Latest news with #Gujral


Mint
03-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Affluent shoppers ditch the pricey designer wear for affordable chic
New Delhi: India's young and affluent shoppers are increasingly opting for multiple, more affordable outfits for special occasions rather than a single, expensive designer piece of clothing that mostly sits in the wardrobe. The trend has spawned new brands while compelling established designers to expand their collections. 'We're seeing strong demand for lighter silhouettes like embroidered kaftans, especially from women in their 40s," said designer Jayanti Reddy, who operates two stores in Delhi and one each in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The prêt or ready-to-wear segment contributed nearly 50% to overall sales for Reddy in the past few years. She now plans to double down. The future second stores will be focused mainly on occasion wear rather than bridal, she said. At her DLF Emporio store in Delhi, the focus is entirely on non-bridal pieces under ₹1.5 lakh, aimed at shoppers building their trousseau or looking for elegant festive wear, Reddy said. 'With a range of lighter pieces, we're seeing a lot of walk-in customers, including international shoppers, buying off the rack. That's very different from the bridal segment, where clients usually visit by appointment." Also read: Inside India's underground network of fake e-commerce reviews India's wedding and bridal clothing market is huge, with scores of small and big designers feeding into the demand. But most designers and brands have very high price points, which many Indians still can't afford, said Harminder Sahni, co-founder, managing director and partner at Wazir Advisors. The under ₹50,000 category has a lot of potential, he said. Anniversaries, birthdays and more Consumers, too, want to dress differently for more social occasions such as anniversaries, milestone birthdays or even smaller wedding events. 'We're seeing a very clear shift in India toward lighter, more versatile occasionwear—and it's being driven by a younger, more style-conscious consumer who wants their clothes to do more than just show up for one event," said Ashray Gujral, founder, Dash and Dot, which operates an outlet in Delhi, aside from an online store. The retailer is seeing demand for draped dresses, coordinated or co-ord sets, embroidered jackets, and statement separates that feel festive without being overwhelming. Social media and destination celebrations have also influenced this change, according to Gujral. The retailer offers outfits priced between ₹8,000 and ₹15,000, but buyers are willing to spend up to ₹30,000, especially for occasion wear, said Gujral. 'Today's customer is looking for pieces they can re-wear, restyle, and even travel with. Heavy formalwear has its place, but there's growing fatigue around one-time, ornate purchases." Most retailers said the demand is being led by consumers aged 25 to 40. "For larger multi-brand Indian occasion players operating in this segment, about 20% of the entire business by volume is being driven by this segment, and ethnic wear and occasion wear is a strong category because of the growing middle class," said Sahni of Wazir Advisors. 'India is at an aspirational buying behaviour stage, and it will remain this way for some time to come, making room for many such brands and designers." The founder of a large Indian multi-brand retailer told Mint that about 20% of the entire sales come from sub- ₹35,000 designer wear products. About 34% its entire sales volumes come from this category, and about 60% the company's business is contributed by products below ₹50,000 from designers like Anushree Reddy, Seema Gujaral and Amit Aggarwal, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. However, there is not much demand for the ₹10,000 and below category, so the retailer is phasing out those products and collections. Also read: Return fraud is rising. E-commerce platforms are done playing nice A new crop of designers Homegrown ethnic wear brand Libas, backed by ICICI Ventures, recently launched an occasion wear line, adding to its more casual collection. 'Consumers are getting smarter with their choice: spending ₹10 lakh on a one-time outfit which they may not repeat? They are now wondering if they can spend that money on something else," said Sidhant Keshwani, the brand's founder. 'The younger audience is driving this shift." While global fast-fashion retailers offer occasion wear outfits, more shoppers are looking for 'westernized Indian silhouettes", said Pushpa Bector, senior executive director and business head of DLF Retail Ventures. 'A lot of millennials and Gen Z buyers are looking at pret collections of slightly younger designers. Designers, too, are changing over some parts of their collections from what used to be big, multi-occasion-wear to easy-to-wear cocktail lines which are multi-use and occasion," Bector said. 'Evening wear is being bought quite a lot, and that's why designers are getting into diffuse or experimental collections and pret collections to capture the younger audience's market." Also read: Does e-commerce threaten corner stores? India's consumption survey data has some clues Aza, a multi-brand retailer of high-end designer wear, has expanded its offerings beyond bridal to include lightweight kurta sets, co-ord sets, statement jackets, embroidered kaftans, and festive loungewear–all designed for celebrations that don't require full-scale bridal dressing. It has also onboarded emerging and contemporary Indian designers who specialize in elevated everyday and semi-formal wear, making fashion more inclusive across budgets and occasions. "The shift towards more accessible Indian wear is being driven by evolving consumer needs, where occasion dressing is no longer limited to big bridal events. With a rise in celebrations like anniversaries, bridal showers, festive office gatherings, and intimate parties, shoppers are seeking ethnic styles that are elegant yet wearable," said Devangi Nishar Parekh, managing director of Aza Fashions. 'Consumers today also value repeat wearability and are more conscious about investing in pieces that offer versatility across multiple occasions," said Parekh. 'Adding to this is the growing influence of contemporary Indian designers who are reinterpreting tradition through a more minimal, functional lens–favouring breathable fabrics, modern cuts, and subtler embellishments."


