A new realism has sprouted in this world of ours which is overridden with images and icons of our patchwork existence. An artist’s effort, always and everywhere, has been to draw fresh nodes of understanding, novel ways of seeing and translating life into their canvas. Art in any form could be a tutored experience, but in reality springs from some deeper spirit within the individual. That explains why some of the finest artists worldwide are completely self-taught. Farhan Mujib is one such. The artist has created four compositions for this issue, based on books and literature, a  “challenging and exhilarating experience” as he claims, “that involved exploring the written word in greater depth.”