An ‘artistic salute’ to slain jawans
LUCKNOW: At a time when people were taking out marches and burning effigies of terrorism to condemn the Pulwama attack, an artist from Lakhimpur Kheri too launched a protest – but a creative one!
Instead of banners, posters or candles, Aman Singh Gulati, 18, used acrylic paints, brushes, paper and cloth. He created the portraits of the 44 CRPF personnel who lost their lives in the attack.
After completing the 44th painting on Tuesday, he said: “It’s a big day for me. Initially, I thought I might not be able to complete the task. But then I thought about the soldiers and this boosted me to accomplish the task,” said Gulati, who wishes to be enrolled for the Bachelor of fine arts course at Lucknow University.
“I don’t believe in raising slogans or expressing anger in a violent way. To vent my anger in a creative and meaningful way, I decided to paint the portraits of the jawans who lost their lives in the attack,” said Gulati on Tuesday as he completed the 44th portrait.
Gulati reached the Gandhi statue at GPO Park in Lucknow on Saturday evening and had been painting continuously since then. He was surviving on street food and had two blankets to combat the cold.
He was joined by his cousin, Adesh Chandra, who stays in Lucknow.
“I was painting since 7:30pm on Saturday after getting permission from the district magistrate,” added Gulati.
“Initially, we didn’t have the pictures of the CRPF jawans who lost their lives in the attack. But some of my media friends provided me a PDF file having images of all the 44 personnel. After that, I began creating the portraits of the jawans,” he said.
The artist said he wished to hand over the paintings to the family members of the slain soldiers. “In UP, we can go to their places and hand over the portraits personally. But for the jawans of other states, we will courier the portraits to their families,” he added.
On the entire exercise, Gulati spent ₹10,000, which he saved out of his pocket money.
His father, Pradeep Singh Gulati, who runs a small garment business in Nai Basti locality of Lakhimpur Kheri, said he feels proud of his son’s “meaningful protest.”