News18
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Harsh Gujral Reveals What He Would Do If His Partner Cheats On Him: 'I Will Slap...'
Last Updated: Comedian Harsh Gujral was recently also seen in Karan Johar's show, The Traitors. Comedian turned actor Harsh Gujral collaborated with Chitranshi Dhyani for a quirky new track, 'Cheater". During an exclusive interaction with IANS, Gujral talked about his reaction if he ever found his partner cheating on him. When asked, 'If your partner cheats on you, what would your first reaction be? A slap or a cold breakup?" he told IANS, " I'd slap myself and break up. Why slap her? Someone who cheats might slap too!" However, Dhayani will opt for a different approach. 'I give silent treatment. I go completely quiet. No anger, no shouting. The other person doesn't even realise what's wrong—that's why I've never had a relationship!" she revealed. To this, Gujral added, 'That's true! My version of the silent treatment is humorous. People leave my life laughing." Gujral further revealed what would he do in case his ex ever wishes to come back. 'I'd say, 'Bring another one along—we'll be four and play carrom!," the comedian shared laughing. Asked to choose between love and loyalty, he went for both saying, 'If there's loyalty, love follows. If there's love, loyalty follows. If neither is there, it's a mess." Spilling the beans on how he came on board the song, the 'Mere Husband Ki Biwi' actor stated, 'So, I was doing my stand-up show—stand-up comedy has become my life now, it gives me everything. She came to watch the show, and we had a quick interaction and a bit of fun roasting each other. Then she contacted me again later. The song was already ready. I liked its vibe immediately. I thought, if even I can dance to it, anyone can! So, I said yes right away. We shot it in fifteen days, edited it, and it was done!" Talking about why people might find the track relatable, Gujral shared, 'Gen Z especially. They don't take cheating seriously—it's the dating app era now! We're old now. But this song works for everyone: Gen Z, millennials, even older people." 'Cheater" was released on June 29 this year. First Published:


Indian Express
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
When Indira asked I&B Minister Gujral to hold her raincoat: ‘You can't do any other work'
Decades after being eased out as the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for his 'softness' on media censorship soon after the imposition of the Emergency, I K Gujral said in an interview, 'Democracy and democratic institutions are a package… You cannot be partly democratic and partly non-democratic.' He added, 'Therefore, once you start compromising with institutions of democracy, you cannot be democratic. And that applies even today, and that will apply for all times to come.' Gujral, who later became PM, was moved to the Planning Ministry, with the I&B Minister portfolio going to V C Shukla, who was seen as more pliant by Mrs Gandhi when it came to carrying out her orders. In an early 2000s interview to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) – now known as Prime Ministers' Museum and Library (PMML) – Gujral recounted an incident that led up to his removal. In the interview, part of the NMML's oral history project, he said Mrs Gandhi was so disappointed with his handling of the Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) Movement, leading up to the Emergency, that at a public rally in Gujarat, giving him her raincoat, she said: 'Please hold it. You could not do any other work.' On the JP Movement, Gujral said, 'Indira Gandhi was at a loss to know how to handle this rising tide… She was not adequately responding to the allegations of corruption in Gujarat. Jayaprakash Narayan emerged… later. Therefore, the more politically she felt out of breath, the more she blamed the media.' Once when she sent him a chit in this regard, he said he replied, 'Indira ji, the media in the last analysis is a marginal activity; under no circumstances a substitute for political action. Political battles have to be fought politically.' Gujral remembered another instance when someone close to the PM called him to say that JP's rally at Delhi's Boat Club had fizzled out, even though he had from his own office overlooking the venue observed that it was one of the largest rallies seen in the national capital. Also, when AIR announced that a Mrs Gandhi rally, held before JP's, was 'gigantic', Gujral recalled, the PM called him to argue whether 'gigantic' was the right word instead of 'very large' or 'unprecedented', finally agreeing that the word used in the news bulletin was fine. On June 12, 1975, when the Allahabad High Court declared Mrs Gandhi's election from Rae Bareli in the 1971 Lok Sabha polls null and void, the PM expected that Gujral as I&B Minister would handle its fallout. 