Last day I had a long informal discussion with Mr. Kanai Kunhiraman,the renowned sculptor,on several issues related to creativity.Among the many things Kanai said two points struck me the most.
1. When a style is repeated it becomes a design.Design has nothing to do with creativity.It results in the mechanical reproduction of a work with slight modifications or variations without moving a step forward in the direction of a new creation.Many of our writers and painters forget this and mock thier own creativity imitating themselves for decades.
2. If you use words as the medium of your creative expression you have the right to express yourself in all the literary forms.In fact you will have a natural inclination to do so and you should not curb or prevent it.That is unnecessry and foolish.
These were ideas I myself had pondered a thousand times.But,when Kanai presented them in his own words I felt them to be quite refreshing.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
The Poison behind all Poisons
Participating in a conference organized by the India Vision as part of their Anti Endosulphan Campaign at Govt.College,Kasaragod on 20th December 2010 Leela Kumari Amma a one time employee of the Dept.of Agriculture responsible for the aerial spray of Endosulphan in Kasaragod area said:We were ruined because we opted big life for small life and over production for production.Her speech was very precise,sharp and to the point.She remembered the days when vegetables for daily use were cultivated in the plot adjacent to every house using only cow dung and other organic manures.She said that Endosulphan was nothing but poison labelled pesticide.
Beautiful small life and production just enough for one’s own needs are good old ideas forgotten by everybody.It is very difficult to bring back and incorporate them in our life because everybody is hasty to grab everything and anything that appears in the market. Everybody wants to prove that he/she is fashionable and capable of acquiring anything that the market presents before him/her as signs of good living.As no philosophy or political ideology is alive and active in the public sphere nothing can prevent the people from this rat race and as far as everybody is ruled by the mad craving for possessing all the latest objects and amenities a life beautifully tuned to the rhythm of nature will remain a colourless distant dream ignored by the social psyche.The irresistible market forces that perpetually generate new wishes and needs,most of them quite irrational, is the most dangerous poison about which we in general are almost unaware.Until a new order or system evolves democratically for the social monitoring of all the developmental activities and attitudes having a direct or indirect impact on the public life no welcome change can be expected .
Beautiful small life and production just enough for one’s own needs are good old ideas forgotten by everybody.It is very difficult to bring back and incorporate them in our life because everybody is hasty to grab everything and anything that appears in the market. Everybody wants to prove that he/she is fashionable and capable of acquiring anything that the market presents before him/her as signs of good living.As no philosophy or political ideology is alive and active in the public sphere nothing can prevent the people from this rat race and as far as everybody is ruled by the mad craving for possessing all the latest objects and amenities a life beautifully tuned to the rhythm of nature will remain a colourless distant dream ignored by the social psyche.The irresistible market forces that perpetually generate new wishes and needs,most of them quite irrational, is the most dangerous poison about which we in general are almost unaware.Until a new order or system evolves democratically for the social monitoring of all the developmental activities and attitudes having a direct or indirect impact on the public life no welcome change can be expected .
Monday, December 13, 2010
A note on Bhagyanath's Drawings
Man is a late comer. Darwin’s theory is anticipated by origin myths of tribes
all over the world.They say there were beings that preceded our human ancestors : be it simply a hen or crow, or creatures fierce and fantastic. Links are direct in myths while for science there is the eventful process of evolution before the emergence of our distant predecessors .What irresistible force draw us to the memory of those mysterious days when the human beings were only a slightly modified replica of the beasts whose fate they shared to a large extent?And what do we gain from this inheritance of memories from time immemorial?Psychologists and aestheticians generally have a sway over this domain of enquiry. For an artist the very celebration of this awareness, this revelation to which he is raised through visual images up surging from the innermost depths of his self, and the pain and ecstasy of transforming them in one’s own lines and shapes, is an end in itself.
Bhagyanath’s drawings attain a unique strength of communication when they portray the sharing of fate or predicament by a human being with an animal, most strikingly the monkey. This sharing is made possible to a man only when his soul is totally denuded. In those pristine moments a secret play takes place between man and the beast where both straddle the concerns of success and failure. This is followed by a mutual transference or passionate absorption of the other self. All the primordial instincts of life and death are aroused in this process and an indescribable experience, which may perhaps be compared to that of rebirth, is actualized.I think it is an emotional ritual which many artists unknowingly and at times with a magically awakened intellect practice as part of their creative life-a life which otherwise gets muddled with the mundane realities of daily existence. Bhagyanath has brought out with an inspiring ease in his drawings the mysterious beauty, grandeur and even pathos in man’s secret plays and dialogues with the other representatives of the animal world. This is something about which any artist may feel a sense of spiritual delight and elation.
