Rupam Grimoeuvre says that he has always been interested in art, in faces and shapes, light and shadow. But like most children from Indian middle-class families, he was encouraged to get a “real” job, and went through much of his school life yearning for guidance in art and yet, receiving none. Rebelling against the pressure to become an engineer, he found himself doing odd jobs until one day when, he recalls, he just couldn’t do it anymore. “I think that life experience helped me grow as an artist later. The time I spent not working on my skills, made me realise how much I wanted to do that. And so, when I actually made time to learn to draw and paint, my interests changed from just drawing portraits to telling stories through my work,” he says in an email conversation with mid-day.