Vrindavan, the so-called `holy city', has become associated with widows. Hundreds of widows have been abandoned here by their families as messengers of ill omen, and they live in agony. And what better person to understand the agony of these widows than a widow herself!

Ms Lily Raina, half Maharashtrian-half French, who lost her husband some time ago and is an artist by profession, happened to read newspaper reports about the Vrindavan widows. Out of curiosity, she decided to visit them to get a first-hand experience of their lives. The visit, according to her, was an eye opener in many ways. The difference between her own privileged position in society and `them' was instantly visible.

The living conditions in the widow ashrams, she says, are to be seen to be believed. The rooms are dingy and the inhabitants sleep on the floor. There are no beds, no medical facilities and, worst of all, no avenue of any kind of employment. The widows who live here have no way of earning a respectable living. Their days are spent chanting prayers, with two meals breaking the monotony.

The meals-boiled rice and daal-is brought to the ashrams in gunny bags every day. Social organisations do provide funds for the ashrams, but these are just enough to ensure the bare minimum for the widows.

The artist in Ms Raina instantly recognised this as a potential subject and she set about working on it with a vengeance. Her empathy with these widows and an instant understanding of the bleakness of their position came out in the form of etchings on paper. Nine months of labour on this subject gave birth to 43 different works of art, all of which were on display at the Kumar Gallery in New Delhi recently.

The choice of technique for the subject-metal point on paper-is brilliant to say the least. A variation of etching, this technique essentially involves working on black surface and using a spatula kind of stylus to scrape out the figures. While etching, which is done with a nib, does not allow for grey tones, the technique used by Ms Raina gives the artist the freedom to use varying shades, from black to white.

The essential limitation of the technique in terms of colour becomes an advantage in terms of the subject. It brings out the bleakness of these widows' lives more poignantly than any use of colour could.

Interestingly, the only time the artist has used colour is to paint Lord Krishna, whose image is actually the only source of colour in these widows' lives. Even embellishments of gold and crystal have been used to depict the god, which contrasts with the widows draped in simple white pieces of cloth, and speaks volumes about the aridity of their situation.

None of the drawings, except those in which Lord Krishna has been depicted, has any kind of background. It is just the stark figures of the widows captured in various moods-walking, standing, praying or just sitting. There are no individual identities, and yet it is to the artist's credit that she has been able to portray them in such a manner that, as a group, they attain an identity which surpasses anything that words can depict.

The stark figures, covered from head to foot in white, walking briskly with a stick in hand and a cloth bag on the shoulder, become easily recognisable as individuals of a particular group, of a particular kind.

One thing that would strike anybody looking at these drawings is that despite the bleakness of the subject, the portrayal by the artist of these social outcasts is anything but weak.

The strength of the strokes, the gauntness of the figures enthuses a kind of energy which shows that desolate though they may be, these widows are not without determination or strength; these qualities only need to be tapped.

Which is why Ms Raina has gone beyond using the Vrindavan widows as a subject of artistic exploration and has set up a Vidhwa Care Charitable Foundation to do something more constructive for them.

Set up in June this year, the foundation aims to provide permanent housing and medical facilities for the widows of Vrindavan. It will look into their psychiatric problems, explore avenues for remarriage wherever possible and support them in starting cottage industries.

Having recently got clearance for exempting donations from income-tax, Ms Raina proposes to get the foundation registered in London soon so that NRIs can also come forward and donate liberally for the cause and avail of tax exemptions as well. Half of the sale proceeds from the artist's recent exhibition on this subject will also go to the foundation. Ms Raina lives in New Delhi with her 10-year-old daughter, who studies at the British School there.

With the noble efforts of an artist then, Vrindavan will hopefully be once again remembered for its tales of willowy gopis and Krishna and not abandoned widows.