India: Creativity, Colour and the Curious Power of Belief

By Simonbrushfield @SimonBrushfield

India is extreme

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 in India

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 colour

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 in India when everyone throws color 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 colour

Maybe you’re thinking of commissioning an original painting?

Click here to bring more color into your home or office.

© Copyright Simon Brushfield – Creativity, Colour and India: The curious power of belief
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