The painting depicts a rustic setting with a lone woman trying to light a wood fuelled stove. She is adorned in a traditional dress, the saree, and wears ornaments and flowers in her hair to dress up and feel confident. It is a reflection of a traditional Indian household with limited resources. The kitchen usually becomes an intrinsic domain of the woman of the house, irrespective of her willingness to conduct her daily chores. The wood fired stove is a visual metaphor of the arduous and monotonicity of her routine, that has been so well integrated in her demeanor through a tradition. 

The demonstration of femininity in this canvas has been through an expression of going about one’s daily chores. The traditional Indian attire, the sari, the flowers in the hair – usually put in the southern part of India after performing daily ablutions and prayers to the gods, exemplifies the spiritual inclination, radiance, sensitivity, creativity, dignity, capacity to love and quiet strength being demonstrated by the subject.