The Artist Tortured

People wishing for a smart city are living a fool’s dream.

Our recently done paintings got urinated upon, government workers steal the bamboo we installed to guard the trees — and people hate the dry leaves kept as fertilizer in the center divider because they say it creates litter! As if all the shitting cows and the leftover food they give them in non-biodegradable plastic bags do not, am I right?

Let me tell you a story of something that happened a few months ago — it may give you an idea of what happens to countless people when they try to make a difference in our country:

• Existing artwork on the street with ugly and objectionable messages that nobody notices for three years.
• We erase the really bad ones, modify the slightly gentle ones in a way that the final message would be good. Also in respect of the original artists and due to the fear that outright removal would lead to a backlash from them, spoiling all our neighboring efforts.
• But suddenly people start giving a shit and noticing because of the change we’re bringing. Somebody doesn’t understand the message and complains. Government folks come to erase the questionable portions. You almost get blamed for the work you never did in the first place. Luckily people have been seeing your good messages and you can speak in Marathi.
• They advise you to stick to making flowers and butterflies instead of talking about war, rape, drugs, corruption etc. So tough to get anything done over here. Feel like locking myself in a bedroom and swat flies. Never think out of the box.

A bomb in Manchester, people getting killed by mobs based on Whatsapp rumors in Jharkhand. But here we faced 55–75 year old Indians concerned about keeping a middle finger to a plastic bag, some anti-rape and anti-war messages on the road. I am just glad that the internet exists for all the portrayal of controversial comics, nude figures and what not.

Street art can be such a tricky thing. You cannot write a few beautiful lines in Urdu without people thinking of it as an ISIS threat in Hindu and Christian areas. God forbid you depict Wonder Woman in Muslim areas.

Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.