The fall of the Twin Towers in 2001, however, took some time to become a diptych. “I began the diptych on 9/11 in 2006, but the work was so disturbing that it took me a year to complete,” said Sahajahan, whose exhibition is on at the Chawla Art Gallery. Yet, Terror Effects on Innocent World fails magnificently to stun the viewer’s sensibilities. Pegged at Rs 4.5 lakh, the diptych portrays a morbid, lopsided head with “Jamini Roy’s characteristic big eyes” on one panel, while the adjacent one has a figure in blue lying amid a heap of rubble against the backdrop of the World Trade Centre.The works range from the tragic to the erotic, with nude forms lying askance in Social Violence. But they are getting the red dots. “The works are disturbing especially with their charged colours but commercially they are doing well,” said Shibani Chawla, owner of the gallery.

The artist who is influenced by the unrest in “the inner life of communities”, however, has conveniently bypassed the tragedy closer home — Nandigram. “I do not wish to make a political statement,” he said.