Creativity in India!

– Ranbir V Das |

Steve Wozniak recently said Where is the creativity in India. Amittedly, even my gut reaction is to laugh at how privileged such a generalized statement is in applying a Western template and ignoring the economic drawbacks of the millions in poverty. As some of my friends have pointed out, no one should feel bad for having worked in blue collar or routine jobs to provide for their families; in fact they are the bedrock on which everyone else lives a life of relative comfort and as an Indian I am very grateful and proud of the honest work done by them.

Liberty of thought is built upon the security of existence.

That being said, I would like to add another filmy Bollywood dialogue from the movie on the myth of Padmavati, another controversy which has been dragged through the mud in which I ardently hope any messages of merit survive after whichever faction profited from it. It is thus:

“Reht Ki Naow Lekar, Jo Samundar Se Shart Lagaye, Wo, Rajput.”

The context of this is that such issues can be hijacked to consolidate power and influence by those who already have it, and with that I request the upper and middle classes who I suspect are the audiences I address directly who can afford to get this on social media : Exercise the bravery you can afford like ancient Indian rulers who weren’t afraid to risk their lives despite having hundreds of soldiers to send to die for them, those of you who dream to do something extraordinary, may you be blessed to fulfill it, you are stronger than your circle of influence has lulled you into accepting the hedonistic comforts as the price for giving up on your dreams; because you are the few who can see the horns of exploitation creeping towards the ones who aren’t better off and I can confirm you’re right in your suspicion that the world will not let y’all be comfortable for too long, there are forces which are indeed coming to make thralls of all who aren’t seen as “cultured” by powerful elitists living in lives of the advantages they have gained with history and they do not always have to be kind enough to empathize where you are.

In these times, creativity is very much undermined and requires savage bravery; you can justifiably blame the failure of institutions but I also hope you blame yourself with the same degree of shortcomings; many of those aforementioned sellouts have pointed out the great creative works of old India gave to the world to defend a vacuous statement but they fail to see they didn’t live the lives of the creators nor have their sense of merit, truth and quality.

I do see creativity burgeoning in India, from entrepreneurial ventures, start-ups, comedic scenery, to the classical arts of music, art, literature, philosophy, sociology to name a few of the areas which uplift society to higher ideals and godspeed to you; may you stay true to your purpose and not get familiarly saturated with the glory and adoration of the circles and masses who don’t know any better and may the masses both recognize and appreciate intellectual and spiritual merit when they see it, instead of rejecting anything good for crass exaggerations and burying the truth for lies to not feel threatened. Feel threatened, and do something to overcome it, only cowards shy away from looking at problems and live in denial. Be sincere and Jai Hind.

P.s. Woz maybe you can pick Sundar Pichai’s brains on how to make Safari suck less.