Valay Shende's deeply political art smoulders with the still-warm ashes of farmers who have committed suicide.

He's often been compared to Subodh Gupta. And like the bartan boy from Bihar, sculptor Valay Shende uses everyday Indian motifs such as tiffins, scooters, cars and cattle. But the similarity between the two men of steel ends there.

The 31-year-old Shende is quite the angry, young artist. One who burrows into the interiors of Vidarbha in Maharashtra to meet the families of debt-ridden farmers and comes back to make an eight-seater, silver-plated dining table to mock the rich. The poignancy lies in the salt-and-pepper shakers which contain the ashes of Narsinglu Rukmawar, a farmer who committed suicide.