Partition of India 1947
Gay Bawa Odmark's personal oral history has been accepted by the Partition of India 1947 archives. This history was written by Prof. Courtney Gilbert of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.
Ms. Gay Bawa Odmark (born Jacqueline Gay Roma Bawa Bhalla Singh) was born in the city of Lahore in 1940. Her parents had met in England while her father was a student there. Her mother (Maude [Joan] Elsby Rudkin) was British, from Cheshire in the north of England, and her father Bawa Balbir Singh Bhalla was of Hindu and Sikh descent. After marrying in England, her parents settled in Lahore, which was home to her father’s family.
Ms. Odmark’s early memories of pre-partition life in Lahore revolve around her family home, which was always open to visits from friends and family members who often came for visits. The family had six servants, all Muslim men, including two cooks. She also had a nanny who cared for her. She remembers many visits to beautiful gardens with her parents and drives throughout the city in a chauffeured car.
Because she was so young during partition, Ms. Odmark likely didn’t understand the political events unfolding, but she was fully aware of the violence and anxiety that permeated the city. Her family’s home was across the street from a hospital, and she remembers seeing bodies dumped in front of the hospital at night. Stories of trains arriving in Lahore loaded with dead bodies have also remained a part of her memories of that time, as well as a terrifying night when the family in the house next door was attacked and she could hear screams and heard stories of the violence the family faced from her family’s servants.
As violence escalated, her mother was nearly shot while standing in the family’s garden (the bullet just missed her; the family never learned who had fired the gun from outside the house). This event triggered their decision to leave Lahore. Ms. Odmark’s father traveled with her and her mother to Bombay. (She doesn’t remember if they traveled by car, train or airplane but thinks it was likely by train.) From Bombay, Ms. Odmark and her mother took a ship to Southampton, England, while her father stayed behind. She and her mother made their way to London and then to Cheshire, where they stayed with relatives for about a year. During this period they had almost no contact with Ms. Odmark’s father. At one point, in response to a letter her mother sent him about an infection on Ms. Odmark’s leg, he sent her a medicinal cream by post, which assured them he was still alive. Eventually, he sent word that he was resettled in India; Ms. Odmark and her mother made the return journey to Bombay, where her father met them and then brought them to Calcutta.
During this period in Ms. Odmark’s life, she and her parents spent quite a bit of time moving between Calcutta, Delhi (where some of her father’s family was living) and England (to visit her mother’s family). As she moved forward in school, it became important to remain in one place, and her parents decided to remain full time in Calcutta, where they lived in a hotel. Her father had lost everything during Partition – the family’s home, car, and other assets – but was able to rebuild his career in India. Ms. Odmark attended a Catholic high school in Calcutta, Loreto House, which was run by nuns who mainly came from Ireland. The school’s student body was quite international and it was the first place she received formal art training, which would become central to her life later.
At age 18, Ms. Odmark left India for London, where she hoped to pursue a career as an artist. After her arrival, though, she began modeling, and successfully supported herself as a model during her time in London. Living in the city during the 1960s, she was part of the vibrant cultural life that flourished there. She was also briefly engaged to a Greek man who worked in the fashion industry, but decided not to marry him.
In the late 1960s, Ms. Odmark joined two of her aunts on a trip to San Diego, California. At the time, she had wanted to go to Israel, but because of the Six Day War, travel to Israel was not possible. She initially thought her time in San Diego would be just a visit, but she instead wound up living there for quite a number of years. It was in San Diego that Ms. Odmark took up her artistic practice again, studying painting, drawing and photography. In San Diego, she also met the man who would become her husband, Ted Odmark. A real estate developer with two sons from a previous marriage, Mr. Odmark married Ms. Odmark in 1970. Together, they spent time visiting India and London (where Ms. Odmark’s mother moved after her father’s death in 1968). They also spent quite a bit of time in the state of Montana, where Mr. Odmark purchased two ranches. While Ms. Odmark never fully adjusted to life on a cattle ranch, she loved the beauty of the mountain landscape and the studio Mr. Odmark built for her, where she was able to pursue painting, drawing and large-scale metal sculpture.
Eventually the Odmarks divorced, and Ms. Odmark’s mother joined her in the United States. Now living in San Francisco, California, Ms. Odmark pursued her artistic training at the San Francisco Art Institute. She also attended Slade School of Fine Art in London, and studied for several months in Paris. For Ms. Odmark, her work as an artist was an important way to process her childhood memories of partition. Images of bodies and body parts dominated her early work as she worked through the impact this early period of her life had on her.
In the 1990s, Ms. Odmark moved to Ketchum, Idaho. She had begun visiting the Ketchum/Sun Valley area, which is a mountain resort, with Ted Odmark in the 1970s, and had a circle of friends who encouraged her to move there. In Ketchum, Ms. Odmark continued her work as an artist. Eventually, she began creating paintings and prints that emerged out of more positive memories of her time in India – references to lotuses, Diwali, Ganesh, for example. A trip to India in 2004 (she was there for the major tsunami) led her to begin incorporating stitchery into her prints, drawing on the tradition of Kantha stitching that she saw during her visit. More recently, her series Alice has allowed her to delve into her family history as well as her personal history. Using the idea of Lewis Carroll’s Alice as a metaphor for her own childhood experiences, Ms. Odmark has made a body of work about the shifting perspectives a child has on the world as they grow and learn. These prints offer her an opportunity to revisit her early years in India less in terms of the violence of Partition and more with a sense of wonder.
Today, Ms. Odmark continues to live in Ketchum, where she actively pursues her artwork, often working with a local master printer, Jen Galpin, at Vita Brevis Press. She travels widely (recent trips include journeys to Burma, Paris and Cuba), finding artistic inspiration in other cultures as well as in her everyday life.
