It was a case of urban meeting the rural — more specifically a city meeting the village — on the platform of art when young minds of Bengal came together for a workshop to understand each other better.
On Friday (October 24, 2025), senior students of the La Martiniere for Boys school in Kolkata spent the day in the village of Konedoba in Jhargram district, painting a wall together with the children of this Santhal-dominated settlement, which is slowly turning into an art hub.
They worked together on the sign of infinity: on one half of the horizontal ‘8’ the village students painted their imagination of a city, and on the other half the city students created their impression of a village.
“It was the case of students from an upscale, English-medium world coming to a backward village to work on the same wall with its children. Once they started working together, the differences melted away in no time, it no longer mattered who came from a prosperous background and who came from a humble background,” artist Mrinal Mandal said about the workshop, titled ‘The Traversal’.
City students creating a village, and village children creating a city on the wall. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