'She was completely convinced that I could do anything,' Gujral said, adding that then Congress president D K Barooah alleged that all the 'damage' was being done by AIR. Gujral also remembered the night of June 25, 1975, when power supply at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg was cut off so that newspapers could not come out the day the country heard about the imposition of the Emergency in the country. He said he was not aware that the Emergency had been clamped, and came to know about it only at the Cabinet meeting held on June 26 at 6 am. He had been informed about power cuts and arrests by the Principal Information Officer at night, but did not sense the seriousness of things immediately, Gujral said. At the Cabinet meeting, Mrs Gandhi asked the then newly-appointed Home Secretary, S L Khurana, to brief the ministers. 'Everyone kept quiet except Swaran Singh who asked… 'But there is already an Emergency!'. (He was referring to the Emergency declared at the time of the 1971 Bangladesh War, which had not been formally withdrawn.) So, to that the Home Secretary said: 'That is an external Emergency, this is an internal Emergency'.,, She (Mrs Gandhi ) was composed, but concerned. Whatever I can recall… I would not say she was happy.' Gujral also recalled Sanjay Gandhi telling Education Minister Nurul Hasan just after the Cabinet meeting, 'I understand that there is a lot of activity of the Jana Sanghis in the University.' Hasan, Gujral recalled, replied, 'Yes, I have also heard and we have already made a list and sent it to your office.' Sanjay then told Gujral that he wanted to see the news bulletin, to which Gujral replied that he could only see it when it was broadcast. Mrs Gandhi intervened and assured Gujral that the matter would be resolved. Gujral did not pass any order for press censorship on June 26, he said in the interview. His father told Gujral that he had not taken part in the freedom struggle to see this day. His Information Secretary A Jamal Kidwai told him, 'Sir, you are in politics, you get out of it. I am a bureaucrat, I will fade out.' Gujral was called to the PM's residence by her P A RK Dhawan that morning (June 26) at around 11 am, he said. The PM was not there, but Sanjay told him, 'Look, it won't work like this.' Gujral recalled having shot back, 'Till I am here in the ministry, it would be as I wish it to be… I am accountable to the Prime Minister.' Once he returned home, he got a phone call from Union minister Om Mehta to send the list of (press) censors to Sanjay. He refused to send office papers to him, adding he was not imposing censorship. Gujral said that when he met Mrs Gandhi next, she did not seem happy about his handling of the censorship. When he said, 'Indira ji, this is not my cup of tea,' Mrs Gandhi said: 'Yes, that is what I wanted to inform you. It needs firmer handling and you are very soft.' He readily agreed, saying: 'Indira ji, thank you very much. You have been very kind to me all the time and I owe you a lot. But now I am talking to you, not as your minister, but as your friend… When I came home. I switched on the radio at about 9 o'clock or so. It was announced that V C Shukla has been appointed as Information Minister.' She made a very interesting observation in the Cabinet soon after, Gujral said. 'The Cabinet did not know that I had been relieved of the charge. She said the last minister… of information (referring to Gujral) was credibility-crazy. I thought it was a compliment, but she thought it was damnation.' Gujral remembered how Mrs Gandhi went on to send him to Moscow as India's Ambassador in 1976, perhaps because she still respected him personally. Gujral said he even asked her why she did not send a Communist like Nurul Hasan, to which she replied that she wanted an Ambassador of India in Moscow, and not an Ambassador of Russia in Moscow. Gujral added: 'The Emergency was a bad blot on our national life, but the nation learnt a lot. Nobody now talks in terms of harsh days, nobody talks in terms of compromising institutions and nobody talks in terms of 'committed judiciary' because we know that we have passed through that experience.' Gujral quit the Congress in the 1980s, joined the Janata Dal and went on to helm the United Front government as the PM from April 21, 1997 to March 19, 1998.


