The will to be independent at 18 might seem blasé to most, but it is a big deal. With full knowledge of this, Inaya Fatima took the bold step of moving out of her parents' house. A job at Amazon paid the bills and when depression made her heart cold, words warmed the cockles of her heart. Art was there too, like the childhood friend that never stops checking up on you. "Since writing is cheaper than art, in the sense that paints are more expensive than writing on paper, I switched back to my first love, art, only after I had enough to get by," says the now 25-year-old. But India doesn't know the value of art, so she cracked the puzzle only when she started painting on fabric, somehow people seemed more interested then. That's when she resumed working for Rébah, a brand she had started in October 2019. Delicate saris form part of the first collection, Shada Ginkgo, launched last month.    

At an exhibition | (Pic: Inaya Fatima)

But as the call of art grew stronger and stronger, Inaya quit her job in September last year and decided to give her all to art. By then, the youngster from Hyderabad had already worked as an art tutor at ACK Live and had exhibited much of her work in art exhibitions at Phoenix Arena, Villa Marie College's fest and so on. Her artwork takes a dig at society (case in point her Gol Roti series) and also expresses her innermost feelings. And in July 2020, she even launched her ebook on Amazon The Book Under My Pillow. "It was literally from the book that I kept under my pillow. It consists of 69 poems and the paintings that go along with it," says the youngster who pursued BCom from Shadan College of Education.

The latest collection from Rebah | (Pic: Inaya Fatima)

Inaya, who has seen a fair amount of commissioned work come her way, has already set her aim — she wants to create as much art as she can. "If anyone wants anything painted on anything — pots, clothing, canvas and such — I should be the go-to person," says the self-taught artist. Because you see, she knows aiming for being happy is futile because she is aware of the fact that her artwork might not fetch her enough, so she is fine with being content. As long as she has a brush in her hand. Or the computer’s mouse even, because recently, the artist has been illustrating for a children’s book!

For more on her, check out instagram.com/ina_nightingalesyaup