The year 2020 has been unprecedented in our lives and that of the generation before us. The world at large was not prepared for this pandemic and the new normal that it entailed. We are still grappling with this new normal , the frequent Lock-downs, masks, social distancing, hospitalization, increasing covid cases, fear of death, educational institutions shut for months, offices too, online education, social isolation, sanitization, loss of jobs to name a few. It brought several industries like the travel industry, aviation industry, service oriented industry to a screeching halt. Commerce at large suffered and are now trying to crawl back.
Businesses aside, the ones to be hit the most in a populous country like ours were the daily wagers. With no work in cities, and with no savings to survive in a city with steep cost of living, they had to return to their villages which were 1000s of kilometers away, often without any transportation due to lock-down. Newspapers were filled with news and images of their plight of a scale unheard of before. One could perhaps similarities with stories of mass exodus during the times of Partition.
I thus decided to bring the heart breaking images from the news articles to my sketchbook. This is my way of expressing my anguish at what has happened/ is happening. To put into pen and watercolour, the nameless, faceless families displaced and penniless due to lockdown.
