Hugging The Whole World

Welcomes my healthy, active, handsome baby boy-Happy Birthday Cadence Prescott Sharma born on March 1st at 2.06 am: 8 lbs 12 oz, 21.5 inches; Mama, Cub & Papa are well.

Diving Deeper: Exploring The Emotional Challenges Truth

Visual artists find it harder to separate working lives from personal. The powerful force that drives a motivated, productive and fulfilled artist is their creative vision – something that encompasses painters, photographers, writers, graphic designers, art directors, film makers, musicians and includes in-closet artists such as plumbers, lawyers, engineers and professors. Without a desire to develop and use a creative vision, there’s little point in going on. A willingness to nurture it can release the slumbering artist or technologist from an unfulfilled existence into a bright, vivid world, where an insightful and highly creative life simply flows.

Creative vision is a process, a permanent state of openness and a willingness to challenge everything you’ve ever thought about yourself and been taught about in general. Creativity is driven by questions, not answers – by understanding, intuition and the subjective. The search for an artist’s practice begins with the artist himself or herself; a revealing personal self-analysis is one of the first hurdles to negotiate. Artists are too often labeled or categorized and too often they are instrumental in labeling themselves. By doing so, they wear one hat at all times. Wouldn’t it be more fun to try on lots of different hats? Step outside our ‘normal’ selves and play a little.

Creative vision? Is it a process? A way of doing things differently? An ability to drive forward, to constantly innovate and create challenging art? To break the rules? To produce work with passion, and to inspire passion in others?

Perhaps it’s easier to define what it’s not. It’s not derivation or imitation, it’s not being experimental for the sake of it, to show off or to demonstrate technical or mechanical mastery. It’s not slavishly following the fashions of the day or eagerly jumping on to arty bandwagons.

Creativity is a process that requires you to question everything and allows you to challenge every assumption, every unwritten rule. It lets you experiment freely in the knowledge that your experiments may provide the vehicle for bringing into being a sense of clarity or it may fail but still be useful to your learning. It’s about being relentlessly positive and maximizing your imaginative power to drive your productive output. It also allows people to dispense with their adult egos and adopt the curiosity and playfulness of a child.

Creativity begins internally with the personality, experiences and nature of the artist. Eventually it seeps externally into the world through the eyes and hands that capture the thought. Our task is to understand this journey, make rewarding choices along the way and allows ourselves to wander without barriers or restrictions.

Creativity can be defined as:

- A willingness to replace ambiguity with simplicity

- An interest in the surreal or the hyper-real

- An interest in what lies under the surface

- Exploring the emotional challenges to find the truth

How to get most out of your big thoughts?

Challenge every rule

Where do rules come from? Who says this or that is so? The art world is full of rules. Some are very formal, such as the rules on composition laid down in rigid Victorian times. While others trickle down informally from positions of cultural power, permeate educational institutions and become stifling straightjackets that can directly and profoundly affect the course of an artist’s practice.

Use a notebook to keep thoughts flowing

Memory can’t always be relied upon when one is preoccupied with the business of creation. Jot down ideas as and when they occur.

Give yourself doodling time

Time to fiddle about absent-mindedly is a gift. Experiment without outcome purely for the fun and see what develops.

Develop and trust your intuition – not technology

Intuition can only flourish once technology is mastered or at least until the technology becomes familiar.

Lullaby Of Two Hearts

Parenting is perhaps the most wondrous, terrifying, ecstatic journey available to us as human beings. It introduces us to a love stronger than anything we have ever imagined, a love so overwhelming that it is at times shocking while simultaneously pushing us to our full capacity for patience, tolerance, courage, wisdom and perseverance. We suddenly cease to be the center of our own world and shift our focus to children for whom we are now entirely responsible.

For most people who have not yet experienced it, the thought of becoming a parent inspires a combination of trepidation and exhilaration. There are so many idealized images that come to mind about the joys of raising a child, many of them similar to those mentioned above. However, there are also many fears that accompany those images. They can range from concerns about repeating the same mistakes as our own parents to fears about the world into which we are bringing our future children. Perhaps the greatest obstacle that must be overcome in order to be a successful and happy parent is letting go of the expectations of perfection. In essence, parenting boils down to our ability to manage our expectations, both those we place on ourselves and those we place on our children.

