When Canadians enjoy Fall, Indians celebrate Durga Puja. Ours is a Goddesses/Gods loving country. We celebrate more in the name of Gods than in the name of seasons or anything else. During my last Fall in Canada, while I was away from my country, I happened to ask myself as to how do the Gods reach Indians in a foreign land? But that has an answer. For the religious Indian minds, their God is omnipresent. Whenever you want Her/Him to be there for you, She/He is believed to reach Her/His worshipers in less than a nano second. I wish I had that sort of time travel excellence.
My imagination switched on and I kept thinking about what would Goddess Durga do in Saskatchewan? Will She like it here? Will She be able to bear the prairie’s extreme cold weather? Where will She stay? etc. If I had shared this curiosity with my fellow religious countrymen back home, I would have been totally laughed at by some & disowned by many on grounds of hurting religious sentiments. I kept my thoughts to myself.
As I was running guns with my imagination on a lazy October afternoon, I got a call to come up with an idea for the upcoming Durga Puja celebrations of East Indians in Regina. When people know your job description has the word ‘designer’ in it, they think you do everything: your family’s clothing, your living room cushion covers, that little tattoo on your hand, dog’s birthday invites, party decorations and the list is endless. Sometimes, explaining your profession is the most difficult task. Never mind. I agreed to help and saw this as an opportunity to convert my thoughts about Durga coming to Saskatchewan into action. I presented my story to them and they sounded convinced. I was glad.
An idea that germinated in my head was now taking shape. I created an illustration art based on my thought that Goddess Durga has traveled all the way from India to visit her devotees in Saskatchewan, Canada. The illustration drew its inspiration from Saskatchewan for its background. The gradient of Saskatchewan’s Flag colors, Yellow and Green symbolizes the province. SK is said to have the most dramatic skies in Canada. It is also known as the Land of Living Skies. The exaggerated clouds imagery & flying Canadian Ducks make up a typical Saskatchewan landscape. I depicted caricature styled Goddess Durga, Mahishasur and Durga’s Lion in a natural prairie backdrop. Other motifs were derived from Folk Art of West Bengal & Kantha– a famous Bengali embroidery type done on textiles by running stitches was used as styling to sum up the East Indian roots of Durga. The setting seemed justified for welcoming Durga to SK.
I used this illustration art in the Invite to welcome guests for the event.
Art Details :
Durga Puja is a four day event & in India specially decorated huge pandals are set up for her stop-off. The question was- Where would She stay in SK ? Regina has a lot of hotels & inns with superb hospitality, But Goddesses/Gods don’t put up at 5-star hotels you see. 🙂 They like it the traditional way. So, I set up the Puja Pandal. I styled it in the form of a Tipi. A First Nation’s symbol, the Tipi (also teepee) is the Native American’s dwelling. I was inspired by its architectural form & aesthetics to do the pandal set-up. I used a fusion of East Indian painting style along with Native American flavor by incorporating folk motifs and bird feather elements together. Can you see Durga residing in the Tipi Pandal here ?
Art Details :
I was glad to see people coming up to Durga with devotion and to me with appreciation. 🙂
I feel contend in making people happy. Be it through whichever means- intellectual, social or in this case, spiritual.
Durga in the Land of Living Skies Illustration art Featured in Creative Gaga Magazine Sep/Oct 2014 issue.
Durga in the Land of Living Skies Illustration Art on my Behance Portfolio.
THE COMPOUND INTEREST 