We have seen our father sit for hours and days together with hundreds of sea stones, collecting them, checking on their shapes and sizes, reciting Galib’s verses and fantasizing, synthesizing a frame to fit them together as one couplet, his “pitching & point chisel” working together with the sand paper delicately and continuously on each grain of stone, unveiling the figures he visualized ….
It was his unique talent to make the stones speak.
But time and tide has a toll on everything tangible; and life needed to be rekindled in the withering pieces which had been so meticulously assembled as a creative endeavor and passion for poetry, by our father.
Close to Mr Syal’s heart was his work and a need to restore them to their former glory was pertinent.
September 2022, the daughter’s of Mr Brijender Syal, Galib Academy Secretary Dr Aqil Ahmad and Ms Bushra Begum started and supported this endeavor and desired to restore & catalogue all stones.
Emotionally charged, sitting on a small wooden table, using the same tools was nostalgic for them.
The work began with a personal touch & passion…. it was as if “Syalji” stood there guiding ….
PROCESS: