Creativity !?…a sorry state of India
There are a lot of times when one us stumbles upon the question of creativity. Especially in India, the country of my birth and present residence. Why so often, we question ourselves, asking that why we do not have a single global product, that was totally conceptualized by us. We can proudly boast one of the best brains in the world. We have so many of the people, who moved outside of our country and have given a lot to the world. (When I look at a country like Israel, I feel there is a lot that we can look and learn from them).
From childhood, we have been taught to follow the book. Its like, if its in the book, its a golden word. We donot tend to question the logic and reason behind it. I remember, when I was going for my A-Levels (which was not in India), my biology teacher told us
“Do not believe, that whatever is concluded here(referring to the book), is true. Do not think it is wrong either. Think over it, research it, with whatever means you have, based on the facts given here (again referring to the book) or somewhere, and come to a conclusion yourself”
Here, I have found it is not the way. Even the teachers feel irritated when you ask them a question, that may actually question the relevance in the book or usually the argument can be closed by simply saying the golden words “I can show in the book”
Is it only about this or more. I refer to Dostoevsky’s Idiot. Where by he raises the question of originality and how they are the ones which are not on top, but the normal person, who has no originality and not so active brain, is in a mundane proffession but still commands the respect of all and the society in general. And from birth onwards, we have been expected to take the beaten-up path.
“Beta, bade hoke kya banoge, Doctor ya Engineer??”
(Son, What do you want to be once you grow up, Doctor or Engineer?)
And your career has been decided for you, no body expects you to be any thing else, and if you are, its not up to their expectations. Why is it so ?? As I have previously talked about, in Maturity…part another, that your parents want you to take the easier path, simply because you will be more secure and safe there. To follow a routine with the same state of dullness as every one follows. As the famous line is
“I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”
-(Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken)
Funny how we do not have the conviction to take the road that is less traveled, but are quite happy in the other wise a mundane and monotonic life. We are happy of the fact that there is no adventure, for we are afraid, of not being adequately prepared for it. And given this fact, we are quite happy and content.
Even our movies, (although we being one of the biggest movie industries), still lack in originality. Movies being our favorite pastime, and still we notice, the story being copied from an older flick. Our characters, showing themselves off in the same stereotyped roles, that they have been performing from ages, and will so do continuously until someone else does them in a better way.
Many at times, my friends will burst in to discussion about studies in their school, and recite various formulae and/or chapters, and I listen to them, stupified, wondering how I don’t remember the the whole thing word by word, but instead only the jist. Why I don’t remember the Formulae, because I was given the handbook, in which it contained all, so that before the exam, I won’t waste time cramming up various formulae. As Sir Author Conan Doyle puts it so fittingly through Sherlock Holmes
“Our brain is like an attic, with limited space…Do not crowd it with information that can be easily found”
We have been repeatedly conditioned to follow and think in a pattern, on top of that we, by nature of being Indians, always so readily accept how things are and willingly compromise. And so easily, either we just don’t seem the problem at all or if, at all, we see, we just tend to find if someone already has a solution. For long, I have not seen anything that has been original.
The problem, of lack of originality, of finding a simple, easy and safe end, leads to lack of creativity. For we are conditioned since birth, to follow an example and not create one, to think in specified pattern instead to venture out in the open. I feel myself as a perfect example of this state and for long I have been trying to change. But with every day as it passes by, I realise, I am more afraid to take the risk, and instead follow the general beaten path, in order to achieve security.
We are in country, where by have been taught, not to make mistakes…and again.. I remeber something
“Those people, who don’t make mistakes, don’t usually make anything !!”
The reason, we don’t have a product, which is totally is ours, is simply because, we do not have an Idea, that is ours !! And we will so be until we change ourselves. We tout ourselves as a knowledge based economy, boasting ourselves having the biggest knowledge base in the world. But what is all this knowledge worth of, when it does not come up with an original idea of its own, but relies on others to define a course, on which they can follow, with eyes almost shut. We can as well might be called, Computers, who are good at calculating things, like we are, but are not intelligent, as we all know.
I saw Tare Zameen Par and thats a coincidence with similar theme… Nice blog compilation.
Good One with good thinking and thought provoking!!!
Nicely written.
Would like to ask what are your steps to overcome such an adversery? Because in the entire article you have only told about the problems… No where about the solutions to it????
Thanks Saravanan. Its good to hear that you liked whatever I have written.
Manohar, I do agree, that I have not specifically outlined any solutions, its just that, I feel our system of education need to be re-thought, and should start deviate from cramming and mugging up of facts to explore things with curiosity and experiments.
