A street and graffiti artist for the last 3.5 years, Dr Pratishtha Banga Chaudhari, sponsored a wall mural project in Pune as a tribute to the medical and front line community in 2020. During the lockdown in India, Pratistha and her family were stranded in Pune for 10 months. Seeing many of her friends and colleagues tirelessly serving COVID patients, risking their own lives, and keeping their personal lives aside inspired her to approach the Pune Municipal Corporation for painting COVID Wall Murals. The PMC loved her idea and facilitated the project. Pratishtha chose to sponsor it herself and worked on the walls for almost 3 days. The main mural dedicated to doctors is 14 feet tall and 24 feet wide and shows a lady doctor guarding the patients under her wings like a guardian angel. The people around her are crowning her as a symbol of respect. The background depicts the virus itself. The ‘mask’ mural is 5 feet tall and 12 feet wide and shows a Bharatanatyam dancer posing in ‘shringar mudra’ and wearing a mask. The painting illustrates the mask as the new ‘abhushan’ or jewellery. Both are on the opposite side of the Guru Nanak Dairy and Verde Society on Matruchaya society wall in Kalyani Nagar, Pune, India.
“I created these wall murals to thank the doctors and nurses who are tirelessly serving the community in the COVID times. Such graffiti artwork has been done in different parts of the world, many dedicated to doctors, but in India, no such street art was made till date”, says Pratishtha. Having received wonderful feedback from the community, the PMC and her medical fraternity, Pratishtha hopes to continue her artwork on more walls worldwide.
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Picture Credit : Dr. Pratishtha Banga Chaudhari
Thanks to frontliners made tangible and a reminder for us all. We need more murals like these worldwide.