(An exhibition of Bhagyanath’s drawings is held at Kashi Art Gallery,Burgher Street,Fort Kochi,Kerala.)
all over the world.They say there were beings that preceded our human ancestors : be it simply a hen or crow, or creatures fierce and fantastic. Links are direct in myths while for science there is the eventful process of evolution before the emergence of our distant predecessors .What irresistible force draw us to the memory of those mysterious days when the human beings were only a slightly modified replica of the beasts whose fate they shared to a large extent?And what do we gain from this inheritance of memories from time immemorial?Psychologists and aestheticians generally have a sway over this domain of enquiry. For an artist the very celebration of this awareness, this revelation to which he is raised through visual images up surging from the innermost depths of his self, and the pain and ecstasy of transforming them in one’s own lines and shapes, is an end in itself.
Bhagyanath’s drawings attain a unique strength of communication when they portray the sharing of fate or predicament by a human being with an animal, most strikingly the monkey. This sharing is made possible to a man only when his soul is totally denuded. In those pristine moments a secret play takes place between man and the beast where both straddle the concerns of success and failure. This is followed by a mutual transference or passionate absorption of the other self. All the primordial instincts of life and death are aroused in this process and an indescribable experience, which may perhaps be compared to that of rebirth, is actualized.I think it is an emotional ritual which many artists unknowingly and at times with a magically awakened intellect practice as part of their creative life-a life which otherwise gets muddled with the mundane realities of daily existence. Bhagyanath has brought out with an inspiring ease in his drawings the mysterious beauty, grandeur and even pathos in man’s secret plays and dialogues with the other representatives of the animal world. This is something about which any artist may feel a sense of spiritual delight and elation.
(An exhibition of Bhagyanath’s drawings is held at Kashi Art Gallery,Burgher Street,Fort Kochi,Kerala.)
Random notes
Two things are happening in the education field of kerala.
1.The teaching community is asked to step down from the heights of teaching and they are being made facilitators whose only duty is to arrange proper facilities for the students who themselves should collect the data and informations necessary for thier studies.As a result, from a very early age students begin to nurse the wrong notion that they are the creators of knowledge.They feel that whatever has been so far achieved in the field of knowledge by the painful enquiries and efforts of generations is something that they could collect easily and put into use without much strain on thier part. Within a short period they begin to presume that to be able to talk pretentiously and superfluously on anything under the sun is a great virtue.They will also master the technquesof make believe in presenting seminar papers and preparing assignments.A baseless pride and arrongance follow these and reflect in social life as disrespect for almost all human values.
2. Literature and all forms of creative expressions in any field of knowledge are marginalised in the new syllabus.Creativity is looked down upon and the ability to collect informations from various fields is valued very much.The choice based credit system that has been implemented in colleges has created an aversion and contempt towards in-depth knowledge in any area of study and the students have become adomant in hailing peripheral knowledge as real knowledge.What the authorities want them to be is clear.They aim at creating a generation capable of floating freely without any serious concern about anything in a world controlled by the forces of free market.
The horrifyingly subversive changes taking place in the field of education have affected quite adversily all walks of social life in the state.The disbelief and tension swelling up in social psyche have made genuinely serious cultural activitiesand communication impossible. Except a very few NGOs no one is there to take up the burning issues in social life.NGOs have their own limitations.They are often controlled by unfair agencies whose real interests are always kept hidden.In Kerala which is considered a strong hold of left politics to be apolitical has become the ideal of a considerably large section of the people.
1.The teaching community is asked to step down from the heights of teaching and they are being made facilitators whose only duty is to arrange proper facilities for the students who themselves should collect the data and informations necessary for thier studies.As a result, from a very early age students begin to nurse the wrong notion that they are the creators of knowledge.They feel that whatever has been so far achieved in the field of knowledge by the painful enquiries and efforts of generations is something that they could collect easily and put into use without much strain on thier part. Within a short period they begin to presume that to be able to talk pretentiously and superfluously on anything under the sun is a great virtue.They will also master the technquesof make believe in presenting seminar papers and preparing assignments.A baseless pride and arrongance follow these and reflect in social life as disrespect for almost all human values.
2. Literature and all forms of creative expressions in any field of knowledge are marginalised in the new syllabus.Creativity is looked down upon and the ability to collect informations from various fields is valued very much.The choice based credit system that has been implemented in colleges has created an aversion and contempt towards in-depth knowledge in any area of study and the students have become adomant in hailing peripheral knowledge as real knowledge.What the authorities want them to be is clear.They aim at creating a generation capable of floating freely without any serious concern about anything in a world controlled by the forces of free market.
