1991. Bikash Bhattacharjee (1940 – 2006) a well-renowned surrealistic painter in India, was a professor in my art college in Kolkata. Through his paintings he depicted the life of the average middle-class Bengali. He is watching my paintings at my exhibition in the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata.
When India was partitioned 1947 to create Pakistan, a new country for Muslims, about 20 million people of Bengal and Punjab were displaced and brutally victimized. Sen’s wealthy, literate family had huge landed property in erstwhile East Bengal, the present Bangladesh, which was carved out to be East Pakistan for Muslims. So for being Hindus Sen’s family was overnight evicted from their home. Without taking any possessions, they fled for their lives amidst people warring over religion, and so became squatted refugees in West Bengal.
