The artist within

Somewhere inside every heart hides an artist who dreams of repainting the world in a different way. Some of these artists are revolutionary and radical and others are simply laid back dreamers who want a different dab here or there.

When I ask this artist what he wants to be changed, he hears a laughter and a voice from quite a distance saying, ‘The world is anyway changing so you can only either change the direction or the pace of change.’ But I look ahrder at what is there around me and realise that there is plenty that can do with a change or a new coat of colour.

The sad, tense faces

Look at the sad and tense faces throughout the week and you’ll know they are somewhere between Monday and Friday. It is only during the weekend that the energy to spread joy reappears. I’d like to change the way people think. I want them to stop cribbing about work and start enjoying it. I want them to stop carrying work to their homes during the weekend and holidays. It is happy people doing work happily that can add to the energy of my wish to make it into something that recurs cyclically. No Monday blues and Tuesday explosions… we deserve to work hard during the week and play harder during the weekend.

Tired minds searching for familiarity

You surely know people travelling to Korea or some other country and looking for an Indian restaurant there… or people on Facebook responding to a friend-request by asking, ‘Do I know you?’ These are all tired minds searching for familiarity and this is precisely what needs to change. Come out please… out of your shells and sense the differences and start enjoying them. Stop being the sort who would go to Kufri and watch the snow falling from a hotel window and thinking, ‘Ha! I am warm and I am smart!’ My foot you are… you could have watched snow through a window even on your laptop or the big screen, buddy. I’d love to repaint our psyches that want to walk away from differences and change.

Notions that are fixed and stiff

Many of the readers of this article will know that the killer of Nirbhaya has said: ‘A decent girl wouldn’t roam around at 9 pm. Boys and girls are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night, doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes.’ Well, it isn’t just this killer who has notions that are stiff and fixed… we have a khaap of people all over who could do with a change. Notions like girls being asked not to mingle with boys or not wear jeans or not use the mobile… opinions that go against inter-caste marriages… mind-sets that don’t like to see couples kissing or sitting in parks and restaurants… voices that protest against social media updates, cartoons, and anything that has dissent written. These are minds that I wish I could repaint and restructure to become more accepting. The world really could do with this bit of modification and if there were Godly powers handed over to me, this one would actually feature first.

The ‘gimme more for free’ types

People with this bent of mind are the easiest to spot. They are simply everywhere. I’m talking of perfectly sane people looking for freebies without wanting to work for them… and I don’t mean only the government servants or ‘sarkari karamcharis’ here. This disease is quite well spread and includes lawyers, doctors, writers, bloggers, journalists, teachers, politicians, administrators, and everyone else. I’d love to paint these oblique yearnings and make them straight… that is, make people accept that they need to give in return whatever gratification they are looking for.

The indecently biased lot

Ah! Yes, we do have more than just a handful of indecently biased people… people who have vested interest in every decision they make. Look at judges of so many contests and then hear the whispers of bad judging. Look at the ease with which we speak indecencies like: ‘You don’t belong to this state… or country… or caste…’ Look at the way we happily stop people from doing something good because we feel that goodness to come through them. Society is plagued with these thoughts and politics thrives on such ideas. I’m sure I’ll use my paintbox and easel to repaint and remake the world of such people. No, I wouldn’t wish them away or have them swept under the carpet of butchered… I’ll just have them remade.

What does the artist within need?

Well, all that this radical artist within us needs is to get together with some others who think alike, pool all ideas, and build a stronger force. A force that is strong enough and liberal enough to include all sorts of thoughts meant to make the world a better place. A group of people who will work as a single unified force aiming to restructure the world… our world.