NAME-Place-Animal-Thing: JABBAR

A little something about the kid who finds the windy minus degree of The Hague a non-issue to go cycling.

Jabbar in the tulip gardens. The author takes full responsibility of this art.

Watercolour 2021.

This was perhaps for her seventh birthday. It coincided with her mum sharing photos of her in the tulip gardens, her love for cycling and my painting streak so…

Jabbar is not her name. It is the name I gave her. She is the daughter of my oldest work friend Jasmeeta. When she was pregnant with her I had declared that her child will be named Jabbar¹. Girl or boy, didn’t matter.

So Jabbar it is.

The now, nine and a half year old, is a kind soul. Though she is learning judo-karate, she doesn’t believe in beating up a bully. She would rather be kind, she explained to Jasmeeta.

But there are two instances which particularly stand out for me.

1. When my dad died, she sent a note for me with a drawing of me and my dad making lamps together.

   

2. I send all my Ochre Sky Memoir Writing workshop pieces to Jasmeeta. So as a matter of habit I sent the one I wrote on the prompt “When I crossed the border…”. Jabbar was talking to her dad in Paris when the first line of my piece flashed on Jasmeeta’s phone.

   “They have taken him to the hospital. But he doesn’t look ok.” 

   She gave the phone to Jasmeeta and said, “I think you should talk to Savvy. Some male is in the hospital. I hope twingo is alright”.

   Just like we call her Jabbar, she calls Udit Twingo.

PS: I think it is important to state here, that while this is no art d'excellence this is my art and not Jasmeeta’s, like she has let people in her universe believe.

1. Jabbar is inspired by the Bhopal Gas Tragedy activist Abdul Jabbar, whose work I followed and had the good fortune of speaking to on a few occasions while reporting on stories of follow ups in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy case for the Down To Earth magazine. He passed away in 2019 and was awarded the Padma Shri posthumously.