Meet ANINDITA BISWAS

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful ANINDITA BISWAS a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

ANINDITA, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
One of the most important ways that I kept my creativity alive was to stay curious, ask relevant questions, explore new ideas, and never stop learning. I highly encourage divergent thinking, which is the ability to see multiple solutions to a problem. Exploring various possibilities is something I practise. Stepping out of my comfort zone and taking on new challenges is something I vouch for. Creative growth often occurs when you push your boundaries and tackle tasks that are slightly beyond our current skill level. Also sometimes, stepping away or taking a break for a while helped me come back to it with fresh perspective and better ideas. These breaks recharged my creative energy. Working and collaborating with others also helped in bringing on new ideas and different viewpoints which led to different innovative solutions and helped in keeping the creativity flowing.

Travelling, reading diverse books, attending events, listening to podcasts or exploring new hobbies provided me with fresh perspectives and ideas. Learning and studying the works of creative individuals helped me analyze what makes their work unique and I drew a lot of inspiration from it. Embracing failures and not being afraid to make mistakes led to creative breakthroughs in my creative journey. Having a creative routine or schedule with proper time management skills helped me achieve a lot of creative skills within a short span of time. Self- critiquing and asking for constructive criticism from my creative peers, teachers and people who I can trust helped in refining my ideas and enhanced my creative skills.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a Calligrapher, Artist & Designer based in Pune, India & Founder of CalliScript.

I am an Engineer and an MBA graduate in Marketing and Finance from Symbiosis, Pune and worked in an MNC as an Engineer for almost 5 years. Later I quit to chase my passion for travel and worked as a Travel Operations Manager for 2 years until the pandemic happened and everything fell through. I lost my job and hit rock bottom, not knowing what to do next. I suffered from depression for a few months and had a rough phase, that’s when Calligraphy happened.

As a child, I had no inclination towards drawing or painting. The last time I touched a paint brush was in 8th Grade. However, I always had a good handwriting and loved writing with fountain pens. As a penwoman, the glistening shine of the wet ink always gave me a lot of joy. Calligraphy happened to me by accident in Nov 2020. I started learning a pointed pen script called ‘Copperplate Calligraphy’ under Avinash Kharat. The moment I delved into the world of calligraphy with pen and ink, it was as though I had stumbled upon an irresistible addiction. Calligraphy quickly became my love, and my passion for it deepened significantly in the following months. Determined to master this beautiful art, I sought out the finest instructors from around the world through online classes. This decision marked a turning point in my journey, and from that moment onward, there was no turning back, my skills experienced exponential growth. The progress I made was not merely about technical proficiency; it was a testament to my love for the creative process itself. This journey of learning and improvement only served to intensify my affection for the art of calligraphy. I loved learning new scripts, floral illustrations, Victorian, Offhand, Decorative and Ornamental flourishes. I even started a club called “Calligraphy Artists’ Club’ on Clubhouse App where we host calligraphy and lettering discussion sessions showcasing different calligraphy and lettering artists from all over the world. Till now we have hosted over 40 artists from all over the world.

After a year in Calligraphy. I started my own Calligraphy & Design venture and founded ‘CalliScript’. CalliScript was born with immense love and passion for Calligraphy, Art and Design. Our work spreads across various styles and scripts in English, Devanagari, Bengali and Spanish. From handwritten letters or custom wedding invites, CalliScript caters to all calligraphic and design needs. Along with catering to Graphic Design, Brand Logo Design, Illuminated Artworks (made with real gold), Certificate Writing, Keepsakes, Monograms, Name tags, Place Cards, Greeting Cards etc. Our clientele consists of corporates, brands, event/wedding planners and numerous individuals. We also offer Calligraphy workshops once in a while. We newly ventured into Fashion illustration work as well for On-site Brand Activations.

My calligraphy works have been featured on IAMPETH, The Flourish Club, Calligraphy Masters, Calligraphers in India, Tobuovimaan’s 2022 desktop calendar to name a few. I have been awarded as the season’s best cover art and best calligraphy artist and got an opportunity to exhibit two of calligraphy artworks in Tobuovimaan’s Kolkata exhibition in Sept, 2021 & Feb 2022. I am also a Brand Ambassador for a stationery Brand – Menorah Stationery.

Apart from managing my calligraphy business, I also work as an IATA Certified Travel Operations Manager in Travel company in India. I am a polyglot and fluent in English, Hindi, Bengali and Marathi with intermediate in Spanish and Korean languages. I have been trained in Indian Classical music (vocal) for 17 years and occasionally teach as well. I am also a TEFL Certified freelance English teacher with a teaching experience of 2 years. Currently I am studying for a Diploma in Graphic Designing.

Calligraphy is not just an artform, it is an emotion for me. I pour my heart and soul into it. It has become my passion, life, love and more so, an integral part of my life. For me, Calligraphy is not just an art. It is an emotion.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three of the most important quality that impacted my journey was to be consistent, continuous learning and embracing failures.

I highly encourage to be consistent of what your are doing. Consistently doing what I did helped me build my skills slowly and steadily. I kept practising calligraphy everyday for at least for 30 mins to an hour, I do it everyday today as well.

Continuous learning and upgrading my skill set kept my creativity alive. So this was also a great habit that made me more versatile. So my advice would be to stay curious and ask relevant questions, explore new ideas, and never stop learning.

Learning to embrace failures & the importance of not giving up was also an important quality to have. This helped me a lot in whatever I have achieved till date.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
The biggest area of growth in the last 1 year has been to find my own Artistic Voice. So, I was trying to find my niche since last 3 years of starting calligraphy. But somehow things were not working out. But then I started noticing things that were lying around me but I never thought of creatively using those findings properly, until I did start experimenting with those in the last 6 months. I finally started honing my artistic voice which was a significant goal. I can now say that I have developed a unique and recognizable style that sets me apart from others.

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