“Every storm you face, your hurdle that comes your way, and every pain you undergo is to push you a step closer to where you belong. I love sketching and that is what I wish to do for a living. This realization came to me when I was in my tenth standard. Being an introvert from childhood I had barely any friends and that led me to depression and I happened to talk to the psychologist at my school. She was the one who talked me into finding my passion. She asked me to carry a book and pen with me and draw every time I get depressed because I’d told her that I love to sketch.
The escape mechanism she had suggested became a habit, and then a passion, and is now something that I cannot live without. I completed my 12th standard and wanted to get into a profession that helps me pursue my passion; my choices were fashion designing and architecture. I chose architecture and started practising day in and day out to hone my skills and be ready for the course by learning the technicalities involved.
I was in the second year of my college when it occurred to me that I should try sketching every monument in Chennai, and that’s how I started my weekend sketch routine. I completed that book recently and have started my second book, the previous one had 50 sketches and I plan on publishing them all as a book.
The introvert me would have never thought that I would go to a crowded place, sit down, and start sketching even as people continue to stare and take pictures of me drawing. But then, the passion took over, now I decide on a place, take my scooty, park it somewhere comfortable and start drawing. Family, friends, and strangers alike have been supportive of my effort to sketch the monuments in the city. A journey that I started with the iconic Marina Beach from atop the lighthouse has reached a three-year-milestone. I am now in the 5th year of my architecture course and I plan on continuing my sketching. I love the construction style in Russia and wish to travel there one day and sketch their buildings.
All I need is a paper, pen, and two hours of time all by me and I find bliss. This would not have been possible had I been an extrovert child or had that psychologist not suggested me to start drawing. I think we are constantly moving closer to where we belong, all our success and failures are taking us closer to that moment of finding ourselves.”

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