Sambhu Dayal Bahuleyan - My life; My story
A creative spark in my mind on a peaceful Sunday morning turned into my husband's biography in 1st person and here it is...
Would be great reading this out after many years.
Sambhu Dayal Bahuleyan
Software Engineer by profession; Artist by passion
Building high quality impressive websites and eye-catching paintings.
I am Sambhu Dayal Bahuleyan. You can call me by my first name, Sambhu. I hail from Kerala, south-western state in India, often known to be ‘God’s own country’ because of its nature beauty and comfortable weather.
I live in Limerick, the river side city in Ireland.
I am an Electronics Engineer by degree, Software Engineer by profession and an artist by passion. Here is my story before you.
My childhood
My home
I was born in a middle class family of four members – my father, mother, my elder brother and myself. We lived in a beautiful village called ‘Mayyanad’ on the banks of Paravur Lake. My parents were government servants who used to get regular transfers to different districts in Kerala as part of their profession. To be honest, my childhood was almost lonely with my brother and either of my father or mother with us with their busy living between home and their job.My school-days
At the tender age of 6, I started drawing pictures and making crafts out of paper and recycling wastes. By the age of 10, my drawing teacher at school, Ramesh sir identified my talent and began to take me and his own daughter, Mothy to all the drawing / painting competitions for school children in the village and around town. Participating in competitions was a fun that time as Ramesh sir used to drive us to the venue on his old scooter. As a child, I enjoyed the free ride in his scooter watching the surroundings not knowing the artist inside me. I was always satisfied with winning second prize in most of the competitions asMothy would be securing the first prize for the competitions everywhere. Being a winner in art competitions inspired me for some time. Ramesh sir told me to join his drawing classes at his home. I remember I didn’t go to his classes for more than 2 weeks as I didn’t feel the seriousness in my art during my childhood. Also I was not a boy who sit for hours listening to lectures from teachers and do something as instructed. I was a free bird then; (not so free, to be frank as my parents were too strict to their children.)
Growing up as an artist
I started experimenting clay modelling out of curiosity without any sort of training. I can recall even now, during my school holidays, I used to go to the other side of the lake on a row-boat to collect clay from a brick factory. My school vacations went engaged by doing some painting or modelling some cool stuffs using clay. I can’t forget even to this day my masterpiece work in clay – “Lord Ganesh” – A Hindu deity – for which I got many appreciation from my neighbors. I even helped some nearby carpenters for making their drawings on wooden doors. My parents possessed a neutral attitude to my art that time – neither encouraging nor discouraging.
to restart my art where I stopped. But I never listened to her.
By 2018, both of us have completed more than 10 years in our career. Our once-excitement at work began to fade a bit because of lack of work-life balance. On May 2018, Honey decided to resign from her employer when she got two job offers from two other IT companies in the same place. She had to serve her notice period for three months before she stepped out of her first job. A quick spark fired in my mind one night when I told her to apply for jobs abroad. Initially she didn’t agree to that because she didn’t want to leave our country. Later when I convinced her regarding work-life balance and better opportunities abroad, she posted her resume in several job sites abroad. We never thought if she ever get shortlisted for any interview. To our surprise, she could clear all the levels in her job interview for Jaguar Land Rover, Ireland and got a job offer from them. We both resigned from our jobs and prepared to migrate to Ireland. We believe this is the greatest risk we have ever taken in our entire life.
Honey joined Jaguar Land Rover and Nihar got admission in a nearby primary school where he joined 2nd grade. I took a break from my career for 3 months to support them during this great change in our life.
Because of these continued health issues, I couldn’t focus on my job hunt in Ireland even though my VISA permitted me to work in Ireland. I had to satisfy with my freelancing web development career maintaining my client projects in India and Middle East.
Things became worse when Nihar came home from school one day with Chickenpox infection. Soon Honey also got infected. We were going through the hardest times in our life. Fortunately her manager at work has been very supportive to her that he grant her enough sick leaves till she got well. By the end of June, we felt it is high time we took a break and decided to visit our family. We flew to India on 4 th of August and met our family. We returned to Ireland on 24 th of August. It was a vacation that was essential for us at that time.
found two art groups in Limerick – ‘Art in Limerick’ and ‘ArtLimerick’.
session. We walked into a small room in the centre of the city where we saw three people doing their painting silently on different tables. We got a warm welcome from them. After a few years, I took my paint brush and a few water colors (which Honey had kept safe for me while she travelled to Ireland). That day, I started to paint a picture which I later named as “My dream”. It is an excerpt from the immortal love of Lord Krishna and his devotee and childhood friend, Radha in Vrindavana garden. Artists at ‘Art in Limerick’ were really excited seeing the detail in my work. They appreciated me and asked me to join all studio sessions.
