Creativity - Unlimited

I was about to take my bike out this morning. I normally use my bike – Hero Honda Splendor+ for short distances, because

a. I can overtake others from left, right and center in Bangalore roads

b. It is so fuel efficient, if I run out of both fuel and cash all I need to do is to take to the nearest petrol pump and make my little bike inhale petrol fumes for 5 minutes. I can easily ride another 2 KMs.

Coming back to my morning worry, I noticed the bike is in first gear and the pillion footrests are not folded back after use. This happens only when my son is in town and he uses it to take his girlfriend out for a movie or an ice cream. Since he is not in town, I was wondering who would have done this. Normally I keep the bike in neutral position with pillion footrests folded back nicely! Suddenly I realized my little friend, Nithya ( my cousin’s daughter) was at home last evening and I had seen her climbing on to bike, even after being cautioned by her cautious dad. For sure, she must have tried a few things with no fear. The reason why she tried those, I will come to know shortly through FB or otherwise!

My friend had an interesting story to tell. One day his neighbor, came running to his house asking if there were any problems with his TV. My friend just checked and told that there was no issue. I believe the old man was trying to do some “asanas” along with the instructor, watching one of those “yoga” channels. Suryanamaskara was about to start, he closed his eyes took a deep breath, he started hearing “Munni Badnaam huyi…” - channel had changed to MTV by itself. With lots of effort he switched back to his “yoga” channel. By that time Suryanamaskara was over, the new asana was about to start, Padmasana. Same preparation, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, he started hearing some vague music. Opened his eyes to see some ladies with interesting dress code walking towards him, it was Fashion TV this time for a change! Later he brought in the TV mechanic, the cablewala but they could not simulate and identify the problem. After 2 days, my friend, though he didn’t know ABCD of TV mechanism could himself identify the root cause of the problem. It was his 13 year old son! His ever inquisitive son was so eager to prove the following:

1.     Remote of his TV can work on his neighbor’s TV too

2.     His Remote can work 12 feet more the distance than normally he uses for his TV to operate his neighbor's TV sitting at his own house

3.     He can make a soft spoken, ever smiling and peaceful old man angry and annoyed

My brother-in-law and family were visiting us. They had a 6 year old son. It’s extremely difficult for anybody to make him sit at one place. He has to do some mischief or other. Thanks to Romeo and Juliet (my pet dogs), he limited his work place on the dining table at my house, as he was scared of them. 10 minutes on the table, I found my water bottle became a plastic club with a thin smooth handle at one end and with such a finish. I would have taken at least a few hours to achieve that, though I am not sure of the end result. I knew the bottle was of no use any more, I could only smile as I was amassed by his creativity and finesse.

At young age, most of us were like that. We had that attitude like in the Tamil song by poet Kannadasan “ponaal pogattum poda” (if it went, let it be gone – My father was a big fan of this song and I picked this from him). We were ready to experiment new things with no fear. Due to various factors, both internal and external, as we grow we become less creative, less risk taking. Why my friend, my relative etc etc. even I had written two short dramas at the age of 11. I did not write anything after that, except for professional and academic needs, till I started this blog. There were many factors like my focus being shifted more towards studies, lack of time, peer pressure, etc but one of the definite reasons was criticism by elders that time. They looked at those dramas and asked me “why are you wasting your time?” I did not have the courage to overcome such criticism then. If somebody asks me the same question now, the answer would be “The whole purpose of my writing is to waste my time” .

Luckily there are people who can overcome these roadblocks and boldly carry out their creative work with lots passion. That is the very reason, we have so many useful and wonderful things around us which was conceptualized by these creative people. Instead of leaving this to others, it would be nice if we encourage and nurture such creative behavior if we find at our homes.

“Creativity shall start at home” !