The Hammer that Heals

Her carving tools are helping her to rise above pain — and to rise to life. Sunny,her younger son,died in December last year,and Mohinder is bravely picking up the pieces of her life as she chisels away on raw wood.

Mohinder has been hailed as an iconoclast. Over the last few years,she has successively hit out at the dark side of the society — female infancticide,the plight of the girl child,the pain and loneliness of a woman — through her works. What came out at Kalagram is a reflection of what is gnawing at her: the pain of losing her child.

Mohinder says she cherishes the moment when the Indian Express photographer,Kamleshwar Singh,asked her to hug her sculpture to pose for a photograph. “I have been emotionally attached to all my works but had never hugged any. After hugging the ‘Mother and child’ sculpture,I felt I had hugged my Sunny. The beauty and the pain of the moment hit me equally,” she said. Now in her early 50s,Mohinder borne the slings and arrows of life for nearly two decades. The young girl,who specialised in sculpting in 1982,was not allowed to touch her carving tools for the next 18 years. Her husband forbade it: it was against “family honour” that she be a sculptor. Mohinder gave it all up,hoping to build a good family life. After much emotional and physical abuse,she finally had to leave her marital home along with her two young sons.

With much will and personal strength,she rebuilt her life and flourished as an artiste,till the trauma last year shattered her once again. Now,her elder son is her only source of strength,besides,of course,her art. her soul

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