Whenever we think about the head, we think about intelligence but creativity comes from the heart. There is an artist in all of us but the day to day living pushes it down for most. I have a huge respect for people who make arts their profession – they are the ones who have truly followed their passion and it takes courage to do so!
Art and creativity comes in many forms. I was never interested in drawing and painting but put me on stage and I am able to speak, dance, sing, act and debate. I was the queen of extra curricular in school and pretty much participated in anything that came up.
I participated and won a few debate and declamation competitions – my language of choice was Hindi. My home in Ludhiana still has all the trophies I won. I loved drama and participated in a few plays in my time. But my passions remained music and dance. I was part of the school choir and loved to sing. I also was part of a few school musicals where I was at my best as all three of my passions combined at one place.
As I grew older, I also attained some formal training in both dance and music. I also discovered another art form – poetry. I was lucky to grow up in a household where all art forms were celebrated. One of my aunts was into the poetry and Hindi literary circle. This meant I had the privilege to attend a lot of gatherings of poets and met some eminent Hindi and Urdu poets of those times.
Over the years, as life took over, I was not able to pursue my creative side as much as I would have liked. But I am actively getting back into it. I have recently picked up singing again and it is giving me much joy. I hope to start training in kathak and participate in the Hindi literature society here.
I will end today with a small snippet of a song I sang for a competition I participated in. I did not get through but it was good to sing after a very long time.