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Creativity
"You cannot teach a man anything;
you can only help him to find it within himself." Galileo
(Published in "Studio Systems"
Sept-Oct 2000)
Recently there has been some heartening news
for the patriotic Indian! The spectacular donation by an expatriate Indian
technocrat, donating millions of dollars to his alma mater IIT Bombay
to start "The Innovation Centre" for the development of Creativity in
the educational process is the best thing I have heard in ages. Maybe
finally the process of attacking the root causes of the decay in our society
has started! Till now our government machinery has been busy managing
the symptoms of the ever-growing problems inherited from past governments
and they in turn are busy creating their very own problems which will
surely multiply even more. These short term problem solvers who are busy
massaging the egos of the vote banks who have brought them to power can
only further aggravate the burning issues that affect our every day life.
As it is said "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking
we used when we created them." The entire thinking process of a generation
has to be changed in order to achieve this miracle and as we are all aware
the present education system is definitely not the answer to our prayers!
According to me, one of the biggest deficiency
in the thinking process of the Independent Indian is the lack of Creativity
and I hold the present educational policy responsible for it. It was OK
for the British to develop a system that made babus of us all but it is
unforgivable that since Independence, the same policies with minor changes
have been continued. No wonder there is such an enormous rise in the number
of coaching classes in the nation whose only focus is marks and damn educating!
Our secondary and pre graduate college education is truly ridiculous,
leaving most of the students who pass, truly confused about their future.
Truly this is an opportunity for the student community to acquire skills
in the Creative Process which will greatly further the dreams of the youth
of this country. However Creativity seems to be a much misunderstood concept,
even though it has been a much studied and researched subject by all the
great minds of the world both in India and in the rest of the world. To
understand Creativity further I quote one treatise on Creativity which
said "The creative process is an ongoing exercise. Everything you do that
is not habit is creative. Harnessing this creative power and directing
it toward new ideas and solving problems is where most people need help.
The educational system is poor at teaching children how to retain their
inherent creative talents. So much emphasis is put on learning rote memorisation
of data, that cultivating the imagination is a lost art. Those who do
retain this ability are not quite sure, as they mature, how to channel
this gift into everyday life."
I hope the people of our great nation who gave
the world the very basics of Mathematics etc. find the strength to lift
itself out of the vicious circle it finds itself in and
attain the glory it once had. I will be praying for that day.
Keith Kanga of the Atomic
Forest: In the seventies there was a very
active Rock Music scene in Bombay, yours truly being one of its leading
exponents. One of the best Rock bands of that time was the Atomic Forest
and Keith Kanga was its leader. The band featured Madhukar, the ‘Jesus’
of Alyque Padamsee’s production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and it was
one of the most popular bands on the college circuit. Unfortunately Keith
is longer with us now. The news was really sad, the saving grace being
that he died in his sleep. As his friend Dinshah Sanjana says about him
and I quote
"In the 70 and 80's Keith was an institution
and Jony Castle(Keith’s residence) was the adda for musicians to gather,
hang out and practice. He devoted his everything to his musician family
and helped a lot of people along the way." After leaving Bombay, Keith
worked in an Organisation called Sharan, that works with drug users and
provides various services to them. He was also one of the key players
for HIV prevention in Asia. A memorial service was held on 3rd
September at the Insync Studios terrace garden where some of his musician
friends got together to remember Keith and pray for him. May his soul
rest in peace.
Temple Acoustics:
AES (India Chapter) keeps forging ahead with the
seminar on the most mystical topic of Temple Acoustics by Dr. P. Umadikar,
Ex. Professor of Physics, Institute of Science.
The research carried out by Dr Umadikar and colleagues on the acoustical
properties of certain ancient temples in India is path breaking and the
results are truly inspiring. The use of the science of Acoustical Engineering
seems apparent in the construction of these temples and acoustic principles
have been used to enhance the spiritual impact of the religious experience.
Yet there is no mention of these principles in any of the old books of
that time. The greatness of our past is once again apparent when we hear
about the results that these old architects have been able to achieve
without the help of so called modern building and measuring implements.
However this knowledge has not been effectively communicated to the later
generations. It is sad that the old tradition of transmission of information
through the vocal tradition rather than the written form has let us down
and we have to learn what our forefathers knew centuries ago from foreign
text books and universities. The efforts of Dr Umadikar and his colleagues
need to be applauded and I hope their research succeeds in unravelling
the mysteries of the past and lead us to our past glory.
AES (India Chapter) , as it’s next program, is
planning a visit to the FTII (Pune) on 30th September. Its
members now have the opportunity to see for themselves the facilities
available to the students of the premier media training institution in
India, including the new Harrison Mixing console.
They are also planning to hold the first of the
Sound Basics workshops for school and college students so that the youth
can be well informed about the language and requirements of good sound
reproducing equipment from trained professional engineers. They can have
all their queries answered by
experts and hopefully some of the youth can be
inspired enough to join the sound engineering profession and follow up
on their passion.
Keep Alive:
What an apt name of an organisation that is involved
in the propagation of old Hindi film music and the felicitations of its
proponents!
The brainchild of Manohar Iyer, famous lyricist
in the Indi Pop world with many hits for Anaida, Mehnaz etc, it was indeed
a surprise for me to discover his passion for old Hindi film music. He
has converted this passion into a movement whereby he has now started
having theme based live events with audio video presentations and has
over a thousand members who frequent his presentations. He has an excellent
team of singers
and musicians who support him in this mission
and I wish him all the best in this endeavour. For those of you who want
to know more, you can access him on: http://www.showbizindia.com/keepalive
College Festivals:
The campus cultural activities are in full swing
once again and what had started out to be just a minor diversion from
normal academic activities has now ballooned to gigantic proportions where
the budget for a two day festival could be as high as 25 lakhs!
These college festivals have over the years been the spawning ground for
great extra curricular skills in the performing arts itself and it’s management.
Numerous talented college students get their first
break at such festivals while the student organisers hone their management
and people skills which come to great use in the real world. The exchange
with the Corporate world at such an early age can be a great experience
for the future leaders and workers of our nation. I used to be a regular
performer at the Mood Indigo, the Bombay IIT festival in the seventies
and the eighties when the secretary of the festival was Nandan Nilikeni.
Today, Nandan is a successful dollar millionaire and the erstwhile CEO
of Infosys, the famous IT company. There is no doubt in my mind that some
of his success is due to his experience at the Mood Indigo!
I recently judged the St Xavier’s ‘Malhar" festival
talent contest and the St Andrews parish Zonals competition and it was
a delight to see the enormous talent that exists within our populace.
Especially the St Andrew’s crowd as their contest was open for all age
groups. The sheer enthusiasm of the contestants and the organisers was
a delight to observe. Now if only they were taught some Creativity techniques,
they would all be flying!!
Nandu Bhende
homesite :http://nandu_bhende.tripod.com
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