At 21, Bahaar Anand was juggling spreadsheets, solving GMAT quant problems, and rehearsing corporate elevator pitches — the kind meant to land you a “respectable” job with corner desks and coffee machine privileges. But behind those serious prep sessions was a young woman secretly obsessed with the glint of graphite, the shimmer of skin tones, and the curve of a perfectly drawn eyebrow.

Two years later, she’s swapped aptitude tests for art tools, cubicles for canvasses, and societal approval for hyperrealistic portraits that make you look twice, sometimes thrice, just to be sure it isn’t a photograph.

Today, the 25-year-old self-taught artist from Delhi has over 10,000 followers on Instagram, a steadily growing clientele, and a studio that’s slowly filling up with vibrant, painstakingly realistic artworks – each one stitched with the story of someone else’s face, and her own.

But the path to embracing full-time artistry wasn’t as picture-perfect as her portraits.

Bahaar’s art doesn’t just capture images; it captures the essence of a young woman who dared to rewrite her story, blending creativity with entrepreneurship in a way that resonates deeply in today’s world. Here is the inspiring tale of how she navigated doubts, broke conventions, and found her voice through oil paints and the digital canvas of social media.

The making of a new-age artist

Bahaar’s artistic inclinations were baked into her DNA from childhood. Her father, Harpreet Singh Anand, spotted the spark early on.

“When she was born, I looked at her fingers and somehow knew she’d be making art a lot,” he recalls fondly. Yet, Bahaar was far from the typical “artsy” kid in school. She wasn’t the one to dominate art classes or win competitions.

“I was never that popular art child,” she admits. Drawing and painting were more private joys, quietly nurtured rather than publicly celebrated.

At the crossroads of 11th-grade counselling, when asked about her ambitions, Bahaar instinctively answered, “I want to be an artist.” The counsellor’s pragmatic response was a familiar one: artists don’t make money, so art isn’t a viable career. Chastened, Bahaar chose commerce, following the safer path her parents hoped for. She completed her Bachelor’s in Commerce with an Honours degree, which she describes as “rattafy” – memorised and passed without passion.

But the artist’s yearning never left her. A turning point came in 2018 when her father asked her to paint a large canvas — a dancing lady for their Victorian-style drawing room. The piece was her first big canvas, and when........

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