A group of women sit hunched on the ground, their faces hidden behind the odhini. But their posture, the way they seem to clutch one another, tells of loss and refuge. Who have they left behind? Who have they seen killed? Have they found their loved ones at the camp? These are just a few of the questions that the sketch Small Comfort throws up.

This is one of the 100-plus sketches by SL Parasher (1904-1990) that are on display at an informal gallery in the Capital, overseen by his son and daughters. Through bold strokes but with a gentle hand, Parasher draws portraits of grief of the inhabitants of the Baldev Nagar refugee camp near the Ambala railway station, where he was posted as the commandant, soon after 1947. In Cry , a bare-chested man with a topknot, with shut eyes and an open mouth, raises an arm to his head. While the sketch might be silent, his mouth tells a devastating tale of anguish.

Parasher was the vice principal of Mayo School of Arts, Lahore, in undivided India. Post-Partition, he became the founder-principal of the Government College of Art, Punjab, first in Shimla and later in Chandigarh. His journey across the Wagah though — like that of countless others who were displaced — was marked by wrenching despair.

His daughter, Bela Sethi says, “After a hard day’s work at the camp, he used to go around sketching and drawing, as that was what came naturally to him.” Later, Parasher also worked in clay and more in colour. While he never displayed commercially, his children have taken his works across the world, showing them at exhibitions in London and Berlin.

On display at the gallery are Parasher’s early works from Partition and his later colour sketches from Shimla. While the works from the camps make for grim viewing, those from Shimla tell of a far more bucolic life. Some of his works are mounted, but many more lie stacked in drawers.

(Parasher archives , A71, South Extension Part II,Delhi; open between 9am and 5pm. )

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