In Sudhir Patwardhan’s Paying the Bill (2005), a woman stands stoically at the counter of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board office, umbrella tucked under one arm and her mouth gripping a purse so that her hands are free to rummage in a plastic bag. She is likely searching for the bill.
Just hours before seeing this work at the ongoing retrospective of the artist at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai, I had hiked to one such ramshackle office myself, to pay dues that wouldn’t go through on the internet. It is impossible for Mumbaikars not to glimpse ...
11 January 2020
