Convicts’ brush with art at Victoria

Kolkata : Rashid Khan’s name is not in the list of lifers who will be freed, as announced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today, but this morning at a painting workshop he sounded hopeful even after four of his previous pleas had been turned down.

“I have been here for around 20 years and in the last three years of learning painting, there has been a burning desire in me to put up an art school where I can teach youngsters what I have learnt,” he said at the workshop at the Victoria Memorial grounds on the occasion of World Human Rights Day.

Nineteen inmates worked in tandem with 15 professionals with the easel at the workshop conducted by NGO Flight to Harmony Foundation in association with the directorate of correctional services (West Bengal).

Their works will be displayed in the Victoria Memorial Hall at an exhibition later this month.