The magic land of creativity

The compelling urge to create is not merely the birthright or talent of the ‘arty’ ones. The potent seeds of creative desire are present in all human beings; they are studded in our souls. Creative people are just more clear about being themselves and do not feel the need to conform.

Often I meet people who will tell me they can’t draw a straight line. Or that they have no creative bone and so on. The same individual will, however, show that they have the knowhow to cook the eggplant in seven different ways or will tear up when s/he suddenly finds that the words of an old favourite song can describe a current life situation. This indicates that they too have the same creative energy which is waiting to spill out and turn monotony on its head.There is a magic land that welcomes us all. The artists and musicians as well as the accountants and plumbers. This land is the ‘the natural world’.

A few weeks ago I started work on my winter garden, rapturously emptying little paper bags of teeny-weeny seeds and marvelling at the colours and textures. Earth browns, spice greens, tealy dusky blues and even the occasional candy pink. There are different sizes and shapes of the little beads of happiness that take turns to roll around in my cupped palms. And then they go and nestle in the warm dark soil. Soon they will emerge in the form of little green shoots showing us that there is no need to only look skywards when we think of God... there is an equally powerful dude under the ground as well, sending out messages of a world that keeps growing. Where there is always abundance and wellness.

The winds arrive and I pull pashminas out of the higher shelves of my closet. Under my feet, the soil is also now covered by a green sheath. The lacy leaves of the carrots, the heart-shaped ones from the beans, the sturdy saplings from the potatoes, the sharp-shooting baby spinach and the flat firm blushing leaves of the young garlic — the latter, my favourite. Pokchoy will follow and the peacocks will come to feast. The tender flavourful chartreuse leaves of the celery will soon intertwine with purply beetroot from the neighbouring bed. A carpet alive with colourful frolicking young ones. And all it took was a stop at the seed shop on my drive home from the studio, and answering my desire to create.

This article is written by Anupamaa Dayal