EKDOM NA
2025 - ONGOING
2025 - ONGOING
“Ekdom Na” (Absolutely Not) begins in a state of physical fracture. A leg injury that forced me to re-enter the world at half-speed and a limp. My introduction to the village of Makardah was through beautiful ponds interspersed between houses and winding lanes, and the strange hum of industrial noise. I met Soujit Banerjee by chance, a birdlike man in a pink T-shirt, cutting zigzags across the road on his bicycle. He appeared quite suddenly and became a guide as well as a force of disruption. Within minutes he had abandoned his bicycle and taken it upon himself to redirect my route—through gullies, private properties and sudden confrontations. His movements were erratic yet assured; his presence both welcomed and resisted. In his rhythms, gestures, and side quests, I began to recognize an echo of restlessness that I felt. I began to explore Makardah and the neighbouring towns through Soujit, noticing the slight peculiarities and eccentricities I found. I knew that the sense of freedom I was experiencing in these male dominated spaces was because I was a woman from the outside, for whom the rules of society were less applicable.
Through Soujit I looked for humour while questioning the state of affairs in West Bengal and in India, where development often just means industrialisation and an inflow of commodity without infrastructure or without a system of care for the land. The village and surrounding towns, which on their own are idyllic and tranquil, are now quite run down. The little glimmers of bygone glory days remain as relics of a dream from a not so distant past.
Through Soujit I looked for humour while questioning the state of affairs in West Bengal and in India, where development often just means industrialisation and an inflow of commodity without infrastructure or without a system of care for the land. The village and surrounding towns, which on their own are idyllic and tranquil, are now quite run down. The little glimmers of bygone glory days remain as relics of a dream from a not so distant past.