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Childhood

Directions to My House

 

When you come out of the train station

Take a rickshaw (tuk-tuk) to the tar-wala (cable) bungalow

 

You will come out on railway road

On your left is Naqvi park, next to a gothic-looking clock tower

 

Railway road becomes University Road

On your right is Lal Diggi, a big pond full of water chestnuts

On your left is Victoria Gate, the main entrance to the campus

 

Continue on University Road, at the crossroad turn right on Shibli Road

The name is carved in red stone, In English and Urdu

 

Follow this gravel road, to an open area with two big fruit trees

Turn right again, you will see the red brick house set back

You cannot miss its bougainvillea-covered fence

 

It should not take you very long to get there

It is only seven thousand four hundred and thirty eight miles away!

                                                                                                                   

House at Aligarh

Zarina’s Childhood Home – House at Aligarh

-Zarina

Zarina was born on July 16th, 1937, in Aligarh, India. Aligarh is a small university town in Uttar Pradesh, approximately 100 miles southeast of Delhi. Zarina, the youngest child of her family, had four siblings: Hamid, Saeeda, Aslam, and Kishwar (Rani). Hamid passed away when he was very young before Zarina was born.

 

She was raised in a house provided by Aligarh Muslim University’s faculty housing, where her father was a Professor of History. This house was built around a dichotomy of gender and cultures: the male quarters were quite westernized, while the female quarters were more traditional and reflected Indian Muslim values and décor. This same home inspired Zarina’s piece, The House at Aligarh, because of the architecture and layout.

 

Another aspect of Zarina’s childhood home that motivated her was her mother’s garden. Both of her parents valued nature and thus started a garden. Zarina’s appreciation and fondness of fragrance are rooted in the many flowers planted there.

 

Zarina was very close to her sister Rani, and the two were inseparable. Rani and Zarina shared a special bond that had a significant influence on Zarina and her work. They worked on several projects together, and Zarina would frequently ask for Rani’s input on her work and even did several projects together. They shared this close bond until Rani’s death in 2013.

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Zarina
Zarina Family

Zarina

One unique aspect of Zarina’s childhood occurred when she was about five years old – her father took her for a ride in an airplane. Seeing Aligarh from such a height mesmerized her and initiated her admiration for topology and architecture. In her twenties, she joined the Delhi Flying Club and learned to glide. Her passion for flying stayed with Zarina throughout her lifetime, and some of her works reflect this influence, like the one below: Flight Log.

From Left to Right: Zarina and Rani

Flight Log 1987 Zarina

The vocabulary of flying became part of my vocabulary. I wrote

the following poem to accompany my sculpture Flight Log.

 

I tried to fly

Got lost in the thermal

Could never go back

Having lost the place to land.

 

These four lines are my whole biography.

I can’t go back because there’s no place to land.

Where will I go?

- Zarina

HOUSE WITH FOUR WALLS

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Far away was a House with Four Walls

On rainy nights the ghost stopped by the pillar

The black snake came in the house

On long summer afternoons everyone slept

I run outside to play and burn my feet

One night we heard the owl in the tree

The one-eyed maid said we would have to move far away

                                                                       

                                                                        

 

 

 

 

 

House with Four Walls Zarina

-Zarina

The one-eyed maid was right, Zarina’s family moved to Lahore after the partition for a few years, but they did return. 

Partition - The partition of India and Pakistan did affect the fabric of life for millions of people.  There was an exchange of populations, and millions lost homes and families in the ensuing ethnic violence. I was ten years old when the partition took place. I only witnessed this event from this side (India), and after sixty years there are still aftershocks.

Dividing Line Zarina

-Zarina

H1.  Zarina - Paper Like Skin, Allegra Pesenti, Hammer Museum

Childhood_Copyright
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