Creativity has no lockdown

By Rj Kshitij 

From very early on in life, I've been associated with creative things and art. I have always found them liberating. They add meaning to my life and life for me is a constant experiment. I want to keep on experimenting, challenging myself because I can't imagine myself doing a 9-5 job, sitting in a cubicle. 

Were my life and the plans I had for the year hampered during lockdown? Of course, they were! I had been working in Radio until very recently. This year I decided to widen my horizon, create my own art and so I left Radio to pursue my passion for creating art in digital space, creating music, creating stories that people can relate to, that matter to people. 

Well, there were many plans which I wanted to put into action, many things which I had thought out and was looking forward to. And yes this lockdown did bring every single one of them to a standstill. 

But isn't that how it is for everybody? It has affected everyone. So, I'm not really saddened by it, rather I took out the time I had as an opportunity to explore my creative abilities. Well, you know how the lockdown brought everything to a halt and most of us were sitting idle at our homes. 

I wanted to utilize this time that I had with me, to do something creative, something meaningful. So that is how I slowly came up with the podcast about lockdown stories. It constituted 10 episodes. I thought about how people are coping up in such times, what they are doing at home. These are some questions that helped me create these imaginary stories with very real scenarios. What I've usually observed is that in households, people meet their family members once or twice a day like when they're leaving for their work and when they return. 

But when they stay at home 24/7, a lot of equations change. There could be siblings who used to fight a lot. But now, they stay together, they understand each other better and appreciate each other. Maybe there's a mother and a daughter in law who were not really comfortable with each other. But the lockdown is teaching them to find a middle ground to respect each other. 

These are very humane responses. What I'm happy about, is to learn that my stories are reaching out to people and the fact that they're listening and appreciating them. 

When it comes to mental health issues, I think it's very understandable and only natural that people are getting anxious and frustrated at a time like the present. These times have certainly impacted our youth and their lifestyles. The lockdown has impacted our social lives more than anything else. So it's natural for people to feel anxious, depressed, or to find themselves in a bad mental position. 

However, what really matters is that we don't dwell upon it. I believe it is wise to go on to accept the things as they are. Rather than running from the problem or trying to vent out your frustration somewhere else, it's better to accept it. The only thing we can do is to be patient and understanding. It's ok to feel sad, it's ok to feel angry, it's ok to feel frustrated, it's ok to feel a negative emotion. These are, after all, our emotions and very natural. But to allow these negative emotions to rule your existence? That should never be acceptable for yourself. One must try to come out of it. The key is to accept the situation first and then move along. Only when you accept how things are,  you can win over them.

 Watch a movie, a good web series, listen to a soothing song, do whatever helps to uplift your mood, whatever makes you happy. The lockdown has taught us a lot of lessons. What I've personally realized is that we have way more time than we think. We don't realize that and fail to utilize it or just don't utilize it at all. We have a lot more time, and we can always make time to look after ourselves, our loved ones, and our relationships. 

And that we can very easily enjoy our lives. We can find joy w need tons of money to lead a good life, we don't need to spend on a thousand different things to be happy just because we can, or are privileged enough. We can be happy cherishing time with our families, spending time with our relations, and most importantly with ourselves. That's what the Lockdown has taught us.

Penned down by - Abhishek Majumdar