Jai Zharotia (1945–2021) was born in New Delhi in a humble craftsman family that lived life with simplicity. A self-driven struggle and sensitive nature pushed him towards literary and artistic pursuits. He trained himself in the basics of painting, acquired a Diploma in Art, and then a second Diploma in Fine Arts.
In 1974 he joined the College of Art, Delhi, as a lecturer in Painting. As an artist-teacher he was relaxed and least dogmatic, wanting students to seek creatively by themselves, and he was always at work in his studio at the college. Though essentially a painter, he was renowned for his printmaking and took part in many national and international print exhibitions.
A believer in destiny, Jai felt that forces beyond his control shaped his life. Walking the precarious edge between abstraction and figuration, he chased the poetic and fantastic in his art, drawing on miniatures and on select modern art movements.