A week later, we went to ‘Bring your own paint’ art session organized by Kathy Tiernan of ArtLimerick. This session happens every Tuesday morning and Thursday evening at People’s museum, Limerick. Kathy Tiernan is a fantastic artist and a wonderful human-being. No one person would ever forget her if they talk to her at least once. When we walk into the dark room on the -1 floor of People’s Museum, we saw a lovely bunch of artists of all ages – some are professional artists, some are beginners like Honey. Lol! She also got inspired by the artists around her and started to join me every week and scribble something on her drawing book. That day, I started my second painting. I named it as “Facets of a woman”.
Both these groups serve as a motivation to me where I could meet many artists and get to know about various styles and
mediums of paintings/drawings. Now I regularly attend all of the studio sessions conducted by ‘Art in Limerick’ and ‘ArtLimerick’.
I spend quality time everyday painting my imaginations in canvas. Unknowingly, I come up with an interesting theme now
– Every time, I complete an eastern style painting, I start to do a western style painting the next day. My idea girl and passionate woman in my life, Honey came up with an idea again that I should build a portfolio website myself to showcase my art and websites designed so far. She suggested a name for my website ‘eastorwestart.com’ and encouraged me to create this website. Thus this website – eastorwestart.com is born.
When I handed over this painting to Mrs. Anne, she wrote a ‘Thank you’ card with some money and a few goodies for my child. She wrote: “Thank you so much, Sambhu. I love your painting.”
I am noting down my reply to her here which I have already conveyed to her personally.
Dear Anne,
“This is the most valuable gift I have ever received in my life. Your words definitely serve as a motivation for me in my life ahead.”
Quoting Lord Krishna’s teaching to Arjuna and to the whole humanity in Bhagavat Gita:-
“Whatever happened, happened for the good,
Whatever is happening, is happening for the good,
Whatever will happen, will also happen for the good”
I am Sambhu Dayal Bahuleyan and this is my life story.
Signing off with lots of love,
Sambhu
Heartbreaking event
To an end to all of my excitement, my parents began noticing my falling grades at school. There started regular arguments with my parents since I was not focusing on my studies and spending more time in art. Finally, one day, I threw away all my clay models and tore apart every bits of paper of painting I did so far. This was after a clash with my mom regarding studies matter. My heart was burning like fire but my eyes were as cold as dead ashes. I was up to bursting into tears when I collapsed my “Lord Ganesh” finally. There I put a full stop to my art and craft.Born as an Engineer
Years passed by. I completed my graduate degree in Electronics and Communication Engineer in the year 2006. Soon I pursued a job as a Software Engineer trainee in an IT company. I started designing and developing websites in PHP for our clients and felt exciting with my job as I saw different colors merging and forming a website. In my free time, I used to do freelancing helping my personal clients to build quality websites for their firms at affordable rates.Walk forever by my side
Honey came to my life on an October weekend in the year 2008 when my parents fixed an arranged marriage for me. We got married on 6th of September, 2009. Honey is a Software Engineer who works in Embedded systems domain. She has a burning passion in all forms of art especially South Indian music. Identifying my artistic talent, she started encouraging meto restart my art where I stopped. But I never listened to her.
Our little bundle of joy
We were blessed with our little bundle of joy, Nihar Sambhu Dayal on 21st of January, 2011. We soon became busy parents juggling our time between our career and life. I drew one or two pictures for our kid when he was small. But art didn’t excite me anymore.Milestones in our life
We built a small house in a village near the place we work on 2014. We named our home as ‘Neeharam’ – the meaning of which is dew. Our Neeharam is our own private space. We used to spend most of our free time in our home with family.By 2018, both of us have completed more than 10 years in our career. Our once-excitement at work began to fade a bit because of lack of work-life balance. On May 2018, Honey decided to resign from her employer when she got two job offers from two other IT companies in the same place. She had to serve her notice period for three months before she stepped out of her first job. A quick spark fired in my mind one night when I told her to apply for jobs abroad. Initially she didn’t agree to that because she didn’t want to leave our country. Later when I convinced her regarding work-life balance and better opportunities abroad, she posted her resume in several job sites abroad. We never thought if she ever get shortlisted for any interview. To our surprise, she could clear all the levels in her job interview for Jaguar Land Rover, Ireland and got a job offer from them. We both resigned from our jobs and prepared to migrate to Ireland. We believe this is the greatest risk we have ever taken in our entire life.
Landing Ireland
On a frozen evening in January 2019, three of us landed Dublin airport. Fortunately, we could find a shelter in Limerick city. Our landlord, Mr. Naiqian Ren, is a wonderful human-being and is the best landlord we have ever met. He usually responds to every query we have with respect to our apartment or anything related to living in Ireland. If we have any concern here, our first go-to person is definitely Ren. In our apartment miles far away from our own ‘Neeharam’, we started to feel at home.Honey joined Jaguar Land Rover and Nihar got admission in a nearby primary school where he joined 2nd grade. I took a break from my career for 3 months to support them during this great change in our life.
