Many says, not everyone is creative. But when a toddler scribbles on a wall, to the utter disgust of her mother, she only manifests her creative skill. Every individual has a creative gene. Its only upto the individual to realize that skill, and more importantly the area where her skill has more edge than the other. In the words of Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, “If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”

Creativity can be a stress buster. In a mundane professional life, when we are stressed with “targets and schedules” and fighting against time,creating something original and to the much liking of one’s own self, brings eternal satisfaction and mental peace.That summarizes very briefly my own experience and attitude to creativity. Following the words of Van Gogh and mesmerized with his creation and also of Jamini Roy, Rabindranath, Michelangelo, Picaso and Abanindranath, I had been drawing and painting since I was in teens. Painting, with penchant to“human face” as subject, was always my passion. But as old man says, destiny had something different for me, so I landed up being a civil engineer working hard for multi-nationals at the cost of my passion. Although I could not make my passion my profession, however I certainly honor it with whatever least way I can. Whenever I find some valuable time for only myself, I scribble, I sketch, I paint; for none; but only for myself.The outputs are sometimes horrible, but that never deter me to create and recreate. I firmly believe in the words of Sir Ken Robinson “If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original”. We humans are mortal, but our immortality lies in our creation; creating something original. So we should also harness our creative skill in whatever way and in whichever area we can and share eternal happiness with our near and dear ones.

Debargha