Of your three loves — painting, photography and writing — which one called to you first, and what did that very beginning look like?
Drawing with crayons way back in nursery school is what called to me first. Letters and alphabets came later. Writing came as a calling when I first started journaling at the age of 12, and when my school English teacher, who also conducted our value education classes, prompted us to write a poem on being thankful to God along with an illustration of what God means to us personally. I recall that when I had written the poem and illustrated it in my school scrapbook, my teacher could barely believe that I had written it myself. I have been writing ever since, and I owe my love for English literature to her.
You see art, photography and writing as one blend rather than three separate practices. When did they first start to fold into each other for you?
This is answered in the previous question. Additionally, there were classmates and batchmates who used to love what I wrote. One of them was a The Telegraph in Schools reporter, and she insisted that I submit a poem for a poetry writing contest. The poem was on river Hooghly. It had won the contest and was published on the first page of the paper. Another one had inspired me to start journaling as a method of recording my everyday life. Thereafter I went on to publish poems and articles in my school magazine and my college magazine, and I have never not written since then. Coming into the world of formal publishing, however, was a different chapter. Painting called me similarly. First in school, where I was a messy painter. My mother had put me in an art school and I grew to love working and playing around with colours, but I had to quit it for the sake of "studies". I resumed drawing again in college but could not paint anything original. It was much later, when I was 28, that I found myself having visions and dreams that compelled me to try and put them on paper. And I have not stopped painting or making art since then. Photography came in much later, only after I had my first tab back in my university days.
Is there a person, a place, or even a book that shaped the way you see and make things? Kolkata itself seems to run quietly through so much of your work.
All the experiences I have ever had in my life, all the books that I have ever read, my teachers, both from school to higher education, all the places I have travelled to — everything informs what I create in terms of writing and photography and painting. But there is one comic book series that inspired me a lot, that is Herge's Tintin. And another that I had gotten for free from Kolkata Book fair that deeply influenced me, that is the Bible. Much later it were graphic novels that I had come across during covid years.
Which painting are you especially proud of?
The original is no longer with me as I had gifted it to a co-worker who had always been less of a senior colleague to me, and more of a sister who always stood by me in times of personal crisis and professional uncertainty. This was inspired by a pullover I had bought for myself years ago and by my love for multicoloured hibiscuses which blossoms at my present workplace as well as on our terrace. Usually, I paint when words and language fail to express my inner life. And most of the times the works turn out to be too untidy, but this, amongst a few others, was a piece that was not so.
What's one of your favourite photographs from your walks around Kolkata?
I had just wandered into the complex of Nandan at Rabindra Sadan and I found this site. It's the towering building, 42 and the St Paul's Cathedral. I took this shot as the 42 did not exist even a few years back. But now both these architectural creations from two different ages define how the city is caught between tradition and modernity.
Tell us about a page or an excerpt of your writing that has stayed with you.
This is an old excerpt that I had written, hoping to develop it into a poem or a prose-poem or a painting. But that never happened. It was written as a personal reflection or a journal entry of sorts and I just happened to keep it saved and discover it again later. Reading it gives me a strange kind of peace. So I keep it saved.
What work came out of your travels?
Baranti, Purulia. The serenity of the place which is otherwise affected by extreme poverty.
What's on your table right now as a work-in-progress?
It's becoming a vision of the Mother -Warrior Goddess of Durga. I am working on the ways to make the picture more evocative with the usage of colours.
What have you made in the last few days?
This was a painting I found at the Greek Orthodox Church near Kalighat metro station. I felt curious and awed while editing this picture. Curious as I felt like learning about the subject of the painting accurately. And awed by the skill and imagination of the artist who painted it.
You create something almost every single day. Where do you draw that steadiness from?
The steadiness comes from the fact that I have to live everyday as it comes fully before the penultimate day of my life arrives predictably or all of a sudden. I capture on the go, I sketch whenever I can and I edit pictures on my way back home from work. It's the urgency of everyday life that makes me want to create every day in order make the everyday manageable and tolerable.
When someone sits with your work — a painting, a photograph, a few of your words — what do you most hope they walk away feeling?
Fulfilled, curious.
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