Smokes at the Forehead of All Dream Created during the unsettling months of the lockdown, this work becomes a quiet chronicle of migrant workers’ struggle for existence—men and women treated almost like animals, trapped between responsibility and helplessness. As the only earning members of their families, they longed to return home, yet the restrictions of governance severed that journey. Life continued to move, yet in strange, painful ways—flowing forward while forcing the poor and middle-class into harsh, awkward battles for survival. In contrast, voices of privilege spoke casually of “psychological disorders,” a discourse that felt distant and insensitive to the everyday crises faced by common people. This tension—between lived suffering and detached commentary—threads through the painting in layers of metaphor and absurdity. Several symbolic references appear: A staircase carries Swami Vivekananda’s Chicago address, only to be stepped on by a careless figure—a gesture symbolising arrogance toward cultural legacy. A small doll, drawn from Bikash Bhattacharjee’s iconic series, becomes a metaphor for the fragile girl-child, frightened within the patriarchal structures that persist even in times of crisis. Sisyphus’ boulder reappears, engraved with political slogans, merging myth with contemporary burdens and the repeated weight imposed on citizens. Two snails in an intimate moment rest upon a wheelchair—life halted, yet continuing in its own instinctive rhythm, suggesting tenderness even within stagnation. Across the painting, smoke, tea stains, and muted colours blur the boundary between dream and despair. Life becomes a restless roller coaster—laden with curses, yet still filled with small, stubborn dreams that persist despite suffocation. Smokes at the Forehead of All Dream becomes not just an artwork, but a lament, a protest, and a testament to endurance—where every figure, object, and gesture quietly reveals the emotional and political turbulence of a world paused, yet painfully alive.