What I now call me

In India, as we speak, there lies a total population of 1.38 billion people. Yeah I know! That’s a whole lot!! In these loads of bunches of multitudes of people, there are many mANy families settled and are currently enjoying their breakfast, lunch or dinner at this moment. Now you’re probably wondering why I’m giving you this vague information you have no business knowing and that’s a very valid point but let me finish, will you?! The point is that India and the concept of families are deeply entangled with one another. In fact, family is the most important institution in India, that has survived through the centuries and as a country, we intrinsically place huge importance in collectivistic values like family interdependence, harmony, loyalty but most importantly unity.?

Hence, given this information, it may come as no surprise to you, my fellow readers, that yes— I am indeed an extremely family-oriented person.?

The point is also that I figured this out about myself only recently, a month ago, when I shifted 11,107 km away from my family, my home, my origin- to pursue my creative education. Speaking of creativity, I’ve always been a creatively-inclined person but I never drew for myself. Because I didn’t know myself..Now, many of you may be thinking, really?!! Please tell me we not gonna be jumping on the knOw yOUrsElF bandwagon—yes we are. Because art and your origin of identity are deeply interrelated. Who are you? Why are you making art? What does it mean to you?- these questions need not be answered right this moment, but you should know what you want out of your creative purpose. One way of truly knowing that is knowing your origin, for the phrase origin means nothing but the beginning of a story; in this case— your story.?

Speaking of stories, I have one as well. One that inculcates my family and friends: To start with, let me introduce my parents—Mr. and Mrs. Nair, the Jodha and Akbar in my life. My mom, although the eldest, is undoubtedly the “spoon” of our family. She is the smallest, yet is the one without whom we just can’t get anything done. She brings us together and is a very family-oriented woman; a born leader, an amicable team player, an amazing partner and a loving mother. Just as every spoon needs a fork, my mom needed my dad- Mr. Nair, the “fork” of the family.. he successfully does the things the “spoon” couldn’t. The backbone” or rather “back-fork” of our family- he conquered the IT world and is one of the most irrefutable geniuses I’ve even encountered. Co-founding six companies and living up to the esteemed title of “the CIO” can be quite burdening, but that never stopped my dad from bringing the brightest smiles on our faces every time he came back from work— all the way from getting fascinated by how well I could draw a small flower to supporting my life decisions to become a designer, my dad has always satiated the true definition of a “father”. Although he may seem like one of the most uber masculine men one may ever come across, in his personal world, he is the softest fork a person can ever be..????

Now I’m not going over the details, but let’s just say the spoon and fork had two “sporks”—my sister and I. Now my elder sister, who likes to enunciate on the “one year and eight months age difference” based on her convenience, is one of the bubbliest people I have ever seen. She is literally a “spork” kind of person— she can be a little edgy on some days, but has the ability of making every person in the room feel included when she talks. She gets her “social skills” from our mother and her “IT skills” from our father as she aims to follow a similar path my dad walked through. She’s technologically gifted as she knows her coding skills well (something she likes to tease me about), but also gets extremely excited and proud whenever I achieve something in life.

Now, the one member that I adore the most, is my grandmother—the “table napkin” of the family. She takes care of all of us, wraps us all with her love and affection and doesn’t expect anything in return. She’s been through her share of obstacles in life, having been someone who went through child marriage, she had to take care of an entire family at an age when I now imagine to pursue my dreams. She forgot her dreams to support her family, but it never killed her passion. She still loves to sing, dance, draw and play the keyboard —watching her live her life as if it has just begun made me realise that there is simply no age limit to happiness. Her drive for outdoor activities, playing games and socialising, makes her seem like more of a teenager than me. I learn from her every single day to never give up on something you truly enjoy doing, that being successful in life doesn’t simply mean surviving hard times, but thriving through them.

Again, y’all can definitely question why I just gave you a breakdown on my family, when you have no purpose knowing them. But I did it to show you that each and every member of my family wrote the beginning of my story, gave me a canvas to express myself on, added to what I now call—me.

You see, through knowing my personal beginning well— I realised that art was genuinely, whole heartedly, sincerely meant to express, not impress. Whatever you wanted to express was your choice, but it should be something that comes from you. That’s why I believe an artist’s job is one of the hardest jobs to ever exist. I know that society has a preconceived notion about what “good art” is supposed to look like, but no matter how terribly easy or difficult an art piece is, no matter how much of an “effort” a person puts in it— it has a story behind it.?

I also know there are people who misuse this field of occupation only to acquire money. Hence, generalising this concept isn’t my right, neither should it be anyone else’s. Know someone’s story before you scrutinise and deliberate upon their work; if you must, ignore them if you don’t believe them. But while other professions may require you to primarily conquer and understand the external world, Art as a profession requires you to conquer the internal world.

To have the courage and stability to lay down your feelings on a canvas and have people scrutinise and judge how much your artistic expressions value in terms of materialistic possession. To have the humility and self esteem required to let people invalidate your art pieces for its price or story behind it. It takes a humane person to let people into their world and not have their opinions affect their reality. That is exactly what my family helped instil in me till now— A sense of purpose, a strong pillar that never breaks, this identity I now express as me.

Anoushka Nair, October-2021, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

ECU Woo Magazine : https://issuu.com/woopublication/docs/origin_v8_issuu

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