I am no expert at this, its just that, when I compare between certain things, and then go on to find out the reasons, I always come down to our system at the very beginning.
great job man
keep writing like this
my best wishes to you
We know that we have knowledge and can confidently claim too…but no idea where to channelize our energies…because we lack vision.We cannot take the responsibility of changing our previous generation’s views but we can still work it out at our individual levels.Why waiting for others to take a stand.Why not go against the stream even if it is for a minor cause.Why do we always need leaders to show us the path.We gave grown and matured with age and know where the problem is.Even if I take an unconventional step and stand by it…with time its definitely going to influence others around me too.We can start the change by giving the freedom of making decisions to our next generation.We can encourage our children to take the path which they can sicerely follow.If everyone of us starts to think in this way…i believe half of the problem will be solved.We dont have to ask others for solution…we have to find them ourselves and implement in our day to day life…because then only we can change the way we look at things.
Thanks Aditya, I will try my best to satisfy your appetite.
Neha: Well as you said, we need to channel our thoughts away from the norm. We have been stereotyped. And anyone is able to break that, that person is automatically an example for others !!
One of the best posts I’ve seen in a long time! Posted this at http://www.charchaa.com/creativity_a_sorry_state_of_india
[...] Creativity .. a sorry state of India [...]
There are still a few things left that Google can’t search, software can’t solve and mortals don’t understand. One such mystical thing is the perfect career. When it comes to something as important as your career, there is plenty of advice on offer and yet, there really is no sure shot at success.
can I ask you this one question? we don’t have a product, which is totally is ours- what do you mean why you say this.. can u please give an expl and explain
A global product is something that is recognized world over having quality and application. We don’t have a global product meaning, something which was totally ours. We did not have to copy ideas..or take technology from someone.
Something we gave to world, which no one had.
Being in IT industry, the post was written keeping in mind the state of a country which is the world’s biggest IT service provider but does not have a single IT product of it own.
But the concept can also easily be spread across the length and breadth of the kind of products. It took us exactly 101 years to come up with a car, that was totally Made in India. That was Tata Indica in 1999. Even now, Indica is no longer fully made with Indian might. (Now it has technology shared with Fiat). It was a car and nothing new.
We have so much of talent, but we cannot conceptualize a product which solves any problem, that currently is not solved.
will defi reply and justify that you are so wrong here! maybe your tae is vaild to a point but not comp
Creativity is one of the many adjectives that you can use to describe India’s contribution to the world… now each one us would have different definition of the word creativity also. For me creativity means ‘ability to create something with the resources available and with the limitations as well’. Development, innovation, invention of things/products/ideas that would get us recognition, appreciation and respect from across the world.
Now if you say that we are the biggest IT service provider yet we don’t have single IT product to boast about- don’t you see creativity here that we managed to see and tap the big business opportunity of managing IT for rest of the world- and yes, they can create because we facilitate! (Hotmail was developed by an Indian even if he was based in the US and then sold it to Microsoft, but sabeer Bhatia is an Indian mind and yes, is proud to be one too)
Maruti 800 may have been developed with Suzuki’s technology but the it was an Indian’s brain child to invent/create a family car with affordability (creation with someone else’s technology is not a sign of backwardness, it means we have the power to generate better things from someone else’s technology and btw Suzuki became a household names thanks to Maruti Udyog and also got to enter such a big Indian market- wasn’t it profitable for them- it was and still is)
Nano is brain child of an Indian Company- it doesn’t matter what technology it uses ( Indian or foreign) but it gave the world a product about which no one had thought about let alone create!
Jaipur foot (the prosthetic leg) again an Indian invention –we all know how beneficial it is for everyone and yes, people around the world benefit from it.
Rock garden- an Indian’s brain child- imagine Neck Chand managed to create so much out of waste material- now that’s what I call creativity! And it is recognized the world over….
The list is long, really long…..
When you say we are dependent on the others (research/ technology) I hope you realize that the world developed and enriched themselves by using our resources- when we were still not an independent country all our raw material. Minerals, resources were taken manufactured into products and sold back to us… so if we use benefit from the technologies and research done by them then I see it as a great example of thinker and creative mind
For me creativity = application
Please Note: We gave the world Zero ‘0’ based on which they developed everything. So they do owe it to us! And India laid the foundation of development across board (all fields) for rest of the world….
Maruti was making a car… only cheaper. Cheaper cars were already available in the world.. but because of the cost of importing them to India, they were not affordable..another factor …is Indian cost of raw materials and labour is cheaper.!!
We did nothing with maruti, that wasn’t already there. Hotmail was done by Indian, but when he was not India. That counts. Half of the world’s s/w would be done by Indians, but none of it is Indian. The brainchild is someone elses.
We rejoice when an NRI hits the space, and we claim it to be a victory of Indianess.
Why is it that we are not able to do anything for ourselves. Channelling our Labour and marketing it as cheap is not Creativity !!
