Find the art that bonds with your heart
There’s something about its rustic charms that pulls me again and again to downtown. And here I was once more, on the other side of the city on a Sunday afternoon. Smiling while reminiscing those days gone. When I used to find reasons to visit this part of town with friends to watch the first-day first show, hunt for old LP records of forgotten stars and forgotten books. To look up at the victorian balconies and wonder, when will I get to live here? Crazy times.
As someone truly said, times change but memories remain. I bundled up those memories and headed straight for the cafe. Held the glass of the mixed berry smoothie in my palms as if it would transfer the chill to cool my body. It didn’t take time before my eyes wandered off through the cafe’s big window. They were eager to study the people around, maybe to find a unique individual who would influence some character in one of my scripts.
Nothing much had changed till date, apart from the attires and hairstyles. Couples everywhere walking hand in hand without any worries in the world. Vendors trying to entice new customers by announcing their wares. Young girls struggling to walk in high heels on cobbled streets.
While observing the visible world through the window, my eyes rested on a stall where a struggling artist had displayed his stuff. It further wandered to a stall that displayed replicas of antiques, where a teenager bargained hard for a nautical compass made of brass. And furthermore, to the artist who writes names on tiny grains of rice.
There was something strange going on, which put the mind to work. If someone keenly observes, most people went head over heels for the abstract paintings of one flower gobbling another, an infant cuddled up in a farm, galloping horses with their hooves transformed into sea waves, an eye with multiple colour tones and so on and so forth.
But these patrons of paintings didn’t have even an ounce of emotion for the rice grain artist. Those who stopped at the rice grain artist didn’t even bother to look at the canvases. Some even expressed disgust and many didn’t bother to solve the puzzle on the canvases. Now, isn’t this world a crazy place? I think it is.
Chances are high that there might be many such who ignored all these artists and stepped into the antique shops or the art gallery nearby. Nonetheless, another set of patrons that might be admiring the artefacts in the city’s most famous museum. Yes, you got it right. The British era stone structure, the treasure trove of all the artefacts and antiques from different nations across the world. Frankly, it is fair enough.
It would be safe to conclude that different forms of art and craft are perceived by different people differently. Also, it can’t be denied that most art aficionados admire every form but the heart bonds only with the special one. Again, it also depends on the person’s traits and beliefs. The nature lovers would make sure that neither harmful chemicals nor paint were used. Some would even avoid metal, to safeguard their anti-mining values.
A historic mind is like a time machine that keeps revisiting the past. Unearths the secrets, analyses facts and dates. Forms a belief and dwells in it forever. These are the individuals who would go to any lengths to pick an object, of course of art, from their favourite subject.
Lastly, there are art typical art lovers who are thrilled only by a certain craft. Simply put, someone is fond of the intricate Kashmiri shawls, others by masks, many by the woodwork and the latest fade of upcycled metal art.
Imagine art in glass, wood, mud, fabrics, metal, plastic, fibers, stones, pebble, marble, paper, grains, pulses and all that I cannot recollect at this moment. Wow.
The world is a beautiful place, indeed. If one ignores the invasions and wars; and views the world through artistic eyes, there might be millions of art forms across the world. Every country with different art forms and within it each region with a distinct art. Come to think of it, there might be thousands of art forms in India alone, though the figure is underestimated. Because in a country like India with diverse cultures, multiple languages and uncountable dialects of them, even a given region might have dozens of different art forms. Don’t be surprised if most of them might be still unknown in this world.
Well, this solves the query. Every heart bond with a different form. Though one admires the woodwork, fabric paintings, masks and so on, the person's heart might bond with a particular form. And this reminds me, with what kind of art does my heart bond? Wait a minute, I am not yet aware of it? Am I a cyborg or a robot? Am I the same person who covered Indian museums and wrote scripts on thirteen of them? Even if it never materialised.
Here’s what I am going to do. I would visit all these artists spread across India to see, with which art my heart bonds. While I plan this vacation over a tropical, I would suggest you take some time off the digital world and follow your bliss.
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