Delhiwale: The Malviya Nagar artist

At the age of 20, Ratyaditya Verma has finished some 5,000 artworks, all now waiting to be sold.

Ratyaditya Verma is not just one among our city’s many aspiring young artists. But he could also be one of the most productive.

Ratyaditya Verma at his room in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT Photo)

Some 5,000 of his finished artworks are waiting to be sold. For now, they’re crammed in Mr Verma’s room in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar. At the age of 20, he hasn’t yet figured out how to go about selling his creations.

“I’ve no clue,” he says.

The artworks include countless portraits of Metro commuters compiled in numerous diaries, as well as many wall-size canvasses — all crammed into a small room. His Instagram page features photos of people whom he has body-painted.

“Somehow, I’ve managed to get a sitar,” says Mr Verma, who’s now trying to learn the Dhrupada tradition from Pandit Madan Shankar Mishra at Triveni Kala Sangam. “I guess you might call it a busy life,” he laughs, “no time to read newspapers, which can institutionalize your mind.”

(We let that pass.)

The long-haired artist with a sparkling nose stud says his family had named him after the sun god, Aditya. “But to this name I added Rati, the goddess of pleasure,” he said.

Despite his works lying unsold, Mr Verma is optimistic.

Picking up a Picasso hardbound from his desk, he flips through the pages. That celebrated painter did the sort of art he himself desired, Mr Verma notes, and people loved it.

“It gives me hope that something like that may work out for me too.”