Between Two Homes

I don't pain flowers just because they are beautiful, I paint them because they remind me that taking up space can be the most natural thing in the world.

A tulip never wonders if it's too bright...
Too colourful...
Too much....

It blooms anyway.

Maybe that's why I've always loved them.

Growing up in India, tulip fields belonged to Bollywood. They felt like places that only existed in songs. I never imagined I'd one day call the country behind those songs my home.

Now, I find myself walking past tulip fields, and every time, a quiet voice inside me says,

"I really live here."

This painting is for both versions of me.

The girl who dreamt of the Netherlands through cinema.

And the woman who now walks through it.

Maybe that's why this flower refused to stay quiet. Sometimes dreams don't arrive with fireworks. Sometimes, they quietly become the path you walk home..