Q. When and how did you get inspired to take up drawing nudes?
A. I used to make portraits but felt faces lie. I graduated to doing anatomical drawings. Human bodies fascinate me — they are aesthetically beautiful. I met a French couple 10 years ago. They volunteered to pose for me in the nude. I had many sessions with them. When they left Delhi after a few months, I didn’t miss them as much as sketching them in the nude. They left me in me this potent need to sketch live models — I call them subjects. I began to request people to pose for me.

SKETCH COURTESY/MIHIR SRIVASTAVA, AUTHOR-CONVERSATIONS IN THE NUDE

Q. What were initial reactions at home, among friends (including girlfriends) and colleagues?
A. My family was bemused. My mother told me to get married. I replied: ‘What if I don’t stop sketching nudes after marriage; will you get me married again?’ We had a good laugh. She is an ardent supporter. She tells me: ‘pursue your hobby — sketching and painting.’ My family is cool about my tryst with nudity.  I don’t draw people I am intimately involved with; sketching them would be such a waste of time! When I am about to leave office, a close friend and colleague often asks: ‘to sketch?’ Some friends take offense that I never asked them to pose. They accuse me of not finding them interesting enough and insist that they would have refused to pose had I offered them.