Skip to main content

Create, not Produce


There is too much productivity in our world.  We are bombarded with commodities.  Half of the TV time is dedicated to advertising commodities most of which are not necessary in anybody’s life.  Half of the newspaper space is similarly dedicated to redundancy. Shopping malls and popular markets bring us a lot of commodities which we don’t need really.  

Suppose we change our focus from production and consumption to creation.  Suppose people start spending some time every day on creating something like a flower vase from waste material, a poem about the agony left by the religion of bombs, a short movie on the mobile camera... Well, each one of us can create something according to our taste and skills.  Create, not produce.  Creation is an act of love.  Production is mere commerce.

The world will be a different place.  Qualitatively different. There will be more beauty than vulgarity. More refinement.  More happiness.


Comments

  1. This is food for thought! It would be a great initiative especially if started early on, say schools encouraged children with a special period each day set out for such an activity. Yes, definitely, food for thought and action!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately our schools end up destroying creativity.

      I'm glad you endorse my suggestion earnestly.

      Delete
  2. Creativity vs. Capitalism? It would be a utopia if genuine creativity overthrows capitalism of demand-supply creativity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why not dream for such a utopia? After all, the world runs on dominant ideas and ideologies. Can we reshape the contemporary capitalism?

      Delete
    2. I do dream of such utopia. I do Tomichan:) Yes we can reshape it, but how many are with us? In a democracy, majority always wins. A sad part. But I am optimistic

      Delete
    3. Religion is the only obstacle, I think. Let's keep up our optimism, in spite of the majority.

      Delete
  3. Such a nice thought. The world would be a better place if people created than produced.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The more you have, the more occupied you are. The less you have, the more free you are.--Mother Teresa

    ReplyDelete
  5. for this we need to understand real definition of man

    " Man eve manushyanam" & not defination of animal " Ahar nidra bhay & mithunach

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Sunil ji, dharma differentiates man from animals. Dharma, I long for it as much as Draupadi did!

      Delete
  6. Uniqueness vs Mass Production.We do need such ideas to make the world a better place

    ReplyDelete
  7. If people follow this idea, the world will be definitely a better place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And it isn't a difficult thing to do. Just a change of perspective.

      Delete
  8. Yeah that's a valid observation, when even learning is not directed to creativity. But how is it going to be done!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Parents and teachers can guide the children. But the society has to change its perspectives too.

      Delete
  9. Creativity over production? Interesting thoughts. Yes, the world would definitely be qualitatively different then. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. a poem about the agony left by the religion of bombs......this makes me cry.....at the tragedy humanity is becoming.....

    ReplyDelete
  11. yep that is true !! Too much focus on consumerism is snuffing out creativity .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Look at our children who are addicted to certain products.

      Delete
  12. I agree with you absolutely. It's important to create value all the Tim. Just churning the same old leads to Liss if quality.It's important we value what's already there ,but don't forget to "create"as you said so rightly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps we should learn to distance ourselves a little from monetary considerations.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

Bharata: The Ascetic King

Bharata is disillusioned yet again. His brother, Rama the ideal man, Maryada Purushottam , is making yet another grotesque demand. Sita Devi has to prove her purity now, years after the Agni Pariksha she arranged for herself long ago in Lanka itself. Now, when she has been living for years far away from Rama with her two sons Luva and Kusha in the paternal care of no less a saint than Valmiki himself! What has happened to Rama? Bharata sits on the bank of the Sarayu with tears welling up in his eyes. Give me an answer, Sarayu, he said. Sarayu accepted Bharata’s tears too. She was used to absorbing tears. How many times has Rama come and sat upon this very same bank and wept too? Life is sorrow, Sarayu muttered to Bharata. Even if you are royal descendants of divinity itself. Rama had brought the children Luva and Kusha to Ayodhya on the day of the Ashvamedha Yagna which he was conducting in order to reaffirm his sovereignty and legitimacy over his kingdom. He didn’t know they w...

Liberated

Fiction - parable Vijay was familiar enough with soil and the stones it turns up to realise that he had struck something rare.   It was a tiny stone, a pitch black speck not larger than the tip of his little finger. It turned up from the intestine of the earth while Vijay was digging a pit for the biogas plant. Anand, the scientist from the village, got the stone analysed in his lab and assured, “It is a rare object.   A compound of carbonic acid and magnesium.” Anand and his fellow scientists believed that it must be a fragment of a meteoroid that hit the earth millions of years ago.   “Very rare indeed,” concluded the scientist. Now, it’s plain commonsense that something that’s very rare indeed must be very valuable too. All the more so if it came from the heavens. So Vijay got the village goldsmith to set it on a gold ring.   Vijay wore the ring proudly on his ring finger. Nobody, in the village, however bothered to pay any homage to Vijay’s...

Dharma and Destiny

  Illustration by Copilot Designer Unwavering adherence to dharma causes much suffering in the Ramayana . Dharma can mean duty, righteousness, and moral order. There are many characters in the Ramayana who stick to their dharma as best as they can and cause much pain to themselves as well as others. Dasharatha sees it as his duty as a ruler (raja-dharma) to uphold truth and justice and hence has to fulfil the promise he made to Kaikeyi and send Rama into exile in spite of the anguish it causes him and many others. Rama accepts the order following his dharma as an obedient son. Sita follows her dharma as a wife and enters the forest along with her husband. The brotherly dharma of Lakshmana makes him leave his own wife and escort Rama and Sita. It’s all not that simple, however. Which dharma makes Rama suspect Sita’s purity, later in Lanka? Which dharma makes him succumb to a societal expectation instead of upholding his personal integrity, still later in Ayodhya? “You were car...