n the early 1990s, while Syed was immersed in the dual pursuit of a Bachelor of Applied Chemistry and Bachelor of Commerce in Karachi, a generation of students were training under the teachings of painter and sculptor Zahoor-ul-Akhlaq (1941-1999) and the miniature painter Ustad Bashir Ahmed at the National College of Arts in Lahore, many of whom went onto become international figures in the contemporary renewal of South Asian-miniature painting. Only after moving to Oklahoma, United States, to study chemical engineering, where an elective drawing class prompted Syed to
