My family used to run a big textile company in India. I had everything I could ever ask for while growing up as a kid. In 1997, after the loss of my dad, my world turned upside down... everything had taken a complete 360 degree u-turn.

I progressively dropped out of my graduation where I was pursuing a fashion design degree to take care of the business. Those were some of the tough moments of my journey, where I went through a lot of stress, negativity, financial and emotion ups and downs. I never gave up and kept at it, and finally, after persistence, we started getting good projects, and things started to change. We started getting more and more work, expanding the business. And between 2003 and 2006, we went from 40 to 400 employees. That was quite a trip.

In 2007, I started experimenting with digital art, and I truly enjoyed it a lot! the more I created the deeper I went into it. it gave me this incredible satisfaction... and in a few months there was a time when I was finding every opportunity from my work to find time to create. One day. I was sitting alone in my office, and asked myself: When I turn 50, and I ask myself... what is it that I have earned in my life? At the time, the answer was luxury and money. It freaked me out. I was just doing something to earn money, which I'd seen, lost, and earned everything back again. And it didn't excite me at all.

That moment of realization defied everything I knew to be true! Within a month, I quit my job, bought an iMac, created a little studio in my home.

Now looking back at the journey, I feel It was the best decision I've ever taken in my life. I am doing something I am truly passionate about, creating something out of nothing. Even if someone gave me a billion dollars to go back to my old life, I wouldn’t do it. I want to do this until I die. I love this so much!

Art hasn’t been just an end result, it’s been a companion, a tool, a vehicle for me to realize what happiness is, what life is all about. It has taken me into a journey, where I learned so much about myself and who I truly am.

Society tells us to work, go to sleep, work, travel, spend money, die. And that’s what we keep doing, and we don’t think about who we really are, what we really want to do.

I think we have control over our own lives. Whatever you want to achieve, you just have to think and put it into action. We can—with a lot of dedication—shape our lives the way we want it to be.

Archan Nair

Indian artist and musician.