The deepest demarcation

is a lock-down performance reflecting on Death, loss, and trauma caused by mindless authoritarian decisions and  violation of human rights in India.

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Description:  A threshold of my room is enclosed by a plain white cloth. A gashing slit in the cloth makes a way for my hand with prayer beads to enter on the other side – the side concealed to me open to viewers, while the rest of my body remains concealed behind the cloth.  A prayer is performed. A prayer born out of cacophony of shrieks in the air. A way to come to terms with unbearable loss. The loss of dignity, faith, and the right to life itself. 

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Context: The greatest of human migration in recent history took place in India during this pandemic. The plight of the migrant workers was a result of a systematic and collective failure of a seemingly democratic society to recognize and facilitate the most basic human rights for those at the bottom of the social ladder. In India's context, it would be fair to say that this systematic preservation of this ladder ornamented by cast, class, and religious-based discrimination is indeed a “collective triumph”. We have triumphed in continuing the tradition of discriminating against vulnerable groups of society, resulting in unimaginable mass misery where individual suffering is lost in numbers. Meanwhile, in America, yet another Black man is murdered - just because a black man's life is dispensable.

Instead of being an homage to a particular incident or an individual this work is a reflection on the bleak and haunting reality of living in a world where the brutality of every possible dimension is widely accepted and accommodated by the masses. 

 

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