Sand Dunes, Shillong, Assam

Shillong, the capital of the present-day state of Meghalaya, was the capital of Assam—the largest of the north-eastern states of India—when this watercolour was made by Hemanta Misra. Shillong is also where Misra had studied, at St. Edmund’s college. A beautiful city surrounded by three hills, it’s not a surprise that Shillong inspired many renditions by Misra, who was an accomplished landscapist before he turned to cubism and eventually, surrealism. Here, Misra captures the hilly topography of the city’s outskirts with people picnicking on the dunes formed by sand left behind by rivers Umkhrah and Umshyrpi.