“Forging through one barrier often just leads to the next, yet we must persist, traversing borders and communities and transforming ourselves to make this world our own. We are armed with nothing more than a prayer to the goddesses we grow up with,” Mukherjee said.

Today, “Generations” is one of 13 poems hanging next to their visual companions in “Testimonies on Paper: Art and Poetry of South Asian Women,” an exhibit that opened in January at Chicago’s South Asia Institute (SAI.) Poets were asked to choose from pieces of visual art pulled from SAI’s Hundal Collection and craft poems in response. All the works feature South Asian women. The artistic kinship between visual artists and poets is essential to “Testimonies.” Mukherjee likened the experience to touching someone through a mirror — you can’t quite grasp them, but you can feel their presence.

Institute founder Shireen Ahmad said the idea for the exhibit came from a conversation about the overall lack of representation of women in the art world.

“Not only is it a problem with our mainstream artists, but then when you look at artists of color, and when you look at South Asian artists in particular, it’s even worse,” Ahmad said. “We hope that with exhibitions like this, we can tackle that… one exhibition at a time and bring about a change.”

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Curator Andrea Moratinos chose the visual pieces, which span multiple generations and styles. Moratinos said she started with the basics — pulling works on paper by women artists.

“It was anything… that catches attention, like a deeper sense. Honestly, all the works that they have in the collection are pretty great, so it was hard sometimes,” Moratinos said.

The art pieces range from Abidi’s large, colorful barriers to a black and white depiction of the subcontinent done by artist Zarina entitled Atlas of My World IV. The Radcliffe Line — the line of Partition — stretches in black across the frame.

Many of the poems explore themes of gender, spirituality and migration.

“If you read some of the poems, you just get this sense of… this longing for what it was or when you used to live there… that sense of home,” Moratinos said.

I felt a small fraction of kinship that the exhibit exudes when looking at the work of Abidi and Mukherjee. The description of the goddess in Mukherjee’s poem brings me moments of childhood, standing next to my mother and watching the rituals of Durga Puja. She did the same with her mother — my Didu — and I suddenly see us much like the generations in Mukherjee’s poem.

Despite the power and creativity so clear in the exhibition, Mukherjee said she feels many stories around South Asian women are often ones of victimhood. She hopes visitors will challenge that idea.

“The plenitude of artistic talent, of just the joy of creation, of just the magic of art and artistry that is inherent in the talent that is from South Asia is itself something very worthy to take back with them,” Mukherjee said. “This exhibition is a very clear answer to another window from which to view the Asian woman.”

I have long felt guilt and sadness that I can barely piece together a sentence in Bangla, a language so dear to the generations of women in my own past. But as I moved slowly through “Testimonies,” I am reminded of the parts of them I will always have, distantly linked memories of a goddess sinking into a river.

If you go: “Testimonies on Paper” will be at the South Asia Institute until June. The institute is located at 1925 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill., 60616.

Indira Khera is a metro reporter for WBEZ. Follow her on Twitter @KheraIndi