Upon first arriving in India I was shocked.
By two things especially…
Point 1. New Delhi was freezing cold.
The morning temperature was only 1 degree.
How surprising.
Other months, temperatures climbed above 40 degrees.
India is an exotic land of extremes.
Where Bangalore street artists decorate the pavement.
A Bangalore street artist paints the pavement during the festival of Cow in India
Bringing color to the otherwise dirty street of India.
The second thing that amazed me was this…
Point 2. New Delhi streets are filled with men.
“Where are all the females?” I asked my local friend.
With a typical Indian head wobble, I was told the shocking truth…
Parents often abort their babies when they discover it’s a female.
Human beings are weird creatures.
We believe the strangest ideas.
Many Asian parents have this belief…
Males are more valuable than females.
Wow.
That got me thinking about beliefs.
Point 3. Background cultural beliefs shape a persons life indelibly.
The beliefs of Indian parents tightly control their children’s future.
However, the beliefs of western parents often have less impact.
I adopted the beliefs of my parents up to a point.
At university, things changed.
Nobody else in my family was creative.
Neither mom or dad could draw a stick figure.
My parents asked, “Where did this black sheep in the family come from?”
They were puzzled.
Being surrounded by creative people at university, my ideas changed.
Here’s what I discovered…
Point 4. Being amongst creative people with similar beliefs was exhilarating.
For example, I became more courageous with my clothing.
Regularly wearing shockingly bright colours.
Turning away from my conservative background.
New beliefs bought greater freedom.
Predictably, I was labelled weird.
But that’s fine.
I simply love color.
And I’m happy to express it.
Indians love color too.
Happy Indian woman wearing a pink sari. A color that offsets her wonderful dark skin.
In fact, they have a “Holy Day” celebration when they throw colours at each other.
A strange belief.
But great fun.
Upon first discovering I was an artist, everything about creativity excited me.
It still does.
At university, I was overwhelmingly happy to be immersed in the freedom of art.
My girlfriend felt frustrated saying,
“Simon, why can’t you be normal?”
Growing older I’ve come to realize this…
Point 5. Nothing is normal.
Especially in exotic India.
Humans hold very odd beliefs.
Beliefs that guide people through life.
For example, Southern Indians have a festival of the cow.
Where they pray to the cow as their special God.
And place cow statues in shopping centres.
Cow God statue in a shopping center during the festival of the cow in India.
On this day Indian women dress in spectacular colours.
But do I believe the cow is a sacred God?
Or males are more valuable than females?
Of course not.
However, there’s no judgment against a different belief system.
Just incredible curiosity.
Point 6. Curiosity fuels my creativity.
I love to understand people and their different beliefs.
Individuals are fascinating.
Their colourful personalities are beautiful.
Life is all about color.
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