Singh, on the other hand, used academia as a way to approach photography. She smiles happily as she recounts her past. “The way I kind of approached entering fine arts was that at the end of , I would be able to teach. To my father, teaching was a profession. And definitely at first, I was discouraged. I think my father wanted to see that I had…financial stability and independence and that art could be a hobby. And what I had to negotiate was that was something I couldn’t have on the side”.
Going back for another BA, this time in fine arts, was a decision that put her on the path to becoming an artist. She believes that “academia is not for everyone in so far as art is concerned, what academia granted me was an immediate community… it helped me grow as an artist. I learnt there how to apply for shows…for grants…What school provided me was a space to talk about my work, and I think that’s important”.
Both Prakash and Singh see success as relative, and passion as a strong factor in their career choices. Singh firmly believes that success is “about feeling fulfilled with yourself and your accomplishments as opposed to ‘Do I have a job?’ or ‘Do I have an income?’. I always struggled financially, regardless (laughs); that is the nature of being an artist half of the time”.
Prakash, too, didn’t have it easy, “I got cut off financially; I didn’t know what was trying to do at that point…I got student loans, did my own thing and been quite successful ever since.”
And, indeed, both Prakash and Singh have found success in their fields by refusing to compromise on their dreams. While Prakash’s salon boasts of famous clientele like Shyam Selvadurai (author of Funny Boy), Singh’s collection Nightingale was a feature exhibition of Toronto’s CONTACT festival.
So, yes, when Naseeruddin Shah asks his wife, “My son is going to become a chef?”, I have this urge to yell out at the television screen, “And, why not?”