Love Handles, Actually

They say that exercise lengthens, strengthens and tones. If you do nothing then what happens? You put on a kilo a year–it is the easiest thing and you do that for five, ten years and suddenly your best self is way, way, way behind you.

Today, nothing signifies your status more than your fitness or your lack of it.

This obsession with the firmness of our abdominal muscles, quadriceps, the fascination with our muscle tone, the need to get on the scales at least once every day–frankly, it was always a chick thing. In my childhood at Canadian boarding school, fitness was a mandatory passion. Your family was paying big bucks for you to study and choose a sport every term to excel in–whether they showed up for the games was a non-matter because most of us were from lands far-far away. Fitness was a mandatory part of every old or new boy’s identity.

Fast forward into the 21^st century and our concept of success–financial, professional, emotional, social and spiritual is bound up completely with our physical appearance. Our fitness level. A man’s firmness–that’s what matters most. Not the size of his wallet or his heart or his knob. The size of his quadriceps. The size of his biceps. The size of his VO2 Max.

“Men grow cold as girls grow old and we all lose our charms in the end,” Marilyn Monroe breathed in “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend”–the ultimate expression of 20^th-century females aspiration. And now the terrible knowledge haunts men too. Isn’t that why our lives revolve around this pathological obsession with health, with fitness, with the definition of our physical body? Isn’t that why we spend longer time in gyms than we do devouring food? Because now we know it applies to us too. We all lose our charms in the end. Once, being fit was about how young we were. Now being fit is about how we age.

What a strange, turbulent relationship we have with our bodies. Successful fat people have gone the way of the dinosaur, the dodo and Simon Le Bon. Once upon a time successful fatties walked the Earth. But they walk the Earth no more.

We can’t take you seriously unless you take your fitness seriously. Politicians are now obliged to be Olympian or actors. If you are fat and a party leader it is not going to work out. You have to at least be seen trying to work out. Throwing yourself into fitness can also backfire because you can’t always look cool when you are pushing yourself to the limit.

But it is not just image.

Keeping fit brings down blood pressure, lowers cholesterol, reduces weight, extends your life, and makes for a better sex life. We don’t endure all this pain because we want to be fit. We endure all this pain because we want to be sane. With advancing age comes the inevitable expanding paunch. But it’s no longer just women who are under pressure to remain lean and lithe gym fanatic.

Masala: Art Of Bollywood Cinema

It has been called an independent state of the Indian union, a domain with its own language, customs and codes. The claim is not exaggerated, for Bollywood is indeed an alternate reality far removed from the world we inhabit. It is a land populated with by luridly dressed heroes, leering villains, weeping mothers and simpering heroines; a world with infinitely more music, drama and spectacle than reality could ever accommodate.

Bollywood’s sheer size alone justifies the claim that it is a separate world. Cinema in India has a history almost as long as the history of Western cinema, and currently the country makes the most films in the world, twice the number produced by the United States in a year. The subcontinent’s cultural diversity is comparable to Europe’s: India produces films in 39 languages and dialects, of which at least five have industries larger than most national cinemas. What is generally referred to as Bollywood is the commercial film industry based in Mumbai, which produces films in Hindi, the langua franca understood by viewers across the nation.

Over the years, Bollywood has given birth to a famously hybrid form of cinema that mashes together Indian and foreign influences. For Western viewers accustomed to their own traditions of storytelling, the Bollywood narrative often seems a mere device to present extravagant song-and-dance numbers, high-strung emotion, comic interludes, fights and a host of other elements. This kind of film is commonly known in India as the masala film, after the Hindi word for a spicy mix. Bollywood has evolved many other uniquely Indian genres as well­–mythological and devotional, which draw inspiration from the Hindu epics; socials, which are essentially urban melodramas; stunt films, which are an eccentrically Indian take on the American B movie; and so on.

All these genres feature songs, of course–it seems redundant to call Bollywood films musicals, since songs have been an integral part of almost every Indian film since Alam Ara (1931). While stars sang their own numbers in the initial years, the 1940s saw the introduction of “playback” singers, whose songs were mimed on-screen by actors. The Bollywood sound incorporates many eclectic influences; it has inspired filmmakers to develop their own lyrical styles of picturization and also to think up some decidedly strange song situations: actors have sung songs to pigeons, elephants, traded verses over games of badminton and cricket.