The horrifyingly subversive changes taking place in the field of education have affected quite adversily all walks of social life in the state.The disbelief and tension swelling up in social psyche have made genuinely serious cultural activitiesand communication impossible. Except a very few NGOs no one is there to take up the burning issues in social life.NGOs have their own limitations.They are often controlled by unfair agencies whose real interests are always kept hidden.In Kerala which is considered a strong hold of left politics to be apolitical has become the ideal of a considerably large section of the people.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Random notes
5th December 2010
An evening at Mappila Bay,kannur.From 12 noon I,Artist Satheesh and Masood of Radio Mango were in the Kannur City. We went to the Arakkal Museum and then met Rashid who is in charge of ringing the bell at Arakkal Kettu,five times a day,informing the local people the time for prayer.We also met his father Majeed, an old man aged more than eighty who owns some pigeons which won him 2nd prize in the competition conducted by the District Pegion Flying Association. For more than 2 hrs we were with Anthikka,the famous Mappilappattu singer and Music Guru of the City.He was once well known among the football lovers of Kannur first as a brilliant player and later as very efficient referee.Anthikka is now 73.We left Anthikka's house at about 3p.m and drove to hotel Sona to have our lunch.A large group of Coorg women were there.It was easy to assume that they were returning from Parassinikkadavu after witnessing the Puthari Festival there to which the coorgies attach special importance.
After lunch We went to the famous Attakka Palli and then moved to Maidanappalli area and walked long distance along the seashore.When we came to the Mappila Bay Hanneefa Kurikkalakath,a jounalist recently retired from Siraj Daily joined us.Till dusk we were there exploring the local history of the City area.It was definitely an inspiring experience.
An evening at Mappila Bay,kannur.From 12 noon I,Artist Satheesh and Masood of Radio Mango were in the Kannur City. We went to the Arakkal Museum and then met Rashid who is in charge of ringing the bell at Arakkal Kettu,five times a day,informing the local people the time for prayer.We also met his father Majeed, an old man aged more than eighty who owns some pigeons which won him 2nd prize in the competition conducted by the District Pegion Flying Association. For more than 2 hrs we were with Anthikka,the famous Mappilappattu singer and Music Guru of the City.He was once well known among the football lovers of Kannur first as a brilliant player and later as very efficient referee.Anthikka is now 73.We left Anthikka's house at about 3p.m and drove to hotel Sona to have our lunch.A large group of Coorg women were there.It was easy to assume that they were returning from Parassinikkadavu after witnessing the Puthari Festival there to which the coorgies attach special importance.
After lunch We went to the famous Attakka Palli and then moved to Maidanappalli area and walked long distance along the seashore.When we came to the Mappila Bay Hanneefa Kurikkalakath,a jounalist recently retired from Siraj Daily joined us.Till dusk we were there exploring the local history of the City area.It was definitely an inspiring experience.
Random notes
Some thoughts on 'Circus' after seeing 'Jumbo Circus'at Police Maidan,Kannur,on 3rd December 2010.
Circus has evolved into an art form in it's true sense,reducing the elements of acrobatics and balancing tricks to a considerable extent.Music,Lighting and Choreography have improved tremendously.The elements of drama,dance and even sculpture have been included in almost all items.This has been done with a commendable aesthetic sense.
The second thing I have noticed is that this art form has become truely international in it's form and content.Jumbo circus has artists from Thalassery(Kerala)to Czechoslovakia and Africa and each item or number(the term circus artists prefer)they perform exhibit the local colour and rhythm quite distinctively.Thus a show lasting for 2hours becomes a big visual feast which allows the viewers to enjoy the taste and flavour of Indian,European and African artistic expressions taking the form of Circus.
As Circus is one of the preliminary or basic art form which converts and crystallizes the most dangerous and dramatic movements in human life into symbols of awe inspiring bodily movements and actions any noticeable change in this art form is a reflection of our changing attitudes to life.What we could read from the latest presentations in Jumbo Circus is this:Our life has been freed from many of the tensions we have been experiencing until recently.It has become confident enough to maintain it's local identity while being free to welcome foreign elements into it's fold.
Circus has evolved into an art form in it's true sense,reducing the elements of acrobatics and balancing tricks to a considerable extent.Music,Lighting and Choreography have improved tremendously.The elements of drama,dance and even sculpture have been included in almost all items.This has been done with a commendable aesthetic sense.
