Back to 1999, I was in my drawing class, sketching a portrait of Osho. If you know Osho, he used to have long hair and beard, a delight for artists to show-off their skills. For the highlights of the hair, you would essentially shade the sheet with dark tones of pencil grays and then use a sharp eraser for the white hair… very satisfying!

When I was just a few days away from finishing the portraits, I remember a senior student walked-in and she exclaimed — “Sir, you have got a Leonardo da Vinci in the house!”. Yes, that was the “Cheerleader moment!” for me! That was definitely an exaggeration, but it had a lot of impact on me which led me do more huge portraits on the ivory sheets.

Everyone needs cheerleaders! I was lucky that I was surrounded by many in my formative years. A few family friends and elder cousins would end up appreciating (and sometimes exaggerating) the little things that I used to create as a kid, be it a simple website or some raw tunes on an old guitar that my relative had left in the town when they were shifting.

As you grow up, …