“Which god is he?”

I saw her standing by the side of the road four weeks ago as I rode past. I thought I was imagining it. But even for me, that would have been imagining things on a super-overdrive. She did actually have a framed picture of David Lynch. Usually I have seen women carrying a small statue or framed picture of one of the numerous gods to ask money for.

I roamed around and asked for her whereabouts. After four weeks, we finally met. She, and a few other women from the same village does this for work. When they need a framed picture of a god, they go to a local framing shop and ask if there is one that the customer never came back to collect. For some reason, she chose this one of a white god this time, she said.

“Which god is he?” She asks me at the end of our meeting and chat as I walked her back to her bus stop.

“The one that has made some of the most beautiful things in the recent years, unlike the others” I said.

“Do you earn more money with a picture of him instead of one of the usual gods?” I asked her about the business. “It is almost the same, but I mix it up. On Mondays and Tuesdays I take Shiv and Hanuman. Rest of the days belong to David, now that you have told me his name. Foreigners always find it interesting. I always thought that was because they related to one of their Christian gods. Or he was a preacher.”

“Well, I can tell you he has a good big bunch of followers. You should always have him with you rest of the week.”

Her name is Raaya. She is Konkani, native speaker of the Indo-Aryan language by the same name from the west coast of India. She takes a local bus to commute from her tiny village along with 4 other women, and come down to the nearest town market frequented by local and foreign tourists. All five of them have their areas decided but it is fluid as per their mood. She makes around Rs400 (roughly £4 a day). She doesn’t work on Wednesdays and Sundays. And also when she is having her period. I told her, this god of hers called David Lynch won’t mind a bit if she had her period or not. So for him maybe, if she feels like she should work during her periods too. In fact, it’ll make him happy. She tried saying “David Lynch” a few times but finally gave up and settled with David. With “Lynch” her tongue twisted every time.

I found out the framed print held by Raaya is a portrait shot by Jeff Vespa @portraits

Tanmay Saxena is a London-based multi-disciplinary artist creating through photography, films, fabric, words, and illustrations: https://tanmaysaxena.uk & https://www.instagram.com/p/DEkYAWtoxsl