Somewhere, in the bylanes of Jafrabad in New Delhi, a 17-year-old college girl, Saba Ikram, unknowingly pays a touching tribute to the late iconic painter Jaimini Roy. In his early career, Roy painted in the Western style, but later decided to discontinue with it and turned to Bengal’s folk painting to give meaning in his art. Just like Roy found his voice by studying the patuas and the Kalighat pats, Ikram found hers through a recently-concluded project called Devi, wherein she documents women's issues of her area through drawings of goddesses inspired by Roy’s art. Ikram belongs to the Sufi Islam community and works with Aseem Asha, who founded the AA Foundation in 2007 and teaches innovative use of new media and documentary films so that art and cinema can bring about social change.

For her project, Devi, Saba Ikram (extreme right) worked with girls from the Sufi Islam community, and outside, to illustrate gender issues and sexual harassment. pics/ Rajeev Tyagi