Being Randomly Creative

Can one get creative at the spur of a moment - or is it long drawn process? I doubt if anyone has the answer to this. It’s different for different people. It also depends upon the situation at times. Well, this may also seem to be confusing for some of you. Just like you all, even my mind used to wander about this thing a lot. It still does at times. A few years back I was studying a scriptwriting course. In one of my class the professor asked me to write a fight happening in a metro. I was unable to jot down something meaningful for almost the entire day. In the evening he taunted, Eesha don’t you observe the people around you while travelling? The next day I did observe and to my surprise or should I say shock, I witnessed three small brawls that took place in front of my eyes.

Creativity isn’t defined by age. About a year back, my company StoryBodhi had started with Online Language Learning classes for kids between the age groups of four and seven. After each session, I would give them some fun things to do at home. Storytelling was one of the activities. The child had to narrate the story that was being taught in the online session using his/her own words and upload the video on our (StoryBodhi) social media. After about two or three days I came across a video in which a 4-year-old boy had put up a storytelling video. Now you may ask what was so unique about his video? Surprisingly, he made use of props such as fruit and animal cutouts, his toys, household items while narrating the stories. This incident was only regarding a 4-year-old boy, but what about someone younger than him. My question was answered by a kindergarten teacher once. She told me that the children till the age of three are the most creative in their thinking. The reason being that they aren’t bound by words and their definition. In other words, an infant is free flowing while expressing oneself.

I experienced this kind of spontaneous creativity recently while making a fluid-art painting. While growing up we are constantly being hammered those things should be doing, that too only within a certain frame. The paint cannot spill over the frame. Which was always a constraint for me. So last year when I came across this technique of fluid art painting I was delighted. Since I was working almost all of 2020, I hardly had any time for doing such activities. This year (2021) I was just ready to pour the paints on the canvas. I watched a few videos on YouTube for the pouring technique. Frankly, I wasn’t that content with the first piece that I created. However, got motivated to do more from the positive comments I received from near and dear ones. In the process I have created almost ten such paintings. No painting is replica of the other, despite being made using the same set of colours.

Most of the times during my work projects, I am bound by the usage of certain fonts and color pallets. Besides this, I have to even submit my work within a stipulated time period. In those situations, I just go with the first idea that comes to my mind. Talking about my work projects - I have variety in my kitty. From writing a three page long engaging story for children to coming up with quirky one-liners for social media posts. I must admit that initially I did find it difficult to write stories for my venture StoryBodhi as I didn’t have much references. Afterwards I started creating social media posts for companies. Initially it was difficult to create something within the set frame, simply with time I have managed to break the mold. Though the pattern keeps on changing for every new company that I work with. Nevertheless, it just keeps on adding to the fun.

Now some of you may also wonder how much time do I need to pen down a poem? Well, that’s really a tough one. At times I take days to just go from one verse to other. Sometimes I write the entire poem within few hours. I am someone who takes a lot of time to come up with titles for stories or blogs. Even while creating characters for StoryBodhi, the point where I always used to be stuck, were the character names. Still, I managed to come up with almost distinct three human characters along with their family members. However, regarding this blog, the title was swinging back and forth in my mind since long. I just wasn’t able to sit down (or avoided it) and expand the idea further. This blog may seem completely unplanned at times or even most of the times although I guess the title says it all !