The Students’ Welfare Sub-Committee and NSS, Unit One of Gokhale Memorial Girls’ college had organised ‘A Workshop on Patachitra’ on 8th January, 2024 to celebrate Students’ Week. Two of the renowned artists – Sonia Chitrakar and Mustafa Chitrakar - from the village of Pingla conducted the workshop. The girls learnt how the paint is prepared and what features define a painting as ‘patachitra’. ‘The patachitra I drew on that day left an indelible mark on me’, says Atysha Pal, a student of Semester 5 of the Department of History. ‘I was so influenced by the art that I kept on researching about it and of late have great ideas on using this style of art on various objects like the walls of a dilapidated building. This form and its bright colours can brighten up both the walls and the mood of the people living within those walls.’
Shazia Anjum, a Semester 1 student of the Department of Communicative English says, ‘The more I think about it, the more I am mesmerised by the secular aspect of this art form. Art breaks boundaries and makes the world a better place’. Such was the impact of this workshop on the attendees, that there has been a rising demand for organising a revisit of the artists from the students.