As Haldi Mukhi (the yellow faced one), Durga comes to us, exhausted and tired of her relentless life. Here she is Uma and Parvati – the mountain princess, and our abode becomes her paternal home. She visits every autumn, and we pamper her with the fruit of our harvest. As feasts are prepared, her children run outside to play with the other young ones from the village. Watching them leave, she relaxes, and we start to apply turmeric all over her body.
Forgetting her innumerable duties, the warrior mother transforms into the daughter. Eating dessert for lunch, she turns back into the spoiled little princess of the Himalayas. She watches us dance and fill the air with the sweetest of scents, singing songs that act as a record of her complaints. A meditating husband, while she must take care of the world in general, bringing up her own children, creating food in the icy peaks of the Himalayas, warring, nurturing, enabling all of creation…the list seems to go on. Life of a goddess is strenuous, and we listen to the adorable young, yellow faced immortal tell us of her life.

About the Series:
This artwork is part of the “Sister Misfortune” series, through which the artist, Smruthi Gargi Eswar, narrates lesser-known stories from Indian mythology, while reflecting on the narrative surrounding women in our culture. Various Indian goddesses (devis) are depicted with a refreshing artistic lens.
In India, there is a constant burden on women to be “Devi-like”. Through this series, the artist attempts a reverse deification of the goddesses, making them appear like real women, in a real world. The series is an exploration not just of duality, but of multiplicity. It compels us to question our attitudes - women towards themselves, men towards women. How does the idea of a goddess coexist within every woman? How do we, as a society, so casually dismiss, disrespect, disregard, and defile in our everyday existence, those who we have bedecked with gold and enshrined in a temple?