Medium: Watercolor and Gouache on Paper

 

​Size: 9" x 14"

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This painting is part of a larger project called Cracking India Illustrated.

For my junior thesis at the School of Visual Arts, I illustrated the novel Cracking India written by the Pakistani author Bapsi Sidhwa. It is a historical fiction about the Partition of India by the British Radcliffe Commission in 1947. The story is set in Punjab (one of the provinces that was divided) and is narrated by the protagonist Lenny who is a little child when the country gets divided.

This is the scene where Lenny and her Ayah stand on the balcony and watch the city burn before their eyes.