Music is only one of the features that enhance the “repeat value,” or drawing power of a Hindi film. The chief attractions in any Bollywood movie are the stars, who in India command devotion similar to that in the USA. Gossip magazines and national newspapers alike track their every move and every aspect of their personas, from their haircuts to their fluctuations in weight. Their loyal followers tend to watch their films again and again, which is why certain cult films such as Sholay (1975) have run for many years in theaters. For its obsessive fans, Bollywood’s escapist cinema is a highly addictive drug, a habit they can’t shake.

Movie mania runs deep in India. For decades, filmi music was the only pop music in India and the music industry condescendingly referred to non-film music as “private albums.” Today, Hindi cinema’s influence can be seen everywhere, from television, fashion, advertising and the very language of the streets. Its images pervade the visual culture of the subcontinent, leaving their mark on religious prints and street signs alike.

The visual strategy used by Bollywood poster artists to promote the films to mass audiences is dictated by the audience’s taste for paisa vasool entertainment (value for money films) that offer melodrama, comedy, romance and action all for the price of a single ticket. Some posters attempted to put every entertaining highlight from the film on display and to address as many segments of the audience as possible. Instead of searching for a strong, conceptual image, poster artists often throw in many elements as would fit within the space. This train of thought also led to a strategy in which divergent aspects of a film were presented across a set of publicity designs. “Variety,” as one publicist explained, “roused the audience’s curiosity and led them to believe they would get their money’s worth.”

Mumbai Noir

No one comes to Mumbai for rest and relaxation. Brash, chaotic and glitzy, first impressions of the city tend to be dominated by its chronic shortage of space. Crammed onto a narrow strip of land that curls into the Arabian Sea, the city has been transformed from a fishing village to a sprawling metropolis of over 16 million people in less than 500 years. An inebriating mix of India’s movie industry, large colonial relics, restaurants, cricket clubs and a generous mélange of extremes gives you Mumbai: the richest city in India that has the highest GDP of any city in South, West or Central Asia along with real estate prices that are even more exuberant than Manhattan. Mumbai is India’s financial powerhouse and the center for film, fashion and after-dark frolics. Glistening skyscrapers, bridges and malls mushroom everywhere. Even the slums are renovated into sparkling high-rise condominiums and in true Mahatma Gandhi style the previous slum dwellers are given a flat for free. With a pinch of gumption and a dash of adventure there’s no reason not to dive into the warm tranquility of Mumbai and its oceanic air–head or feet first.

Nearly two years after the Mumbai terrorist attacks it was personally gratifying to visit Mumbai including the Jewish Cultural Center, the iconic Taj and Oberoi hotels. The JCC has bounced back (no surprise there) and has been fully restored, along with the Taj and the Oberoi (renamed Oberoi Trident). A lot of money has been spent at all places to make sure they are air tight and safe. After staying at both the Taj and Oberoi – I could see why Pakistani gunmen chose us as targets. A melting point of culture, the JCC and these hotels offer the very best of global culture: people discuss cross-cultural viewpoints everywhere–something that is simply not permissible in Pakistan or in secular Islamic countries. Globetrotters from Britain, Germany, Russia, Sweden and USA are to be seen here along with Indians – and everyone is having lively conversations. The accents are too many for me to know. Security is tight everywhere in India now. Food at these places is also amazing. The most delicious mango ice cream I have ever tasted is at the Taj. Being here you learn there is opulence and indulgence but there is also real experience.

The Living Gods Of Delhi

After thirty years in exile, the time was right to set out for New Delhi (Dilli), in the land of the Gods, to encounter the reality of experience and the collective consciousness of a system of belief that is unique in its cultural context to India. Delhi is one of the oldest cities in the world and it has witnessed the history of India during the last 5000 years. Over the millennia, the city is said to been built and destroyed seven times and remnants of the past survive harmoniously with skyscrapers, residential colonies and bustling commercial complexes.Among the vast wealth of ancient monuments, Delhi has the India gate, parliament buildings, the Qutab Minar, and the Red Fort–a 17th century fort encompassing grand halls where legendary Peacock Throne once stood, representing the zenith of Mughal creativity.Today, here at the India’s capital, ambition and drive are important for the people’s success in life regardless of their social background. At the same time, it is essential to have fun and to grow as an individual in the Karma spirituality of the region.