Aashiana

This painting by Salman Toor weaves a picture of a smiling mother and her two daughters sharing the joys of reading. The mother’s adoring eyes are set on her daughters, one of whom seem to be tracing a line on the page open before them. Their world is fairy-tale like, as the artist depicts through his choice of colors and imagery: the house is decorated with candy canes and bunties, the trees are painted in red and yellow. Whatever they are reading seems to be of less concern to them than their own little intimacies. I think this painting highlights the fact that these people are disconnected with their immediate environment. Reading is meant for learning, for knowing, but does this family know, or can it relate with, the people vying for their attention right next to the book on the table? Those who look, dress, and talk differently and who belong to the lower social classes? These ordinary looking people are sitting and standing right in front of the mother and her children, but this small family does not seem to have noticed them.