Who does not take pride in one's own creation? A mother sees her baby as the most enchanting creature ever born. A father wonders why his ward does not always bag a prize in recitation, painting or even in a music competition. A husband marvels at his fantastic culinary skills; that his skills may create gastronomic problems for the family guinea pigs is a matter of no concern?
Good, bad or indifferent, it is more satisfying to create something than enjoying someone else's creation. Many us do not realize the subtle difference. Viewing a soap opera on a small screen may be entertaining but one is soon shaken back to the real world ( creative, but who said it is an Idiot box? ). Whereas, the benign smile of Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma while playing his santoor, reflects his happiness down deeper within — an ecstasy that wither with time. We need only to be in time to buy tickets for a stage
show. Usually, the performers themselves and not we sitting in the audience, enjoy the most because they sweat for months to
produce that two-hour piece ( take my word or visit the green room and see for yourself the all pervading excitement even if the play turns out to be the sloppiest ever produced). All the while during the preparations , the participants, howsoever busy they may be otherwise, also have something to look forward to. Bertrand Russell had advocated such participative entertainment in his book In praise of Idleness for effectively dealing with the problems of leisure.
We can do nothing about creativity if it is only a gift of the God above or the nature around — something that people are born with. The more pragmatic would be to assume that a person is born with all talents but of varying potential; circumstances in the formative years and personal preferences finally determine how an individual shapes up in real life. Whether India would have gained more had Raja Ramanna pursued music rather than Nuclear Science for a career could be be a good subject for a debate. Satyajit Ray might have received world acclaim of the movies he made, but the children would always fondly remember him for the inimitable Felu-daand Lalmohan-Babu he created as the Indian equals to Sherlock Homes and Dr Watson.
Congenial environment definitely helps a trait to bloom. For example, apart from his immediate family environment, Rabindranath Tagore had the advantage of sharing his creation with a host of writers, artists and social reformers that India was blessed with during that period. Similarly, fertile family traditions helped nurturing the creativity in the Mangeshkar sisters, Manna Dey and Ud. Amjad Ali Khan to reach the pinnacle of their excellence. Ritu Beri, had she been born in a non-decrepit village, would now be stitching frocks for her daughters' dolls. Many of our childhood acquaintances had the sparks of creativity — some could paint, some write poetry, some could make toys out of trash and so on — but, what happened to them?
Development of creative qualities demand high degree of tenacity, motivation and the urge to attain perfection. It is said that Pt. Ravishankar did sadhana with sitar for years at the Gurukul of Ud. Allauddin Khan at Maihar, totally cut-off from the rest of civilization. It seems that one should be able to train one's mind and set it on a purposive course towards excellence.
Given proper aadher, formal training can only help to sharpen one's technical skills. The technical skill as such is essential but not sufficient enough condition for creative pursuits. Otherwise, all grammarians could have been litterateurs as well.
Even having a creative mind, supportive traits, technical skills and a fertile environment is not sufficient for the creativity to bloom. One should also get an opportunity to face a creative challenge to prove oneself. God only knows whether Swami Vivekananda would have ended up as one among many other swamijis, had he not been to the Chicago Conference. Lucky break is what all artists need. Most of our childhood acquaintances had to be satisfied with performing in puja pandals or marriage parties in moffusil towns as singers a la Lata or Kishore. The less fortunate could not go past singing in suburban trains. Suppressed with the need to struggle for day-to-day sustenance, their interests also dwindle with time.
Such deaths of a creative potential is a matter of routine in our country. Sparks dissipate as sparks and seldom raise hell fire. I do not know what is the correlation between intelligence measured in terms of IQ and creativity. In the West, gifted children ( having an IQ in the genius range of more than 140 ), attend special schools where every attempt is made to identify the specific areas of the child's potential. Once it is identified, s/he is provided with the necessary facilities for a healthy growth of the faculties.
As a comparison, our gifted kids end up displaying uncommon behavior for lack of opportunity to express themselves. Children of promise from poor and rural families are forced to join the subsistence, wage earning race and disappear in the mass of mediocrity. Their richer cousins are in better position — they are induced into the money-making spree at an early age. That leaves the so-called middle class intelligentia who are unable to take risks in life, and therefore sail on a safe course or just anchor and float!
Some of them are huddled up in a so-called ability section of a public school and made to pass through a rigidly formatted tutorial course leading to engineering,medicine or even commerce. Thereafter, they undergo management education (as if it is the only discipline that warrants a genius to be in ) and finally end up with glamorous jobs of marketing toothpaste and boot polish ( Oh, yes, it needs a genius to fool the dumb millions) or as cyber slaves of western computer firms. A voice that could have enthralled millions over time gets trapped in official ( babu ) booze sessions. What a nice way of mortgaging the soul to insignificance!
I do not know why I wrote all this. I guess, I just wanted to share my views on information content creation...Anyway...
—A. Lahiri
