This work portrays a pensive South Asian man with a desolate backdrop. While at first it appears to be an ordinary work, it is deeply evocative. Its effects are felt on two levels—social and political. Firstly, it is a commentary on the rising tide of parasocial relations. With digital media encompassing the everyday, such relationships emerge that give the façade of face-to-face intimacy with someone generally of higher social standing. The painting, in complete opposition, shows us a lone-standing man with generic features, facing the viewer with unassuming eyes. The eyes and soul of the figure seem hollow as if drained from the digital practices of the onlooker.

On the second level, the man watching showcases the gaze of modern surveillance states. Their power is totalizing because the gaze cannot be returned—it is a peculiar vision where one sees without being seen. Similarly, the state, with its technology of surveillance, digital tracking and data exploitation, promises unfettered freedom under the guise of democracy and continuous movement. However, it is always monitored. The painting is a wake-up call to this clear fabrication of public consent. All it leaves behind are emptied personalities like the man in the painting, staring at the manipulated public, hoping they realise they are looking at themselves.