The 'Unstuck' code
Dr. Amar is a professor of literature and one of the most renowned poets of his time. He was going through his worst nightmare - “writer’s block”. Not a single line of poetry coming to the mind that sounded original.
Desperate, he tried several ways. Traveled far and wide. Looked for inspiration amidst the thick green of the jungle, lonely beaches, crowded flea markets. Observed every detail minutely. Noted them down.
Yet unable to pen that first precious line and get into his usual flow. Days of wait turned to weeks and months. He was overwhelmed with a sense of gloom.
One fine afternoon, he was sitting in a park, observing a few small children playing.
One of the little girls came running after she was “out” in their game and sat next to him.
“What’s your name mister ? “ - she asked Dr. Amar uninhibitedly.
Amar responded with a smile.
“My name is Anjali” - she said giggling. He immediately felt a little less gloomy in Anjali’s presence.
Anjali asked, "What do you do?"
Amar thought for a while and responded, “I am a poet”.
This time Anjali giggled louder … covering her mouth with her tiny palms.
“I write poems too. Funny ones. Can you write funny poems ?” She asked!
Dr. Amar thought for a while and answered, “ If you teach me, I'll try … ”.
‘Ok’.. she giggled again … ‘I will start. Here is the first couplet, and we take turns' -
“Rose is red and sky is blue,
Sheep says baa and cow says mooo” -
“Your turn mister” !! She continued her usual giggle.
Amar responded spontaneously,
“Close your eyes and count one two,
Bird eats worms and pig eats poo!”
This time both of them laughed hard. Dr Amar observed that his own laugh resembled a childish giggle.
“Anjali !! You got one extra life ...’, another child screamed from the game. She ran back into the hurdle.
Back home, the giggle still stuck on his face, Amar found his lines pouring out as soon as he held his pen!
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Readers ! Appreciate the moral, as you see it, in the comment section.
Quality Engineering || Speaker @Test Forums ||Performance engineering || Cloud security
4 年1. The pressure to do better not always works even if you try too hard .."go with the flow " is something worth trying ! 2.Getting back to basics is the simplest way to find calm in chaos !
Eng Manager at Google Cloud, Board member at Saloni Heart Foundation
4 年Good to see you back, bibs.. Beautiful short story.... Inspirational. And kids are the best way to recharge those tired minds
Good to see a post from you Bibs!
Building AI Platform @ AWS (Amazon) | SDE 3 @ Amazon | Ex - Sophos | Ex - Volansys
4 年My Takeaway : Creativity demands relaxation and inner peace. Simply desiring to create something original and eventually getting frustrated on failure will not help. Sometimes we should try to forget the desire and simply enjoy the process/journey and creativity will come out on its own as its by-product.
That was a lovely read! My biggest learnings have been through conversations with kids. My takeaway from your story is that kids are non judgemental and unbiased. They nudge you to bring out your authentic self without peanut buttering ??