Resurrection

20.5x28.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge)

‘As a man abandons his worn-out clothes and acquires new ones, so when the body is worn out a new one is acquired by the Self, who lives within.’

- Bhagavat Gita, Hinduism

Lament

28.5x20.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge)

‘If you love me,’ you said,
‘You will want me for me!’
‘If I love you,’ I said,
‘You will love me for me!’

What remained unsaid
Were the threads unseen
Which sew the wounds,
Built the bridges,
Webbed the blanket
Shielding me from me,
You from you
Lost on the way
Trying to keep alive
A myth called ‘We’.

‘You are no more,’ you lament
‘The one I knew and loved!’
‘I am no more,’ I admit
‘Me!’

- Rudra Kishore Mandal

The Ventriloquist

20.5x28.5 inches; Pen drawing on handmade paper with watercolour wash (Click on image to enlarge)

Play with me

Come, pull the string…

Speak through me

You can hear me sing.

Limelight’s on me

You put me there.

When I’ll take over

You’ll cease to be here.

You think you’re strong?

The one in control?

The tables will turn,

With the drum on the roll.

You will call me a monster,

I was moulded by you.

You’ll play the victim

And ask, ‘who’s playing who?’

- Rudra Kishore Mandal