Durga and Apu

I painted this in 2016 for an art exhibition.

The story behind the painting:

This painting depicts the characters Durga and Apu from the book Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (Indian). The story is about two siblings from a rural area in Bengal. Their village is so remote and hidden from the modern world and they have never been out of the village. Both the kids have heard about Trains  (which they have never seen) from their father and desperately wish to see one. Once, they attempt to reach the railway station on their own but fail due to the large distance between their village and the train station. At a later point in the book, Durga catches Malaria and passes away. On her dying breath she asks her brother "Apu will you show me the train one day?".

 I love this book so much and the above scene has hit me hard. It breaks my heart whenever I think about Durga's death and her absolutely innocent yet unfulfilled wish. So I decided to change the story a bit and let her achieve her dream in my painting. 

In this Durga and Apu are holding hands while looking at a train, very far away from them.

I thought of drawing the train at distance, (instead of drawing Apu and Durga at a railway station😅) to depict, the gap between developed and underdeveloped societies as well as to remind us how difficult it is to access 'privileges' for someone from an underdeveloped society.