This story has to be a long one, mostly because shortcuts would be dishonest.

I never learned an art form the proper way. No teachers. No structured lessons. No reassuring certificates to prove I did it right. My education in art came informally, and largely by accident. I think, in hindsight, my best teachers were my friends.

I was fortunate, though perhaps unknowingly so at the time, to grow up surrounded by friends and extended family who were trained singers, musicians, and dancers. I didn’t participate as much as I observed. Being their audience turned out to be an education in itself. Watching them rehearse, perform, and occasionally unravel on stage taught me how much discipline hides behind something that looks effortless.

Every now and then, I was invited to join in. Dance here. Act there. Nothing very serious, but serious enough that I had to show up and try. To my mild surprise, I turned out to be reasonably good at it. Not prodigy-level, not embarrassing either. A comfortable middle ground, which is where most interesting things happen anyway.

When I joined IIT Kharagpur (the place that indirectly inspired this entire website), I wandered into the dramatics society then known as HTDS, the Hindi Technology Dramatics Society. Getting in was less a triumph of talent and more a triumph of timing and gender imbalance. I missed the auditions when they were first announced. A few days later, some seniors from the hall, visibly unsettled by the lack of female participation, took matters into their own hands.

They walked through the corridors, collected every girl they could find, and marched us to the auditorium. Auditions by abduction.

Even now, the pattern holds. Some of my closest friends are effortless piano virtuosos or quietly brilliant drawing savants, and in their company, art never feels distant or formal. It simply exists around me, woven into conversations, evenings, and everyday moments. In many ways, the streak of being surrounded by art has never really broken.

That is how I learned most things in life. Not by planning, but by being present when chance decided to intervene.