Ms. Gay Bawa Odmark (born Jacqueline Gay Roma Bawa Bhalla Singh) was born in the city of Lahore in 1940. Her parents had met in England while her father was a student there. Her mother (Maude [Joan] Elsby Rudkin) was British, from Cheshire in the north of England, and her father Bawa Balbir Singh Bhalla was of Hindu and Sikh descent. After marrying in England, her parents settled in Lahore, which was home to her father’s family.
Ms. Odmark’s early memories of pre-partition life in Lahore revolve around her family home, which was always open to visits from friends and family members who often came for visits. The family had six servants, all Muslim men, including two cooks. She also had a nanny who cared for her. She remembers many visits to beautiful gardens with her parents and drives throughout the city in a chauffeured car.
Because she was so young during partition, Ms. Odmark likely didn’t understand the political events unfolding, but she was fully aware of the violence and anxiety that permeated the city. Her family’s home was across the street from a hospital, and she remembers seeing bodies dumped in front of the hospital at night. Stories of trains arriving in Lahore loaded with dead bodies have also remained a part of her memories of that time, as well as a terrifying night when the family in the house next door was attacked and she could hear screams and heard stories of the violence the family faced from her family’s servants.
As violence escalated, her mother was nearly shot while standing in the family’s garden (the bullet just missed her; the family never learned who had fired the gun from outside the house). This event triggered their decision to leave Lahore. Ms. Odmark’s father traveled with her and her mother to Bombay. (She doesn’t remember if they traveled by car, train or airplane but thinks it was likely by train.) From Bombay, Ms. Odmark and her mother took a ship to Southampton, England, while her father stayed behind. She and her mother made their way to London and then to Cheshire, where they stayed with relatives for about a year. During this period they had almost no contact with Ms. Odmark’s father. At one point, in response to a letter her mother sent him about an infection on Ms. Odmark’s leg, he sent her a medicinal cream by post, which assured them he was still alive. Eventually, he sent word that he was resettled in India; Ms. Odmark and her mother made the return journey to Bombay, where her father met them and then brought them to Calcutta.
During this period in Ms. Odmark’s life, she and her parents spent quite a bit of time moving between Calcutta, Delhi (where some of her father’s family was living) and England (to visit her mother’s family). As she moved forward in school, it became important to remain in one place, and her parents decided to remain full time in Calcutta, where they lived in a hotel. Her father had lost everything during Partition – the family’s home, car, and other assets – but was able to rebuild his career in India. Ms. Odmark attended a Catholic high school in Calcutta, Loreto House, which was run by nuns who mainly came from Ireland. The school’s student body was quite international and it was the first place she received formal art training, which would become central to her life later.
At age 18, Ms. Odmark left India for London, where she hoped to pursue a career as an artist. After her arrival, though, she began modeling, and successfully supported herself as a model during her time in London. Living in the city during the 1960s, she was part of the vibrant cultural life that flourished there. She was also briefly engaged to a Greek man who worked in the fashion industry, but decided not to marry him.
In the late 1960s, Ms. Odmark joined two of her aunts on a trip to San Diego, California. At the time, she had wanted to go to Israel, but because of the Six Day War, travel to Israel was not possible. She initially thought her time in San Diego would be just a visit, but she instead wound up living there for quite a number of years. It was in San Diego that Ms. Odmark took up her artistic practice again, studying painting, drawing and photography. In San Diego, she also met the man who would become her husband, Ted Odmark. A real estate developer with two sons from a previous marriage, Mr. Odmark married Ms. Odmark in 1970. Together, they spent time visiting India and London (where Ms. Odmark’s mother moved after her father’s death in 1968). They also spent quite a bit of time in the state of Montana, where Mr. Odmark purchased two ranches. While Ms. Odmark never fully adjusted to life on a cattle ranch, she loved the beauty of the mountain landscape and the studio Mr. Odmark built for her, where she was able to pursue painting, drawing and large-scale metal sculpture.
Eventually the Odmarks divorced, and Ms. Odmark’s mother joined her in the United States. Now living in San Francisco, California, Ms. Odmark pursued her artistic training at the San Francisco Art Institute. She also attended Slade School of Fine Art in London, and studied for several months in Paris. For Ms. Odmark, her work as an artist was an important way to process her childhood memories of partition. Images of bodies and body parts dominated her early work as she worked through the impact this early period of her life had on her.
In the 1990s, Ms. Odmark moved to Ketchum, Idaho. She had begun visiting the Ketchum/Sun Valley area, which is a mountain resort, with Ted Odmark in the 1970s, and had a circle of friends who encouraged her to move there. In Ketchum, Ms. Odmark continued her work as an artist. Eventually, she began creating paintings and prints that emerged out of more positive memories of her time in India – references to lotuses, Diwali, Ganesh, for example. A trip to India in 2004 (she was there for the major tsunami) led her to begin incorporating stitchery into her prints, drawing on the tradition of Kantha stitching that she saw during her visit. More recently, her series Alice has allowed her to delve into her family history as well as her personal history. Using the idea of Lewis Carroll’s Alice as a metaphor for her own childhood experiences, Ms. Odmark has made a body of work about the shifting perspectives a child has on the world as they grow and learn. These prints offer her an opportunity to revisit her early years in India less in terms of the violence of Partition and more with a sense of wonder.
Today, Ms. Odmark continues to live in Ketchum, where she actively pursues her artwork, often working with a local master printer, Jen Galpin, at Vita Brevis Press. She travels widely (recent trips include journeys to Burma, Paris and Cuba), finding artistic inspiration in other cultures as well as in her everyday life.
