Dr Niharika Aneja was a three-year-old when she got her hands on paintbrushes and got lost in the world of art. Today, this passion comes in handy as she looks for an escape from her demanding line of work as a medical professional. Cartooning, doodling, sandpaper painting, glass painting, canvas painting — Aneja finds solace in creative and artistic work, as she deals with emergency cases at Columbia Asia Hospital, Sarjapur Road.
From dealing with trauma cases to heart attacks, Aneja is always on her toes. “But it’s painting that helps me move away from reality. I paint depending upon my mood. If I am sad, I sketch using pencils... I usually stick to black and white themes. If I am chirpy, I use oil pastels and acrylic colours. If I have a day off, I do sand painting and glass painting, and also experiment. I also like finishing paintings in four to five hours at a stretch without taking it into the next day,” says the 30-year-old.
Interestingly, Aneja also combines painting with music. Drawing inspiration from the songs her father used to listen to, Aneja too listens to the same as she wields her brush. “If I am listening to jazz or ghazals, I stick to sketching. If I am listening to something peppy, I would work on acrylic painting. It helps me relieve tension and stress to a great extent,” says Aneja, who has completed a four-year degree in painting from Bal Bharati Kalakendra, Dhanbad, Jharkhand. “It is a five-year course and I managed to complete only four. Thanks to medical examinations that came with a studying overload, I wasn’t able to finish the course. I regret this dearly,” says Aneja.
For some reason, Aneja prefers staying away from working on sculptures. What she does like, however, are nature-based themes like butterflies, trees, landscapes, birds and flowers. Aneja believes that with many emergency cases that involve life and death, a getaway for people in professions such as her’s is imperative.
“Dealing with emergency cases like strokes, heart attack and trauma is a painstaking job. I cannot afford a vacation and my only alternative is to turn to my creative skills. Although certain emergency cases haunt me, painting takes me to a fresh world and clears my mind of negativity,” says Aneja.