Wherever she goes, Atsuko DeRoy has her sketch pad and pen at the ready. In meetings she quietly sketches speakers and people sitting opposite her. Outdoors she sketches buildings, flowers and whatever comes along. However quickly and unobtrusively she works, she puts passion into it. That is why, for her, a camera in its immediacy is not an acceptable substitute.
She did not, however, begin with aspirations to draw or paint. "I played the violin," she said. "Then I thought, how about singing? I switched to sketching later." Eventually she took her bachelor's degree in Oriental history at Waseda University, and her master's degree in international studies at Tsukuba University. All the time, she wanted to go to India.
Atsuko was born in Beijing, where her father was a railway employee. The family frequently moved. Later, under the Colombo Plan for providing technical assistance, her father went to Bombay. "I wanted to go to India," Atsuko repeated.