Walking through sharpe-edged stones
Living in Ireland was not easy as we expect. Three of us got prone to frequent illnesses due to extreme change in weather. Honey got affected more and she had to take many days off from her work because of continuing infections. As days went by, we became so desperate that at one point, we even thought of going back to our country. We stayed at our apartment all times even on weekends without going out fearing any new infections. We were really longing for some sunshine at the end of the tunnel.Because of these continued health issues, I couldn’t focus on my job hunt in Ireland even though my VISA permitted me to work in Ireland. I had to satisfy with my freelancing web development career maintaining my client projects in India and Middle East.
Things became worse when Nihar came home from school one day with Chickenpox infection. Soon Honey also got infected. We were going through the hardest times in our life. Fortunately her manager at work has been very supportive to her that he grant her enough sick leaves till she got well. By the end of June, we felt it is high time we took a break and decided to visit our family. We flew to India on 4 th of August and met our family. We returned to Ireland on 24 th of August. It was a vacation that was essential for us at that time.
Life in Ireland after first vacation
Honey could identify deep inside my heart, I was feeling desperate that I couldn’t join any software company and work in a corporate environment. She searched in internet for any activities/courses/groups that might interest me. Finally shefound two art groups in Limerick – ‘Art in Limerick’ and ‘ArtLimerick’.
Come back to Art
When Honey told me about a studio session in CB1 building organized by ‘Art in Limerick’ group, I was least interested. But she insisted me to come along. On a Saturday evening, I was forced to join her and Nihar to Art in Limerick Studiosession. We walked into a small room in the centre of the city where we saw three people doing their painting silently on different tables. We got a warm welcome from them. After a few years, I took my paint brush and a few water colors (which Honey had kept safe for me while she travelled to Ireland). That day, I started to paint a picture which I later named as “My dream”. It is an excerpt from the immortal love of Lord Krishna and his devotee and childhood friend, Radha in Vrindavana garden. Artists at ‘Art in Limerick’ were really excited seeing the detail in my work. They appreciated me and asked me to join all studio sessions.
A week later, we went to ‘Bring your own paint’ art session organized by Kathy Tiernan of ArtLimerick. This session happens every Tuesday morning and Thursday evening at People’s museum, Limerick. Kathy Tiernan is a fantastic artist and a wonderful human-being. No one person would ever forget her if they talk to her at least once. When we walk into the dark room on the -1 floor of People’s Museum, we saw a lovely bunch of artists of all ages – some are professional artists, some are beginners like Honey. Lol! She also got inspired by the artists around her and started to join me every week and scribble something on her drawing book. That day, I started my second painting. I named it as “Facets of a woman”.
Both these groups serve as a motivation to me where I could meet many artists and get to know about various styles and
mediums of paintings/drawings. Now I regularly attend all of the studio sessions conducted by ‘Art in Limerick’ and ‘ArtLimerick’.
My life has changed a bit now
I spend quality time everyday painting my imaginations in canvas. Unknowingly, I come up with an interesting theme now
– Every time, I complete an eastern style painting, I start to do a western style painting the next day. My idea girl and passionate woman in my life, Honey came up with an idea again that I should build a portfolio website myself to showcase my art and websites designed so far. She suggested a name for my website ‘eastorwestart.com’ and encouraged me to create this website. Thus this website – eastorwestart.com is born.
My first client
One of our fellow artists at ArtLimerick, Mrs. Anne Reardon happened to see my painting, ‘My Dream’ and got impressed. She asked me to paint an eastern style painting for her featuring the immortal love of Lord Krishna and Radha. I took three weeks to finish my painting for her which I named as ‘Radha Madhavam’. This painting is my imagination of a full moon night on the banks of Yamuna River where Radha and Lord Krishna spent their times of immortal love.When I handed over this painting to Mrs. Anne, she wrote a ‘Thank you’ card with some money and a few goodies for my child. She wrote: “Thank you so much, Sambhu. I love your painting.”
I am noting down my reply to her here which I have already conveyed to her personally.
Dear Anne,
“This is the most valuable gift I have ever received in my life. Your words definitely serve as a motivation for me in my life ahead.”
My thoughts
Is it a mere written destiny which stopped me from my art years back, which made me hate art for a long period of time and the same destiny brought back to my art after a long gap of 23 years? This day, I wish I should deep dive into the world of art and do many paintings/craft until I stay healthy.Quoting Lord Krishna’s teaching to Arjuna and to the whole humanity in Bhagavat Gita:-
“Whatever happened, happened for the good,
Whatever is happening, is happening for the good,
Whatever will happen, will also happen for the good”
I am Sambhu Dayal Bahuleyan and this is my life story.
Signing off with lots of love,
Sambhu
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