VANCOUVER, B.C. —If you ask Nishant Jain about the sketchbook in his hand, he’ll tell you he’s committed to never being without it. “Even if I’m going down to throw out the trash or fetch groceries,” he smiles. To understand why, we need to go back to when he was a boy who would relish telling stories. “My parents tell me, [I would] tell them bedtime stories until I fell asleep,” Nishant laughs. Yet, he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and master’s in biomechanics before pursuing his PhD to become a neuroscientist. “I grew up in a part of the world where you let your passions be passions,” Nishant says. “And pursue pragmatic decisions when it comes to education and employment.” When Nishant attended university, he still wrote stories in private, before feeling compelled to draw people in public. Although he’d only ever drawn stick men before, Nishant wondered what would happen if he tried sketching the people in the coffee shop he happened to stop at one day. “At the end of that hour [of drawing], I was very, very happy,” Nishant says. Although he found the final product unimpressive, the process proved profound. “I think it was a feeling of a deep sigh of relief,” Nishant explained. It inspired the then 29-year-old to make a life-changing decision. “The next day, I told my professor I needed to quit,” Nishant said, with a smile. That led to a two-week discussion with his parents and his now-fiancé about pursuing his creative passion. “I was able to show them that I’m not trying to run away,” Nishant said. “I’m trying to run the race I really want to run.” Armed with a sketchbook and pen, he began drawing the people and places he happened upon. Nishant discovered he was telling stories about his daily observations through images rather than words. It inspired him to relish the present, instead of being distracted from it. “How would your life change if, whenever you had a free moment, you reached for a tiny sketchbook instead of a phone?” Nishant wondered. He filled dozens of sketchbooks with his observations and posted them anonymously online under the name Sneaky Artist before people began asking to buy the originals. Now Nishant is realizing his boyhood dream of being a professional creator. “My job is to stop and look around,” Nishant says. “And maybe make a drawing that shows you what is beautiful in your world.” Perhaps if you take the time to appreciate more moments, you’ll find you don’t want to waste another minute not pursuing your passion. “Don’t get pragmatic, don’t think of the negatives,” Nishant added. “Just go for the idea, the dream, the passion of your life.”
