Wishful thinking revisited on canvas

Lost in every day’s hustle bustle of a metropolitan city are the gardens like Lodhi and Safdarjung. They are still lush and showcase Sultanate and Mughal rulers’ love for elaborate gardens and their Indo-Islamic architecture, a synthesis of Persian, Turkish, Timurid Iranian, Central Asian, and indigenous styles. In an attempt to highlight what people are missing out, artist Bahaar Jain replicates how these green patches must have looked in their past glory in her latest series Bahaar-e-Dilli.

Inspired from the works of 18th-century artist Sitaram, who travelled across India with Lord Hastings as his painter, Jain says, “What intrigued me the most is the fact that he worked with watercolours. I feel it is the perfect medium to paint India in because it’s light and vibrant, unlike heavier mediums like oil. Also, Sitaram made his paintings on the spot, but with great attention to detail. Accompanied by books about Sitaram, I visited Fatehpur Sikri and compared the building that he painted to the ones that are still standing.” Sitaram’s work became a window into the past which helped her imagine them in their glory days.

What’s more interesting is that Jain does not limit her imagination to what the places looked like. “Unlike Sitaram, I wasn’t chronicling them for future generations to come. I have reimagined them to a certain extent, painting places in ruins as unblemished but still bearing witness to 600-800 years of history. I wanted to show an alternate image of how they could have looked even today,” shares the 27-year-old doctor researching on the motor and sensory systems of the brain at the National Brain Research Centre at Manesar.

An example of the whimsical aspect of her work is a canvas showcasing the Lodhi gardens. While monument forms the background, she focuses on the pansies bustling with ladybirds and butterflies in front of it. Jain instantly fell in love with Delhi when her family moved to the city when she was 12. Since 2004, she has been a constant visitor to all the historical monuments. “I wasn’t interested in television so I spent most of my time visiting galleries and various historical monuments.

I strongly feel that we should have history lessons outside the four walls of the classrooms, making them see what we are talking about.”Jain’s disappointment with the disconnect people have with their historical treasure is definitely shared by many. The endless scribbling on the monuments, the gutka and paan stains in the nook and corners, and the only zeal to capture them in selfies has left us wondering what went wrong. But Jain still hopes that through her work people will be able to see the glorious past we once had.