“Billboards promising easy immigration to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK jut out through ample mustard fields.
Single-storey brick homes double up as canvasses for hand-painted mural advertisements promising quick visas. And in the town of Bathinda, hundreds of agents jostle for space on a single narrow street, pledging to speed up the youth's runaway dreams.”
Images from Punjab, a few years prior to Daksh leaving for Canada.
Studies for drawing
“The assassination of Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi on 31-10-1984, by her two Sikh security guards, led to violent attacks on Sikhs and their properties in Delhi and other parts of the country. The incidents of violence in Delhi started from the evening of 31-10-84.
As a result of these riots, hundreds of Sikhs had to leave their homes and take refuge in relief camps or in other safer places. Many Sikh families lost their male members and thus suffered great emotional and heavy financial loss. The Home Minister made a statement on the floor of the Rajya Sabha that the number of Sikhs killed in Delhi during November 1984 riots was 2146; 586 persons were said to have been killed in other parts of the country during that period.”
*via
Govt Of India -
Justice Nanavati Comission Of Inquiry (1984 Anti-Sikh Riots), submitted in 1986Category Migration, Political Violence, Historical Record
Middle Class English Medium My mother’s English book, photographed in 2022.
Category Language, Middle-Class India, Maternal Memory
Grid Sight
Gagandeep recently became a Patwari. “Three years’ probation, then I’m permanent,” he said. He led me into his tin‑roof office, a small space carved out by plywood partitions. Switching on an inverter, he pointed a remote at an AC vent awkwardly split between two rooms—half here, half there. “We were only allowed a fan, so we pooled money with the office next door and installed this,” he explained.
Category Provisional, Jugaad, Boundries