Myself Roshan, born and raised in a small coastal state of India - Kerala.
 

An early exposure to tradition, and cultural delicacies seasoned with the touch of a middle class, nuclear family built a wide eyed rebel, eager to test his patience on the world. Growing up on the plains of Periyar, nested in a cradle between the western ghats and the Arabian sea, blessed with lush hills, calm backwaters and gleaming rivers made growing up feel like a dream. The culture, a beautiful heterogeneous mix of old batten traditions of the Dravidians, uplifted by the colonials*, flavoured by every passing religion and politicised by communists made every day, nothing less than Upma, also my favourite breakfast.
 

Having the wonderfully orchestrated Upma also exposed me to the works of Ravi Varma, Kanayi Kunhiraman, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, IV Sashi and listening to Sashi Tharoor was the curry leaves on top. Interests in observance, sketching, writing, a mandatory bad math grade and a general disgust for anything cliché ensured I wasnʼt going to be an engineer or a doctor and turned to Animation and graphic design after my board exams.

The skills developed over the course of 3 years resulted in a valuable* art degree. I joined DIC at IIT Hyderabad as a graphic designer afterwards. The culture of Hyderabad exposed me to Pulav. Kilo metres apart, but stunningly similar to my own dear Upma.
 

The fragrance of DIC at IITH was an eye-opener to my design career, my earlier aesthetics for the mastery of tools was quickly overtaken by design pedagogy. The thirst for perfection was replaced by embrace of uniqueness and originality. Spending hours on end on design rationales, brain-storm sessions, seminars with professionals in the industry gave me a quick realisation - I needed to be one among the industry to keep in touch with the ever-changing field of design.

 

My knowledge of the rationaleʼs was being held to shared experiences, I was missing out on having my own. My work at DIC backed me up with a portfolio good enough to land the biggest fishes in the pond- Amazon. An organisation reputed for working backwards from the user, the infamous Day one culture meant I was going to be learning every day. Little did I think the huge organisation with its even bigger business would one day exhaust me, and it did but not my joy for creation.
 

I had taken up design because I liked doing it and I took in great pleasure working, researching, creating designs and bringing them to life. I believe when we create/design, we are looking for a solution to a problem, that solves the issue at hand and also evokes some sort of material connection to the user. The feeling is quite inexplicable, it has to be felt.