The Narration

june 19th, 2020 is the day when i posted the first sketch of Madam. But i did not write Madam beneath the work.

Then on June 24th i posted another drawing, this time writing Madam in the text box.

After that i posted about 40 plus drawings of Madam over a period of 1 year and 6 months. From June 2020 till dec 2021. Now in a few days time, we will enter a new year, 2022.

Madam is now being short listed to leave the original pages of the sketchbook where she took birth to enter into a framed place, and become a set of drawings titled – ‘Madam Series’.

Madam is encountered in punjabi, english, Hindi, at the Farmers protest site, at home cooking, walking paths, discovering voids, solving the mysteries of the universe and the mind and just giving company to the insane, serious, sometimes funny questions coming to my head.

Madam is real and is fictional.

Drawing Perspective

The drawing perspective brings in as to why we draw and the experience of drawing the Madam series. It can be classified under the category of having a conversation. Drawing in the form of a conversation through drawing it and then sharing it. Does it tell us what is drawing ? I mean, i did not write the text or play a recording of a conversation between me and madam. It is a drawn out image. It is also not a story, or a paragraph stating that this is what happened that day between me and madam.

From the above paragraph I am able to extract out – What is Conversation through Drawing ? From one perspective i see that people were responding to the drawing, generating a conversation on what the madam said, or what i said, a play of responses came, making me draw more, or the next one. So this is not conversation, but Engagement through Drawing. And maybe Engagement is part of Conversation. That Conversation engages 2 or more people.

Let us suppose I am making Anda. Anda is Egg omelette. And i break the shell of the egg to pour it on the hot tawa to cook the egg. Now to make the egg dish is like making the drawing and showing it you. To eat it is like engaging with you. Once you see the egg dish, you will eat it. And respond to me. Whether you liked it or not. The egg is not the madam, it is cooking. Cooking, the art of cooking is Madam and me, who creates this moment. Of cooking a meal.

Let us go further.

Once i offer you the meal, you eat it and this could be taken as engagement with the meal, the drawing. Where I drew / cooked it and cooking led to a produce. I say cooking is madam, is because i love to cook, so i love to draw something. I don’t love to knit a sweater for you, but i love cooking. So i don’t love to draw me talking to a horse or but i love to or enjoy bringing Madam as a character to have a conversation with. The act of cooking is madam and not the egg dish or the dish. The dish is the content. It could be bhindi one day, egg another and butter chicken another day. It changes. It is variant. Act of cooking and me are constant. They are in action. Cooking can not happen without me. Drawing will not happen until i decide to pick up the pencil and draw. Drawing is not pre drawing. Never will you find a drawing create itself before the drawer decides to. It is in action of drawing. Never have i walked in my kitchen and found the omelette ready before i cooked it.

Conversation and engagement

I cooked the meal and made you have it. you had a conversation on it, but did not really engage with it. you maybe did not like the dish or you don’t like me. That is not my problem, or your problem. It is not even a problem. It is simply a conversation which did not lead to any engagement. Conversations, I am sure would have layers of penetration on both sides. Maybe i offered you the egg dish and i did not like sharing it with you. I also lost interest in the conversation. But i offered you and you ate it.

Conclusion

Would you like some Egg Omelette ?