He spent 20 years as a marketing executive at NIIT Ltd, selling IT solutions and helping young minds become computer wizards. He could have continued and, who knows, gotten to the uppermost echelons of one of India’s most successful and reputed IT organizations.
Instead, one fine day, Sanjiv Sehgal decided to give it all up and pursue something much closer to his heart. Sahgal likes to shape clay now, instead of young minds. It’s as if his weekends suddenly caught up with the rest of life.
Why did he do it?
”I wanted to turn life upside-down and try something that interests me” says Sehgal.
“For three or four years, I used to paint pots that I would buy off the street. In 1998-99 I joined Delhi Blue pottery Trust and started learning how to make pots. I would work from Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday, I would devote full time to pottery.”
Sehgal is not alone. Mahesh Nair, formerly BPO firm, Spectramind’s chief operating officer, is a full-time photographer today. An engineer by education, Nair discovered his passion while on vacation at the Yellow Stone National Park in the US.
”When I showed the photographs to people, the reaction I got was very encouraging and over the next one year — from 2004 to 2005 — I did shoots at several places and got completely addicted to it. I had two options. One was continue with the corporate life in yet another company, yet another start-up — maybe start up something myself. Or I could forget all about that and follow my heart. My heart won over the head,” says Nair.
Nair had his first solo exhibition in January this year. His photographs will also be showcased in Singapore, Mumbai and London. His work has also been featured in a coffee table book called “Let there be light”.
Nair is enjoying the attention. He says, “It is curious that somebody with all that education background, having worked in the corporate world for 20 years and at the age of 45 decided to chuck all that and move into a completely different stream like photography. It invokes a bit of curiosity in people.”