Hindustan Times
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
In birth centenary year, a new Satish Gujral work
In his birth centenary year, a significant and previously undocumented, unexhibited conte drawing titled The Condemned (1957) from the Cyrus and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala family collection, now adds to Satish Gujral's oeuvre. Compositionally similar to the oil painting of the same name, which was also made in 1957, this work ranks among Gujral's finest condemnations of the effects of war and forced migration, with the kind of seething, tragic intensity that set Gujral apart from his peers. With a major exhibition of his works poised for later in the year, this work may be the newest inclusion in a positive reassessment of Gujral's position among independent India's modernists. Among all of his peers who witnessed Partition in Punjab and Bengal, Gujral's works are the most visceral. Satish Gujral returned to India in 1955 in a blaze of glory after an apprenticeship for two years in Mexico under David Siqueiros. Training under the great Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros against the backdrop of Mexico's response to the years of revolution, Gujral developed a temper for the nation as subject, as well as broad, free, open-handed strokes that he adapted to both his drawings as well as his paintings. As an apprentice to Siqueiros, the most politically radical of Los Tres Grandes (the three greats, Siqueiros, Rivera and José Clemente Orozco), and greatly influenced by the murals of Orozco, Gujral's own inclination was to adopt themes of social realism. The decade of 1947-57 became for Gujral a foundational expression of his response to the violence that he witnessed during the chaos of Partition. In the midst of Partition violence, he had driven a truck bearing refugees from Jhelum to Indian Punjab, and witnessed the barbarity of a brutal conflict as it played out. Gujral's work has often been likened to his own condition, but to attribute the power of his early works to his hearing disability would be doing the artist a disservice. He painted the charming reflective portrait titled My Sister (1951) but also the agonised Partition paintings, of roiling rage, and the enactment of violence, all executed with a powerful monumentality. Writer and art critic John Berger reviewed his exhibition in London in The New Statesman. Berger wrote: 'He is as single minded as Picasso… I am certain that his exhibition should provoke both humanly and artistically as many people as possible.' The drawing mentioned at the beginning of this article, however, was made after his return to India and has its own interesting history. Cyrus Jhabvala, an eminent architect who also headed the School of Architecture in Delhi, was very active when the capital city was in the throes of intense building activity immediately after Independence. With his firm AAJ, Jhabvala not only designed public buildings like Kirori Mal College, Max Mueller Bhavan and Telecom Building, but also the sprawling Kurukshetra University, which was realised over 10 years. Jhabvala was also enthusiastic about commissioning art works for the buildings. One of the artists he chose to work with was the young Satish Gujral, who was growing a reputation for rugged originality. Gujral did not disappoint. He designed murals in relief in ceramic, painted wood, and with tiles. The actual forms drew from primitive shapes and toys, even as he imbued them with a particular grandeur. While Gujral would continue to enjoy the patronage of Jawaharlal Nehru, and made murals for important State buildings like Punjab Agricultural University, Gandhi Bhavan and the Secretariat, in Chandigarh, Jhabvala openly disagreed with Nehru on the design of Ashoka Hotel, and did not take on any government commissions during Nehru's lifetime. Jhabvala, who also acquired two small works from MF Husain, probably bought The Condemned in this phase of Gujral's career. An artist himself, Jhabvala was fascinated with the simultaneous histories that Delhi inhabits. Many of his drawings are exquisitely rendered panoramic views of the grandeur of historic monuments and the chaos of ordinary street life, as in his work, Fakhr-ul Masjid, Old Delhi. James Ivory, collaborator with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala on his films, commented that 'Jhabvala's record is highly personal and subjective and at times, very precise — as precise as the 19th century photographs taken of the same are before and after the Indian Mutiny of 1857'. Among all of his peers who witnessed Partition in Punjab and Bengal, Gujral's works are the most visceral. While he is often placed alongside the Bombay Progressives who also graduated from the JJ School in Mumbai, or the Delhi Shilpi Chakra artists who had migrated from West Punjab, Gujral probably is more akin in spirit to Somnath Hore and Chittaprosad in his reading of the catastrophic event. More muted than his oil paintings, his drawings on the subject, such as Days of Glory (1954) powerfully depict women in mourning. In The Condemned, the solitary figure, probably the victim of rape, her body taut with pain and mortification, fills the frame. In contrast to the flowing lines of the figure, Gujral added hard-edged abstract elements to the fringes of this work, thereby enhancing the sense of pervasive violence. In his centenary year, Gujral will be celebrated as much for the depth of his broad-based practice — as architect, sculptor, painter and muralist — as for his passionate depiction of the human condition. Gayatri Sinha is a curator and art historian. The views expressed are personal.


