Who is afraid of Creativity?It is not quite a fire breathing dragon so to say, but a reality check will inform you how most people shy away from exposing the blooming creative part of their minds.

So does creativity bite? Well, no. It doesn’t quite but perhaps it is that vulnerability of laying bare the deep delved and dark recesses of the mind that prompts people to keep shut their doors of imagination. Now, while there is this one group of people that chooses to accept their incapacity to vent out their creative energy, there is also a worse kind. These are those who done external manifestations of Creativity. Call to mind the stereotypical pseudo-intellectuals.

Let me list the essentials. A shabby old kurta (preferably unwashed ever). a pair of weather beaten chappals. unkempt long hair, thick rimmed glasses, a haggardly looking jute bag,  most unimaginable parts of the body, pierced, and most importantly an air of “drowsy- dumbness” and a “hemlock- drunk”  apparition.

So while you struggle to fathom their uncanny incarnation, they float in pride of having left your mind unruffled by their Poetic epiphany!

Well, if you have a smile reading this, allow me to check you! This is indeed the most tragic treatment that can be meted out to real Creativity!

For all we may know Creativity is best when manifested in the work rather than the worker! And it is further more condemnable because it takes away from real talent. Creativity exists independent of gender, wealth, prosperity, location, age or any mortal bounds that drive our prejudices. More interestingly it can originate from the most unthinkable sources.

So when an economically challenged mother stuffs in a ball inside cotton pads and uses her old bindis for making eyes and makes a  unique doll that lights up her little girl’s face, she is creative and her creativity emerges from necessity.

If a self respecting man chooses instead of begging, to bring alive the mundane streets with the most remarkable chalk art, he is creative. When a group of passion driven youngsters put up an exhibition of wonders created of recycled products, they are creative and it is their sense of responsibility that drives their creativity. If a young girl writes the most outstanding elegy in remembrance of a dead lover, she is creative and her creativity emerges from a catastrophe.

Recount the artistic marvels of Sudarshan Pattnaik carved on sand on the beaches of Puri. It was a childhood fascination with sand that brought him rave reviews and worldwide accolade for his art. From global warming to communal harmony, his sensitive rendering of art  has been displayed in as many as eight countries including  US, Holland, Russia, UK, Germany, South Korea, Japan and Singapore

What was it, if not creativity that led a certain Zuckerberg to create the phenomenon called Facebook, inspired by his reputation as a “programming prodigy”? Creativity is not limited to music and poetry. If Beethoven was creative, so was Steve Jobs.

Creativity is as much personal and about isolation and mourning as it is subjective and about socializing and celebration. It sells.

Think of the rib-tickling TV commercials. Be it the alien zoozoos of Vodafone who’s absolutely nonsensical communication makes us fall in eternal love with them or Happy Dents claim to solve the problem of no electricity in villages by making your teeth shine brighter than night bulbs, they are all outstanding creative outputs. Attention grabbing tag lines that sneak into our household communication are also similar instances. From “Hamara Bajaj” to “Tanduroosti Ki Raksha karta Hai ’Life Buoy’” to “Dar ke aage jeet hai” to “What an idea sirjee!” the list is inexhaustible! Advertisements have seen a portrayal of creativity also in their logos. So now a pouncing cat reminds one less of the fauna and more of Puma, the red and yellow Clown brings to mind not circus jigs but mouth watering Mcburger. And now if you ask a kid as to what happens after the lion roars, he will tell you with a smile that Popeye gets ready with his spinach. A tongue sticking out of a young man’s tee-shirt displays more of his love for the Rolling Stone than an indecent gesture on his part!

This is the world of creativity, commercialized and yet an inherent part of evolution.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Pictures brilliantly puts into words the mantra of creativity: “Every single thing you see on-screen came out of somebody’s creativity. It doesn’t exist. Nature didn’t deliver it to us. Everything had to be dreamed.” Creativity is not a miracle; it does not fall from the sky. It is an anxiety entrapped within every single mind and the vent is the expression. So the next time you close your eyes and vision something strange try not to write it off as nonsense, it might just be the next most brilliant idea struggling to be born.