From Soldier to Storyteller: Amar Singh’s journey of art, courage and conscience

In a quiet corner of Sahnewal, a retired government schoolteacher Amar Singh sits surrounded by canvases that speak louder than words. Each brushstroke carries a story, each painting a protest. But, behind this vibrant studio lies a life shaped by sacrifice, silence and an unrelenting pursuit of purpose.

Born into modest means, Amar Singh joined the Indian Army in 1970, not out of ambition, but necessity. “My family needed stability,” he recalls. “But my heart was always somewhere else,” he said. Posted in Assam, Singh found solace not in drills or discipline, but in the forests. He would bring back pieces of wood from the jungle and carve them into figures quiet depicting acts of rebellion against the rigidity around him.

One day, a large log was brought to his unit’s kitchen to be chopped for langar. Singh saw something else in it. “I requested my senior to let me carve it instead of burning it,” he says. With borrowed tools and boundless imagination, he sculpted a man and woman from the log transforming firewood into permanence. “That moment made me realise I was suffocating,” he says. After eight years of service, he left the Army without claiming pension, choosing passion over security.

The second act of his life began with an art and craft diploma from Nawanshahr. He entered the world of commercial painting, where his work was sold for lakhs, but his name was missing. “I painted for others, but my identity was erased,” he says. The acclaim came, but the credit didn’t. It was a painful chapter, one that taught him the value of ownership.

Eventually, Singh found his true calling not in galleries, but in classrooms. As an art and craft teacher in a government school, he discovered joy in nurturing young minds. “Teaching gave me peace,” he says. His dedication earned him a state award, but more importantly, it gave him a sense of belonging.

Now retired, Amar Singh paints with full heart and fierce intent. His canvases confront social evils female foeticide, dowry and silenced women. One painting shows a foetus trapped in a cage-like womb; another, a bride with her mouth stitched shut. “I’ve spent my life teaching values. Now I paint them,” he says.

His studio is modest, but his message is mighty. NGOs and schools commission his work for awareness campaigns, yet Singh remains clear: “I don’t paint for decoration. I paint for dialogue.”

A friend describes him best. “He’s proof that retirement isn’t an end. it’s a beginning.”

Amar Singh’s journey from soldier to sculptor, from commercial anonymity to classroom legacy — is a testament to resilience. In his hands, the canvas becomes a mirror, a megaphone, a movement.

“I may not be in uniform anymore,” he says, while adding that “But I still serve through colour, through conscience, through truth.”

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