CHENNAI: As far back as our memories can stretch, for most of us, the New Year always brought in a few calendars, diaries and yearly planners. Though the ritual of sending a New Year card by post has succumbed to the onslaught of digital greetings and calendars have merely become decorative objects that proclaim our concern for a cause or our culture, while our smartphones announce the date everyday, strangely the ‘diary gifting tradition’ has survived the vagaries of time.
Armed with this munition, even the most disorganised amongst us, cloaked ourselves with the illusion of having the year under our control. Monthly targets were set, goals to be achieved listed out, and events marked. Our existence suddenly had a purpose. Alas, all that changed since the nation imported the dreaded COVID-19. We watched as those carefully jotted down plans simply dissolved.
Planning anything was like trying our luck at the horse races. Uncertainty was the only thing one could be certain about. Restlessness gripped most of our hearts as we watched many around us, lose their jobs. Swallowing self pride and seeking help was an option, but with the yearly planner gathering dust, what assurance could one ever give of repayment? Besides, many a time, the assumed lender has to gulp down more than self pride, to admit that everyone’s on the same boat!
An oft repeated query that most artists have encountered in the course of the past year is about how we have coped with these unstable times. Turbulent it is, no doubt. Art, no matter what, will constantly be produced, but the platforms to showcase them have often been non-functional due to the pandemic. However, even before Corona hit our shores, the art community has always had an ingenious strategy to work around hard times.
Artists have this supernatural ability to somehow, sense a fellow artist’s distress, even through their silences or a change in their behavioural patterns. Almost always, the matter would be dealt with immediately, with no questions asked and no embarrassment caused. Someone would make a bank transfer, another would drop by and ‘forgetfully ‘ leave behind a wad of notes ( however small) and yet another would recharge the phone or come by with a sack of rice.
No fancy announcements of these generous acts would be posted on social media, no return expected, no accounts written and sometimes, no words exchanged even. Maybe the bond that binds is the path artists have taken. Like an oath taken unto ourselves, we have pledged to face the risks and the unpredictable situations that we all know will surely ensue in this pursuit. The thought that many others are with you, undertaking their own journeys nevertheless, comforts us in the darkest of times. The only way forward, the only way to stay true to our chosen path, we know, is to be there for each other. The world may pursue loans extended, but this tribe will always survive on kind hearted instincts. That perhaps, is what art truly is about.