Experiences of intense and emotionally charged events - encompassing emotions of loss, grief, turmoil and anguish - are often imprinted in local artworks (see Figure 1). Selected by curators and historians, these tangible artistic expressions gradually end up in museums and galleries where they are subject to aesthetic appraisals from visitors and passers-by. In this blog post, the authors unsettle this aesthetic stance with the help of lesser discussed artworks from the Indian sub-continent - artworks that were produced in the midst of the Indian political partition, as people were compelled to traverse across borders