Indian Express
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
The art of war: How artists have chronicled India's conflicts
'Make Art, Not War,' wrote contemporary artist Subodh Gupta on Instagram earlier this month. Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, Gupta here suggested 'art' — and its aesthetic qualities — as an alternative to 'peace'. But beauty is not all that art is about. A work of art captures the period of time in which it was made better than almost any other medium, says Kishore Singh, Head, Exhibitions and Publications, DAG. 'Art is able to offer perspectives that reflect social and political issues as well as the artist's own thinking,' he told The Indian Express. And because art is subjective, the viewers' sensibilities are as important as those of the artist. 'This allows for diverse commentaries to emerge, thereby offering alternative perspectives based on one's own lived experiences — an indulgence not available through any other medium. Without this documentation and its ability to absorb the multipolarities offered by art, society would be in danger of becoming a unipolar world,' Singh says. Responding to war has been no different for Indian artists. Their visual evocations of the tragedy and triumph of India's wars have created a corpus of artworks that now serve as indispensable documentation. Here's a brief history. The birth of a nation India was born in 1947 not as one nation but two. The Partition resulted in the largest exodus in history, displacing as many as 20 million people, and communal violence triggered in its wake left as many as 2 million people dead. This was an event as devastating as any war. Satish Gujral poignantly captured the loss of life and the idea of home in his Partition series. His figurative works in predominantly sombre shades of black, grey and occasional browns narrated the anguish and despair of those, including himself, forced to leave everything behind. Wrapped in tornado-esque swirls, his figures spoke of the storm that hit their lives. Gujral began the series nearly a decade after the Partition. He drew from memory but the scars were deep enough to inspire a body of work 'devoted to the idea of violence, loss, and migration in the face of uncertainty and death,' according to Singh. In the 2007 documentary on the Partition titled The Day India Burned, Gujral had said, 'This experience sunk in me so deep that after Partition when I began to paint without any conscious effort, this human suffering, this brutality of man to man, became my theme.' Many artistic iterations of conflict revolve around the idea of loss, an emotion captured all too well by Tyeb Mehta in his paintings Falling Bird (2004) and Trussed Bull (1956), the latter being the second most expensive Indian artwork ever sold. 'He did not directly paint his experience of war but depicted it as a loss of power and humanity, expressing its grotesqueness and exposing vulnerabilities,' Singh says. Soon after Partition, India and Pakistan went to war over Kashmir. This war, which began in 1947 and lasted till the end of 1948, would be the first of many fights the two countries would have over the years. The sequence of events — the establishment of the piquet on the Bodh Kulan Ganj cliffs, the unfolding of the battle in the Gurais Valley, the subsequent developments in Uri, and the final battle in Zoji La — was recreated in a series of drawings by documentary filmmaker Serbjeet Singh, better known for his paintings of the Himalayas. These paintings were commissioned by the military itself. 'He was tasked with documenting the first Kashmir war of 1948 and the role of the Indian Army in it by General K S Thimaya as a means of recording history,' DAG's Kishore Singh says. A set of 47 drawings by Serbjeet Singh titled Kashmir War went under the hammer in 2018 at a Bonhams auction. Decade of two wars Serbjeet Singh's services were sought once again, this time by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to document the India-China war of 1962. Singh was reportedly asked to draw a landscape of the North East Frontier Agency (renamed Arunachal pradesh in 1972) to understand where the Indian army had faltered. Many of Singh's drawings continue to be displayed at the headquarters of the Indian Army in New Delhi. But it was with the 1965 India-Pakistan war that the significance of art as a medium of documentation received unprecedented state support. Under the Army's 'witness programme', four members of the Bombay Progressive Art Movement — MF Husain, Ram Kumar, Krishen Khanna and Tyeb Mehta — were invited to the war zone in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. Husain reportedly made quick drawings of what he saw, a few of which were auctioned by Pundole's in 2019. 