CHENNAI: Life is a marathon. Run it to win it. Throughout the evolution of mankind, the spirit to triumph has flowed like a steady stream through the veins of the human species. Many a battle has surely been fought for the glory of capturing that woolly mammoth which may have perhaps, earnestly tried to co-exist with our predecessors. Countless wars have been waged to fence off pieces of Mother Earth as our own territory. The universe has always bestowed a special place for those who have won.
Nothing has really changed, except for the subject of our competitions and the nature of the trophies we gather. Every sport is about winning. Every examination is for that winner’s certificate. All industries strive for that award for excellence. Medals and prizes are our destination. Though much needed to push ourselves towards higher goals, there are also some things in life that cannot be dictated by the glitter of the gold medal. Art thrives on the other side of that shine.
True art is a language of expression, the creation of which can be the only end. Its purpose is to elevate our thoughts, allow for introspection and question the human condition. Yet, we have managed to complicate this pursuit well enough to bring it into the realm of competition. Our education system is the grand matriarch of championships. Along with dangling the carrot of ranks and grades before each student with regard to academics, there are the multitude of contests that take place during the course of one’s student life in every cultural sphere. Music, dance, arts…there are rewards on the podium that await the victorious in all these related events. And thus, art for the purpose of emerging triumphant is established, slowly and steadily, in the school going years,as the norm.
The mushrooming art institutes in every city too serve to aid this objective. Aspiring students are trained to compete in various announced contests. Most topics being made public beforehand, the focus shifts to the declared theme during the run-up to the event. When a student manages to do justice to all that training by recreating what was taught in a manner bordering on perfection, then the success that ensues is loudly feted as the institute’s accomplishment in moulding winners.
And consequently, somewhere along the way, the reason for art’s existence is lost in the fine web of rat races to reign supreme. We carry fragments of that web all through our life. We simply must win. Settling for anything less would mean a mere wasted survival. What we forget however are the simple joys of living and doing something without any desired result. “A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
So, if that song within you urges you to create, do not wait for a contest or an exhibition to showcase it. Accolades and laurels can wait but the creator inside you cannot. Pick up the brush, get the chisel and give in to the ecstasy of doing something, far away from the race tracks of life.