Of a creative bend of mind – really?!?!?!

Creativity – highly misused and equally misunderstood! Does creativity limit itself to the ‘artsy-partsy’ people? To the MF Hussains and the Woody Allens of the world? Does one become creative by holding his camera at a 45 degrees angle and taking a picture from in between Tia’s head and Rohan’s arm? Or do you get tagged creative if you wear ragged clothes and look like you haven’t had a bath in a fortnight or two? Who really qualifies as a creative person? I never was among the creative kind – of course creative back in the day was limited to the ‘artsy-partsy’. I couldn’t draw for shit – still can’t! Never really got into painting in school…every painting competition that I was forced into in school, all I could conjure up was that familiar image of symmetrical triangle mountains with a weird-ass river flowing in between them, rolling down to the end of the paper like Sridevi’s (yeah, I was in school that long back!!!) curves! The smiley-faced crescent of the Sun brimming through the triangles – nope, not once did I draw the entire Sun! Never! Maybe I was too lazy, or maybe my creative side preferred the twilight! Then there was that box-like house with the square windows, and grass that looked like someone had planted pitchforks in my garden! To be fair, I did add the odd new element every year – yes sir! One year there was a family playing on the pitchforks – and judging by the smiles on their faces, they didn’t seem to mind those razor sharp blades of grass one bit! But of course, now that I think about it, the family did look more like scarecrows and less like actual people! Maybe that’s why they didn’t mind the odd pitchfork up their butt! Another year, another drawing competition – the river got flying fish! Well, not so much flying, but more my inability to make them appear like they were swimming in the river! I wonder now who kept pushing me into those drawing competitions to being with –they must’ve been compulsory!

So, owing to the lack of prowess on the canvas (or in my case, the drawing book), I never did consider myself to be creative! And quite the opposite, there was my sis, who counted herself among the leading artistes of the world – from bharatnatyam to oil painting to even some music lessons if I remember correctly. Well, I don’t remember too much coming out of those classes though. Bharatnatyam just about taught her to shake her head from side-to-side without moving the rest of her body - which was a little freaky to be honest! Then the painting classes, the outcome of which were two 8”x10” canvas paintings of flowers – which might have contributed a little to that ‘F’ in Maths as well. Music classes – I don’t quite remember if she took classes or not, but I do remember her boasting about being able to play the ‘keyboard’ (that was the ‘in’ thing beck then) – some two or three old Bollywood numbers + a happy birthday to you! And yeah, she even won some contest in the Indian Express youth supplement where her article was published and she won some prize money as well! So, she was obviously the creative one among us siblings. And I, on the other hand, was the more subdued, introvert kid who was only good with the grades and cricket with the neighbourhood kids!

Somewhere down the line, the word ‘creative’ took on a new meaning for me, a new avatar if you will. I got out of school, and the burden of ‘extra-curricular activities’ was gone! No more general knowledge quiz, no more hand-writing competitions, no debates (not that I participated in one while I was in school), no more painting (thank God for small mercies)! Well, to be frank, college wasn’t too different either! The creative lot in college were the folks who participated in plays, in dances, or those who sang on stage during the college functions. Not that I didn’t try my hand at that – we decided to do a play in the first year of college! Now, I know I couldn’t act to save my life! Unfortunately, my classmates had other ideas. I landed the role of the Professor in our Hindi version of Mind Your Language – and for those of you who haven’t seen Mind Your Language, well, the Professor was the leading man (read most lines…which also equals most amount of acting)! How that bloody play tanked was LEGEND….wait for it….well, to be honest, nobody really waited for the rest of it!!! So, the obvious thought was “its confirmed, I don’t have a creative bone in my body!”. And I was fine with it too! I had survived without creativity for so long, I was sure I could go on without it!

Next stop – Trivandrum! I reach God’s own country for my first job, and out of nowhere, one fine day (out of sheer boredom), I decide to write! I knew my English wasn’t half bad! I sure had the genes for it considering my dad repertoire of published magazine articles. And being in the Brand Management team, I suppose it was expected off me to be creative! There I was, writing a blog in my spare time, writing official articles on behalf of the top bosses in my company, and even being roped in for my opinion by graphic designers! Was I getting there? Was creativity, the bitch that had eluded me for so long, finally coming to me? Maybe it was…maybe it was!!!

So, folks, coming back to the original question – who do you brand ‘creative’? Who qualifies? I guesssssss….everyone in some way or the other???