The unknowable nature of creativity

I once watched a TV feature on how musicians create music. It was supposed to help understand the creative process using brain-mapping techniques. To participate in it and to be a guinea pig by undergoing an MRI while he listened to Western classical music was the famous musician Sting. At the end of the program, the music-loving researcher told Sting he had a map of his brain at the moment he was conjuring up grand images of Cathedrals with huge chambers, high ceilings and flying buttresses in symphony with the music that he heard. Amazingly, looking at those patterns, Sting became coy of any further inquiry into the matter. 

 The reason I gave that example was not only to highlight the unfathomable nature of creativity but also to shed light on more general questions of life: how each of us evolves to be the person he or she is; what is the fundamental reason for life itself or why do we live. The question of the nature of life has been tackled by so many philosophical traditions. A view from the Hindu texts is that life is divided into the four phases of Artha, Dharma, Kama and Moksha. This is such an all-encompassing tradition that it offers no answer to any questions; it simply encourages the individual to explore his life and find for himself his own answers. But there are other views which lay strict emphasis on doing as is stipulated, in their interpretation, by a book or a single individual who is taken to be The Enlightened One. There is a fundamental difference between both kinds of traditions at their core. One seeks to stop people from understanding their own nature by enforcing upon them Dos and Donts while the other allows people to try to understand their own selves. 

 The question is whether we can ever really know the reason we are here. Can evolution and habit be sufficient? Every differing view of life is defined by how they approach these questions. If one believes these are impossible to answer and hence life is, at a fundamental level, never in our hands then one is bound to feel that the nature of life is suffering. But another view could be that life being as it is, and our own existence being inextricably linked to it, the best thing to do is to live it as it comes, without ever being so arrogant as to consider oneself above life’s vicissitudes. Perhaps such acceptance can lead to a happier life as you realise the ephemeral nature of the present and strive to make the best of it. Either way, if it is impossible for us humans to know why we are here, shouldn’t we at least take what we have, and also give when we can? Sting may not have been wrong when he said he did not want to know how he created music.

Impressions of Bikaner

I made my first visit to Rajasthan last weekend to be part of a close friend’s wedding. The visit was not to one of those glamorous destinations like Jodhpur or Jaisalmer, but to the less frequented town of Bikaner – famous for its sweets and Namkeen. Being situated in the middle of the Thar Desert, the city is buffeted by sandy winds all around the year. Various palaces dot the city too, indicating its royal heritage. Bikaner is not a large city, rather more of a town. During summer, when temperatures rise up to 50 C, it can be an unforgiving place. Sand and heat are constant companions. However it can be just as extremely cold during the winter. It had rained the night I reached Bikaner; I could see the lightning at a distance from the train windows as the sand carried by the wind filled the compartment.

The journey to Bikaner from Jaipur was quite eventful in itself. We had for companions, two elderly gentlemen from the region who engaged in a spirited and sometimes acerbic discussion about any aspect of life they chanced upon. More than their talk, their manner interested me. It suggested a people who, despite their state’s relative lack of resources and backwardness, look towards a very different future, where their traditional ways of living may be endangered. They are also large-hearted, as was in evidence when after heated debates which never once resembled a scuffle, they parted with greetings, no rancour betrayed. This trait was especially endearing to me. The landscape changed from the dry lake bed of the Sambhar to the Marble quarries of Makrana – but parched land was a constant. When night fell, we had left just Makrana behind.

I could not visit the many palaces and temples due to a paucity of time and the heat. But I did notice a few things about the people of Bikaner. Resource scarcity, especially of water, has made them very conscious of wastefulness. They are also extremely generous and hospitable. They talk straight and avoid being conceited. I usually dislike marriages; they take too much time, are much too chaotic and involve too many rituals among Hindus. But it is a good opportunity to observe the status of women in a society. I could see that women here were not just accorded rightful respect but also were confident in their own position. Their education is also considered a must. A friend from Jodhpur remarked that women there were worse off socially there than in and around Bikaner.

As my train departed from Bikaner, I finally saw sand dunes interspersed within land as the Sun sank down on the horizon. They were not large ones, only agglomerations of sand blown over from the true desert. But that sight was a fitting end to the journey, reminding me of the main characteristic of this region, which has always defined its people and their traditions.

Why we must respect our thoughts

A thought has been passing through my mind intermittently for quite some time now. It is related to something we humans unconsciously practice: control over our thought-processes. Many of us do not have a complete grip on our thoughts and, consequently, are not able to fulfill our potential. A major reason for this is the consideration we give to what others may think about our ideas and actions. Too often when we get down to work, we allow our vision to be blurred by a neurotic tendency towards the gratification of others. In doing so, we lose the purity of our vision. The manifestation of our dreams is then a mere caricature of their ideal. Why do we allow this to happen? 

Who are these others? They are our friends, peers, parents or even just acquaintances. Most successful people have a certain detachment when they are working or thinking. In that moment of deep cogitation, nothing else but the next step matters. If we allow our mind to be distracted by what someone might think about us if we took that step, we have already lost the battle. Hence there is a need to balance how much value we give others’ opinions, with the importance of our own opinion. The need to be accepted must not be allowed to trample upon our freedom of expression, not only in words but also in actions. Sensitive people are especially at risk; they do not like the smallest criticism leveled against them. Intellectually inclined people seem not to have too many close friends. That may have to do with the knowledge that too many such relationships can lead to a surfeit of superficial gestures when what they need is simply to get on with work. They consciously restrict their perfunctory social responsibilities and rely on a few proximate friends for advice and fraternization. Those friends understand them and their way of thinking, and themselves are freethinking individuals. The point is about not allowing the beauty of our ideas to be destroyed because we are afraid to express it. The world will be a better place with more varieties and strands of thought. It is particularly important for a society that holds family to be the most sacrosanct of institutions - thereby instigating in each member of that family the view that they are not as important individually as the family - to respect the choices of each member of the society. This kind of society may unwittingly curtail the freedom of individuals to follow their own path, as it habituates the individual to think first of the family and then of himself. A healthy respect for each individual’s choices is imperative for the creation of a vibrant society. That is not to criticize altruism; it is only to reaffirm the basic nature of a human being: despite sharing the world and co-habiting for mutual good, each one of us is a single, separate entity who has to live his own life and take his own decisions.