So you don’t count creating solutions as creativity? If Maruti made a cheaper car which by the way is recognized world cover, that is not a big enough feat for you?
Is green revolution, white revolution, sliver revolution and many more such revolutions, not worth being examples of our becoming self sufficient country in terms of produces?
Is Jaipur foot, nano, rock garden not worthy to be mentioned as examples of creativity or you think there is someone else behind the success of these inventions as well?
Development of our Metro system which utilizes labour in abundance and gives an opportunity to thousands and more to earn their daily living not good enough example of creativity plus utility…
If kalpana Sharma, Sabeer Bhatia like to be known as Indians- is their an issue on that? We too have gone to space and come back… you remember Rakesh Sharma’s speech from the space- when he was asked bharat wahan sey kaisa dihkta hai- he replied Sare Jahan Sey achha; isn’t that creativity?
Please don’t forget the fact other countries are much advanced than we are because either they got their Independence much before us ( US) or ruled us ( England)
And yes, if you go and shop in the US and other countries- you will get stuff and clothes on which labels read ‘Made in India’ isn’t that Creativity??? Then I think I don’t know the definition of creativity and I rest my case.
I believe creativity is different from mass production or manufacturing. Yes, Nano is an example of creativity, because they tried to do things differently. But Maruti is not, simply because they did the same things in a bit cheaper way.
Metro is not an example of creativity. No, it is something that already available world over, we simply have used it to solve our mess. We did not improve on anything in using Metro. Infact, I believe we have made strategical blunders in drafting plans for Metro.
I have no problems in NRIs being called Indians, but I have problem with people who residing in India think that people like Sabeer Bhatia are people among us working for us. No, they are working for the US.
BTW, Kalpana Chawla did not create anything, she was just an astronaut. Neither did Rakesh Sharma, for that matter.
The object of the post is not self-sufficient country (and we are NOT self-sufficient). The object of the post is for people to looking within ourselves and understand even though we are capable, why is we are not doing anything worthwhile. We are only living in the shadows of the Bigs like US and EU.
Statement, that we were colonised and are poor is just a lame excuse. Both Japan and Germany were destroyed after WWII (almost same time we got our Independence) and I believe there is have huge difference in the development that is in Japan/Germany and India.
Again, I would emphasize, Creativity is much more different than mass-producing things at a cheaper, using somebody else pre-defined methods.
I hope you are aware that Metro solved the commuting problem of lakhs of Delhi ppl like me who before were running after buses and half our time was spent on the roads… chaos will happen because they are working with million limitations around them- I think it is a commendable achievement for us and ya… India has now one of the most advanced metros in the world…
I have no problems in NRIs being called Indians, but I have problem with people who residing in India think that people like Sabeer Bhatia are people among us working for us. No, they are working for the US.- point taken their contributions are not while they work in India and we should not take credit for it…
But the astronauts whether it is Kalpana Chawla or Rakesh Sharma did a lot of research that’s why they went to space- sorry I have not read their research papers hence will not be able to site examples.. But it is not Just it is a big deal
I prefer the tag of developing rather than developed at least we can challenge ourselves every day to achieve and strive for more… I agree Japan and Germany faced the wars around the same time when we got our Independence. These countries were ‘ mind you I said were’ much ahead of us. Sadly that is not the case, our economy and development across the board continues to happen. While Japan’s economy has crashed and Germany too is facing a very hard time, they are not able to generate enough jobs for their people (qualified), the economy is in terrible shape. The only big thing they can boast of is automobile industry which also is facing a lot of hardships. While we on the other hand with our minds have been able to set up a lot of small/ medium/large scale industries (all result of creativity).
Creativity is much more than mass production- but the point is if mass production is meeting requirements of the society keeping the affordability factor in mind then that’s the idea of creativity- something from which the masses benefit and not just a limited section of people.
If I may give another example. –Dr. Devi shetty, the renowned cardiologist has set up this amazing Rs. 5 health Insurance scheme for the poor and under privileged people in Karnataka. A scheme meant for the masses and benefited by the massed.
I appreciate the points listed by you. Thanks for creating a platform where we all can exchange our views. (and yes, for me spaces like these are also examples of creativity)
No, Delhi’s Metro is not among the most advanced. And whatever ‘advanced’ technology we has been brought in from outside the country (South Korea, Japan and many other countries!!)
And if you think Germany/Japan and other such countries “were” much ahead of us, I would say we better have a more closer look. They still are much much ahead. And a big NO for our economy and development. If you think economy is Sr. Ambani brother becomes richer, then you are wrong. We still have the World’s highest number of people which are still below poverty line. We are still in a age where the meaning of being literate is to be able to write your name. