided conversation with her just to get her to respond. This cycle used to continue every single day. It happened in the background while i worked. When my dadi passed, my grandfather passed within months of her. It made me realise that it is so difficult losing a partner at that age. When one goes, usually the other follows within a short span of time. Same was with my Nana and nani. My nana is a stern man. When he was young, he had a loud booming voice and he used to call my nani “Mohini” in that scary voice of his. She used to come running. Throughout my life i did not see any love being expressed from his side towards her. My nani passed recently. For the first 3 days, my nana did not show any emotion. But on the fourth day, he cried. I was so shocked seeing the sudden display of emotion. That generation’s love is different. Their love does not blossom in coffee shops like ours does. They don’t sit for hours,talking about how their day went, over a cup of coffee. So I tried to draw them in our type of setting. What if they had a chance to sit like the way they are sitting in this painting ? Would things be any different ?