Mumbai Local 2 (Hidden City)

Set into a ragged field of earthen paper, a pale arch rises like a relic or doorway, holding a miniature city whose edges are softened by time and memory. The surrounding ground is incised with labyrinthine lines—part map, part scar—so that space reads as something both surveyed and wounded, a terrain of lived experience rather than pure geography. Above the rooftops, small red, seed-like forms drift upward, suggesting lanterns, spores, or blood-tinged prayers: a quiet migration of hope that also hints at loss. The restrained palette and tactile relief turn the image into an intimate palimpsest, where settlement, ritual, and landscape merge into a single contemplative breath.