Nala In Search of a Way
MArch Thesis
University of Waterloo, School of Architecture
Supervised by Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt
Defended May 2024 (Commended)
The Hindu temple of my youth was bound within a warehouse
—
a compromise by the aching cloaked as assimilation. At her
entrance stood a model, a promise to antiquity; its grooves mimicking her sisters in a land held by war. It was sculpted as
a signal for the future of a people
—
that the abandoned would soon be remade in their name. This was now our home. This was our tomorrow. But she whisphers that the search begins amidst our ashes.
Nala: In Search of a Way is a conversation with Canadian-Hindu temples — the invisible guardians that have harboured the Eelam-Tamil diaspora. Drawing from Hindu and Tamil storytelling, treading the mythical and the historical, this work interprets this exchange into an epic through prose and illustration. In this work, a second-generation youth is poached by a Goddess to Her domain, and to overcome his exile must confront his beliefs on home. As he journeys through childhood protests, wars on memory, and wavering temples, he searches for a familiar warmth that can guide his return home. This work is a child’s map to deciphering the bounds of belonging, a pilgrimage to contend with a displaced generation’s excess and absence of home.
Exhibited as Within My Temple Lies a Home / என் கோவிலுக்குள் என் ஆத்மா வாழ்கிறது at:
Nala: In Search of a Way is a conversation with Canadian-Hindu temples — the invisible guardians that have harboured the Eelam-Tamil diaspora. Drawing from Hindu and Tamil storytelling, treading the mythical and the historical, this work interprets this exchange into an epic through prose and illustration. In this work, a second-generation youth is poached by a Goddess to Her domain, and to overcome his exile must confront his beliefs on home. As he journeys through childhood protests, wars on memory, and wavering temples, he searches for a familiar warmth that can guide his return home. This work is a child’s map to deciphering the bounds of belonging, a pilgrimage to contend with a displaced generation’s excess and absence of home.
Exhibited as Within My Temple Lies a Home / என் கோவிலுக்குள் என் ஆத்மா வாழ்கிறது at:
-
Traces, DesignTO Festival, Harbourfront Centre (2026) + Juror’s Choice Award
-
Tapestry of Traditions, Visual Arts of South Asia (VASA) Arts Festival, Gallery 35 (2025)
-
Shifting Forms, Visual Arts Mississauga at Riverwood (2025) + Jury Prize (2nd Place)
- New Vistas: Echoes of Home, Etobicoke Civic Centre Art Gallery (2024)
A Temple Within a Temple
Sri Varasiththi Vinaayagar Hindu Temple, Toronto, ON (2021)
Searching as Prose
MArch Thesis Document, UWSpace (2024)
Searching as Illustration
Digital Illustration, 24"w x 108"h (2024)
Within My Temple Lies a Home
என் கோவிலுக்குள் என் ஆத்மா வாழ்கிறது
என் கோவிலுக்குள் என் ஆத்மா வாழ்கிறது
at
Traces, DesignTO Festival, Harbourfront Centre (2026) + Juror’s Choice Award