Sadequain’s Illustration for Albert Camus’s, The Stranger and The End by Dilip Chitre
This week in Daak:
1. Sadequain’s Illustration for Albert Camus’s Novel, The Stranger
2. The End by Dilip Chitre
3. A Magical Pop-up Book on Indian Classical Music
1. Sadequain’s Illustration for Albert Camus’s novel, The Stranger, TNS
Art is perhaps the greatest testament to human connectedness. We can look into a painting created by a person wholly unfamiliar to us in language, habit and manner, and yet find pieces of our soul in their work. This connectedness can often manifest in chance encounters and events. In the 1960s, while the Pakistani Painter Sadequain was residing in Paris, he was commissioned by the French Government to illustrate Nobel Laureate Albert Camus’ book, The Stranger. How Sadequain managed to create these soulful illustrations on the philosophical complexities of existentialism without knowing any French, remains a mystery. It is clear, however, that he tapped into his own experiences and created sketches which portray universal emotions and absurdities. In In a letter to his nephew in 1964, he wrote “all 25 colour pictures of the book are actually self-portraits”.
2. The End by Dilip Chitre
It feels So Easy To be One In a billion. That’s just statistic For you And for me Poetry
Nobody understood loss and love as deeply as Dilip Chitre. Emotionally marred by the untimely death of his son, his poems not only dwell on the pain of loss, but also on the perseverance of love. While the act of existence can be reduced to a mere statistic — one in a billion — the existence of a loved one can light up our lives with poetry and magic.
3. A Magical Pop-up Book on Indian Classical Music
We are excited to collaborate with a long-time favourite - Swarpeti! This magical pop-up book by Pratyush Gupta takes us on a journey across the world of Indian classical music through a blend of storytelling, activities, sound and shadow theatre. Illuminate pop-ups in the book with a flashlight and watch in wonder as the swars (musical notes) leap off the page and reveal their ancient origins. With the accompanying app, you can create music and become fully immersed in the story.