Recently, I read about a lady who gave up her career as a professor to teach women everything from bread-making to bonsai. "I help them fulfill their dreams of being creative!" she said.
In the past centuries, it was quite hard for people to indulge in creative pursuits. Artistes, musicians, sculptors and dancers were often damned for their activities. But things are drastically different today. Creative interests are not only accepted but also encouraged. Everyone wants a finger in the creative pie. Even successful professionals often complain that they want to pursue something 'creative'. But what exactly is creativity? Whenever I have asked a writer, poet, artist or a musician, they haven't been able to define it. For them, what they do is just a way of life.
I started my career as a journalist, then worked with a costume designer, wrote a book on the making of a film and then moved to writing dialogue and lyrics. Today, I act in a play and also hosted one season of chat show recently and so, after over two decades, people tag me as `creative'.
However I can assure you while I was going through the initial years of my journey, there was no great feeling of elation, joy or pride. In most of the above cases, I was just doing a job that had to be done. As a journalist, I went to the office at 11 and slogged like any paper-pusher. Articles had to be finished by deadline. The angles for the interviews had to be new. It was the mathematical calculations of fitting your thoughts in the given space in a given time. It all seemed far from creative! It was the same thing while associating on designing. Fighting the deadline to finish a costume. Handle the tantrums of the tailors and embroiderers. Crisis management on the sets when the clothes didn't fit the heroine or the brief changed. The creative aspect of the business was completely lost on me. Even while I wrote my book, it didn't seem very fulfilling. When I finished my manuscript after a great war with the deadline, I realised I had to be ready for a new one. Instructions like, "You have to find a six-lettered word to replace the nine-lettered word on the 20th line in the third paragraph of page 47!" had to be followed. Everything was numbers and figures. So much for creativity!
The point I am trying to make here is that creativity is not an independent entity. It doesn't exist in itself. It comes when you do something that you feel you MUST do – no matter how mundane! All of us want to be in professions that evoke applause from people around us. And so want to be 'creative'! But I feel there are two ways to lead life: Do what you enjoy most or then learn to enjoy what you do! In both the cases, you will find creativity as the by-product!
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