Subhas Rai's cartoons have by now become a staple for many Nepali books, magazine and is familiar to the readers of this newspaper. But he does not like to be called a cartoonist, not even an artist. "I am an explorer," says the boyish-looking 34-year-old, and he has never stopped exploring.

Starting out in a Kathmandu ad agency, Subhas was a quick-learner and soon found the confines of a "job" restricted his need to seek new challenges. He shifted to a multinational advertising agency in Kathmandu where he familiarised himself with computer graphics and design. But even here, claustrophobia set in. "It is a very commercial environment, there isn't much time to be creative," says Subhas. So he struck off on his own as a freelance designer.

His most challenging task? To illustrate Adventures of a Nepali Frog, the best-selling children's book by Kanak Mani Dixit which has now been translated into eight languages. Subhas likes to do unusual things, and his latest work is the cover for the SAARC issue of Himal South Asian which has an upside down map of the subcontinent with Sri Lanka on top. "I'm not a cartographer, but it was fun to spoof National Geographic and make a map that forces people to take a whole new perspective."

Subhas is off to the US to learn new tricks, more computer aided design work and animation. "I'm not the kind that will stay abroad," says Subhas, "I want to widen my horizons, gain experience with new equipment and bring back world-class graphics design to Nepal." Keep on exploring, Subhas, and (like the poet said) return to the place you started to see it for the first time.