The second thing I have noticed is that this art form has become truely international in it's form and content.Jumbo circus has artists from Thalassery(Kerala)to Czechoslovakia and Africa and each item or number(the term circus artists prefer)they perform exhibit the local colour and rhythm quite distinctively.Thus a show lasting for 2hours becomes a big visual feast which allows the viewers to enjoy the taste and flavour of Indian,European and African artistic expressions taking the form of Circus.
As Circus is one of the preliminary or basic art form which converts and crystallizes the most dangerous and dramatic movements in human life into symbols of awe inspiring bodily movements and actions any noticeable change in this art form is a reflection of our changing attitudes to life.What we could read from the latest presentations in Jumbo Circus is this:Our life has been freed from many of the tensions we have been experiencing until recently.It has become confident enough to maintain it's local identity while being free to welcome foreign elements into it's fold.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Random notes
When asked whether he had any ambition about his next book Manu Joseph who won The Hindu Best Fiction Award 2010 for his novel ‘Serious Men ’replied “I would like to sell”.One may say that there is nothing wrong in being that much frank.But when success in the market becomes the prime concern of a writer the feeble hope we nurse in the innermost corner of our heart that even after all other discourses suuccumbed to the onslaught of market forces literature would resist it and proclaim the diginity of human freedom is crushed and that of course is shocking.It does’nt mean that expecting money for one’s creative labour is something to be looked down upon.But at the same time it is common knowledgethat no one ,no creative writer who deserves to be considered so writes for money.Even if he/she pledges his/her manuscript with a money lender to clear his/her debts,it would be a gross mistake if we presume that it was written for money.There are other serious concerns and drives,some of which may never be understood, that leads one to the writing table.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Random notes
30-11-10
Day before yesterday artist Satheesh took me to kannur city in his car.Kannur city is about 2kms away from the presnt day kannur town.City area developed first as a trade centre and later when the Camp Bazar and the South Bazar developed city area lost it’s upper hand in business.Nowadays outsiders take interest in this place because it is the only area in kannur town where the presence of the past is genuinely felt.The thickly populated area with its centuries old mosques, partially dilapidated big godowns,ancient houses,narrow lanes and the Arakkal Museum ,a portion of Arakkal kettu the palace of Arakkal family,the only Muslim royal family of Kerala,converted into a museum all cotribute to the charms of an old harbour city.Wherever we move the invsible past lays it’s soft fingers on us arousing many a nostalgic feelings. It was only 7p.m.But the night has descended early and the electric light flowing out of mosques,shops and houses leaving patches of darkness here and there gave a strange look to the whole area and we felt as if moving along a street somewhere in Latin america or the African coast.We went to the seashore and stood there silently for a few minutes watching the boats seen as small moving spots of light far away in the sea.It was an unusually beautiful sight which filled me with an undefinable joy.
When we came back to the street two youngsters approached us with a receipt book asking to contribute Rs.50 each for a local cricket tournement. When we said we don’t have that much amount with us they readily cut it short to Rs.10 each which we gave them happily.They also were happy and I could feel the real warmth of friendship and understanding in their beautiful smile.
Day before yesterday artist Satheesh took me to kannur city in his car.Kannur city is about 2kms away from the presnt day kannur town.City area developed first as a trade centre and later when the Camp Bazar and the South Bazar developed city area lost it’s upper hand in business.Nowadays outsiders take interest in this place because it is the only area in kannur town where the presence of the past is genuinely felt.The thickly populated area with its centuries old mosques, partially dilapidated big godowns,ancient houses,narrow lanes and the Arakkal Museum ,a portion of Arakkal kettu the palace of Arakkal family,the only Muslim royal family of Kerala,converted into a museum all cotribute to the charms of an old harbour city.Wherever we move the invsible past lays it’s soft fingers on us arousing many a nostalgic feelings. It was only 7p.m.But the night has descended early and the electric light flowing out of mosques,shops and houses leaving patches of darkness here and there gave a strange look to the whole area and we felt as if moving along a street somewhere in Latin america or the African coast.We went to the seashore and stood there silently for a few minutes watching the boats seen as small moving spots of light far away in the sea.It was an unusually beautiful sight which filled me with an undefinable joy.
When we came back to the street two youngsters approached us with a receipt book asking to contribute Rs.50 each for a local cricket tournement. When we said we don’t have that much amount with us they readily cut it short to Rs.10 each which we gave them happily.They also were happy and I could feel the real warmth of friendship and understanding in their beautiful smile.
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