Manik has a negative interpretation of the contemporary urban life. In his view the nature of urbanisation in Bangladesh is a kind of obstacle for the spirit of life. Through the delicate complex lines on the faces of human beings, Manik in his 61 paintings and drawings on display has portrayed the dark side of urban life. Though the idea of presentation is not new, young artist Manik's medium and composition are different. Moreover, the issues dealt by Manik in Obstacle of Life, to some extent, are marginalised compared to that of renowned artist Kalidas Karmakar's Alluvial Faces series. Kalidas in digital lithography medium has presented the complexity of human character through delicate lines on the human faces. However, Manik, with the exception of two acrylic works, has drawn figures with ordinary pen.

Black complex lines with remarkable empty spaces of Manik's canvases create a surrealistic ambience, where the figures of dry trees, human faces, woman, and dog symbolically represent bareness, cruelty and hypocrisy of urban people. Another important aspect of Manik's canvas is that the faces and figures are not realistic rather like that of tree and big stone, which suggests that the young artist desires natural beauty instead of concrete made urbanisation.

Barongbar 1 and Barongbar 2 are two acrylic works on display. Rashid has used bright colours such as yellow, blue, red and black in this series. Upper part of the tree-shaped face of a human being is filled with bricks, while the lower part is filled with the trunk of trees. This symbolic face represents the urban phenomenon of making concrete buildings by indiscriminate tree felling.

Srishti, Akalpito, Kalpona, Abiram, Alap, Samaj, Acheton Manush, Snehomoy, Kalalap and others are pen drawn canvases featuring the hazards of urban life.