Imagination is the most advanced technology that we have today. What is equally true is that technology today is also as imaginative as imagination can be… and so there is obviously no lockdown for an imaginative use of technology if one adds a bit of technology to imagination! There is a whole world beyond canoodles, strudels, noodles, and boodles because I believe there is an artist quietly waiting inside each of us. To doodle, what else?

The doodler within me is forever waiting to sprint to converse with a diverse set of ideas and convince them that they can also exist meaningfully as doodles. Of course, there are some that insist on getting a house of words just as a few others love to be heard and not just read. And so the lockdown phase finds me blogging in text, transforming ideas into little chunks of podcasts (they’re still waiting to reach out)… and gliding the S-pen on the reasonably large Note9 screen to draw, sketch, and paint.

Sketch made on ArtRage. Used S-pen on my Galaxy Note9

‘Isn’t this difficult?’ asked a friend once, and added, ‘I erase more than I draw and the page usually wears and tears sooner than I expect.’

Hmmm… I told him that my page exists in the digital universe and is immortal in many ways, if this is what matters. ‘I use applications like ArtRage, Infinite Painter, and Autodesk Sketchbook. But then there are others that are equally proficient, like Adobe Sketch, Infinite Design, Zen brush, Silk Paints, Paper Draw, and Concepts.’ I then added that though using one’s finger-tip is permissible, an artistic nirvana is possible only with the S-pen.

Life, according to me, is what flows out of the tapering end of my S-pen… and in my hands it is what a wizard’s wand means to Harry Potter. My wand dives and brings up water-colours, oil paints, chalks, charcoal, pencils, pens, markers, brushes, rollers, palette knives, tones, and textures. There are symmetries, strokes, and guides that pop up to help. All I need to do is to let my imagination and the technology of Note 9 merge seamlessly to create. ‘The power of technology,’ I said, ‘helps me bring my imagination to life.’

Whispers - Abstract doodle on Samsung galaxy Note 9 — Whispers – Abstract doodle on Samsung galaxy Note 9

So far as my lockdown time-table is concerned, let me just say that I don’t have any. I have realized that flowing with the moment is probably the most immersive emotion that there is… and this is how I was able to convincingly say that the skies over Delhi are now clearer and bluer. One evening as I stood on my seventh floor terrace near Gole market in central Delhi, I aimed my DSLR in all directions and clicked a number of pictures… and realized soon enough that a reasonable zoom had me staring at Qutub Minar that is around 14 km away as the crow flies. Astounding, isn’t it?

There is always one or the other immersive moment waiting to be beckoned and embraced. I believe it is the right time to hug as many varying tasks and skills as this may help us finally to discover what it is that we want to stay on in love with.

First published in Samsung Newsroom