AN EXHIBITION

 

Sometime in April 2025, Richa Jha, publisher, Pickle Yolk Books , curated a massive exhibition of Indian Children's Illustrators at India International Centre in Delhi. This exhibition, titled BECOMING, was created to celebrate 130 years of Indian illustration. What was so joyful and heartening to me was that my first book Is It The Same For You?  written by Neha Singh, illustrated by me, Priya Sebastian, and published by Seagull Books, got the much overdue attention it deserved, a kind of resurrection after getting published just before the pandemic in 2020 after which the world came to a standstill. Illustrations from this book were blown up into huge installation pages and placed in the centre of the exhibition resulting in a renewed interest in the book.

Here is Richa talking about this book. Her wonderful words about my illustrations truly warms my heart.

Also, Archana Atri, editor at Pickle Yolk Books, talks so movingly about how much she loved the illustrations in my book in her post on her Instagram account over here -  >>>LINK

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When I was around 5 years old and in Class 1 at school, it was Open Day, when classes were decorated nicely and people came to see what the students had put on display. When I climbed up the steps to enter my class, several of my classmates rushed up to me, “Priya! 3 boards full of your drawings have been displayed in class!” And indeed, when I walked towards my classroom, right at the entrance, I saw 3 boards full of my drawings pinned up on them. The teacher had taken the drawings from my drawing books and pinned them up for all to see.

I’ve tried to remember how I felt back then. What I do recall was that I was rather confused at the excitement of my classmates around me. I remember being somewhat surprised that their drawings had been grouped together on a couple of other boards, while my drawings had 3 boards all to themselves. I had no idea why. Drawing was simply something that I did spontaneously and naturally, like eating or sleeping.

Now, so many years later, there seems to be a repetition of what happened long ago when my publisher decided to blow-up my work giant-size for the exhibition of illustrators and eulogized my work with so much enthusiasm. I am happy.

Had I been in my 20s or 30s and received such attention for my work, I'd have probably thought it undeserved and retreated into my shell and showed off some kind of mock bravado in public. Now, in my 50s, seeing this still fills me with a sense of disbelief and it took me several months to process and make a post here. 

Everything happens at the right time. This is a good way to end over 2 decades of my vocation as an illustrator. Many, many thanks to Richa both for this unique exhibition of illustrators and for highlighting my work in this manner.

Photographs by Archana Atri (editor Pickle Yolk Books)

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"The trouble with metrics, I’ve learned, is they have the habit of collapsing right when we’ve got them where we want them. You get a promotion: AI wipes out your sector. Buy a house: the market collapses. Find the love of your life: they find theirs. As the old Yiddish proverb goes, ‘We plan, God laughs’."

~ Rajeev Balasubramanian

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