A man in a Gandhi hat pushes a cartload of bright red gas cylinders past the towering Stock Exchange. A curly-haired woman with a lime-green handbag shops in the mill district. A guitar player and a dabbawallah jostle by the door of a local train.
They're Bombay cliches, but they've been given a Madhubani twist by Pune-based Saaz Aggarwal.
“The thing that really moves me to do this is the incongruity of Bombay,” said Aggarwal, who relocated to Pune in 1994 after many years in Mumbai. “You can see orange temples and green mosques in the hutments, dish TVs and people hanging out clothes to dry. And in the back are tall, sterile buildings which have their own dramas that you cannot see.”
Aggarwal, a long-time writer with two books to her credit, was inspired by a British Council calendar that featured Madhubani artists from Bihar's Mithila region depicting scenes of their visit to London. She began to work in 2005, after a friend at the JJ School of Art in Mumbai bought her a book of Madhubani paintings. Aggarwal's first picture was of a Koli woman.
By November 2005, she had enough paintings to hold an exhibition, in November 2005. The response was so encouraging, she held a second one the next year, which sold out.
Surprisingly, Aggarwal claims she cannot draw. “When we drew biology diagrams in school, I would be the kid whose book the teacher would hold up and ask if it looked like a frog,” she said. “I don’t draw, but I do like to make things.”
Nonetheless, with exposure (and a website), her work has become very popular. “Bombay is so marketable that people buy my things online,” she said. “I work now mostly on commission because I have been busy with writing for the past three or four years. I paint mostly when an image haunts me and I feel I have to express it.”
Here is a selection of Aggarwal's work.
They're Bombay cliches, but they've been given a Madhubani twist by Pune-based Saaz Aggarwal.
“The thing that really moves me to do this is the incongruity of Bombay,” said Aggarwal, who relocated to Pune in 1994 after many years in Mumbai. “You can see orange temples and green mosques in the hutments, dish TVs and people hanging out clothes to dry. And in the back are tall, sterile buildings which have their own dramas that you cannot see.”
Aggarwal, a long-time writer with two books to her credit, was inspired by a British Council calendar that featured Madhubani artists from Bihar's Mithila region depicting scenes of their visit to London. She began to work in 2005, after a friend at the JJ School of Art in Mumbai bought her a book of Madhubani paintings. Aggarwal's first picture was of a Koli woman.
By November 2005, she had enough paintings to hold an exhibition, in November 2005. The response was so encouraging, she held a second one the next year, which sold out.
Surprisingly, Aggarwal claims she cannot draw. “When we drew biology diagrams in school, I would be the kid whose book the teacher would hold up and ask if it looked like a frog,” she said. “I don’t draw, but I do like to make things.”
Nonetheless, with exposure (and a website), her work has become very popular. “Bombay is so marketable that people buy my things online,” she said. “I work now mostly on commission because I have been busy with writing for the past three or four years. I paint mostly when an image haunts me and I feel I have to express it.”
Here is a selection of Aggarwal's work.
A1 kirana and handicrafts
Dinner cruise at Gateway
Getting to school
Parsi Baug
Rainbow city
Thank you, God
Wholesale delivery
Ladies compartment
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!