'To both heal the emotional trauma and to create a visual record, Husain made several drawings of the destruction he witnessed, and recreated visuals of battle stories as recounted by the soldiers. As a token of appreciation for the jawans, he offered to draw portraits of anyone willing to sit for him. Several obliged, and the artist recollects giving away scores of drawings to his models and also brought a few back for himself,' notes the auction house website. In a previous interview to The Indian Express, Khanna had confessed to painting a distressing image of a soldier who was blown apart inside a tank. When no one bought it, he gave the work to his son. Mehta, on the other hand, recreated the Dograi Battle on canvas. 'Tyeb once showed me the slide of a painting he had done after this visit,' recalls art historian, critic and curator R Sivakumar. 'Most artists are more humanists than jingoists, and that makes them good interlocutors in times of peace but bad soldiers for the nation in times of war.' Liberation & loss The largest body of anti-war paintings emerged from the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, with artists such as Bikash Bhattacharjee, Ganesh Pyne, Somnath Hore, Nikhil Biswas, Nirode Majumdar and Rabin Mondal creating 'unusually bleak paintings, prints and sculptures' as a form of 'societal indictment'. In his familiar primitivist style, Mondal, for instance, addressed the large-scale displacement caused by the war in his Crossing the Border series. 'It continues to impact us just as strongly as in the 1970s, reflecting the futility, but also the dangers, of borders that separate countries and their people,' DAG's Singh says. The tragedy of what had unfolded in Bengal inspired artists around the subcontinent. Gulammohammed Sheikh ditched his otherwise vibrant palette to depict the horrors of the violence in a rather grim etching titled Riots (1971). Equally poignant was Bhupen Khakar's Muktibahini Soldier with a Gun painted in 1972 and executed in his quintessential figurative style. K G Subramanyan's terracotta reliefs bring the perpetrators of violence and their victims into sharp juxtaposition. 'That through the deft manipulation of clay, he gave sensuous embodiment to the aggressor's inhumanity and the victim's vulnerability, makes these works powerfully expressive,' says Sivakumar, recalling how the artist said that such works 'come about only when an outside event is perceived as an assault on one's being'. Like with darkness, there is light; in despair there is hope. Chittaprosad's Bangladesh War (1971) epitomises this sentiment. 'It celebrates the creation of Bangladesh, replacing the invading Pakistani army with the forces of the Mukti Bahini. The country is represented in the form of a woman bestowing the boons of education, prosperity and wisdom on her citizens. It is a moving homage to the creation of a new identity and must be the most poignant visual tribute — a hymn really — to the birth of a new nation ever painted by any artist,' Singh says. Scars that stay The thing about war is that its effects are felt long after the guns go silent. The trauma of violence passed on through generations forms the subject of the practices of many contemporary Indian artists, who may not have witnessed war first-hand or were too young to process the severity of the losses. In her There was a Home series, Prajakta Potnis superimposes found pieces of wall with peeled wall colour, alluding to the debris of houses in the aftermath of war. This series, which she began in 2024, serves today as a grim reminder of the homes lost in Kashmir in the recent India-Pakistan clashes. The prolonged effects of war are also captured with nuance by artist Baptist Coelho in his series Bandages-Bullets. He uses the seemingly contrasting objects — both symbols of war — to make a comment on perception. 'In 2015, during my exhibition in Leh, a little girl, upon seeing gauze bandages in an artwork, remarked that they looked like cartridges,' the artist recalls. 'Her words revealed how trauma and conflict shape perception, turning symbols of healing into markers of destruction.'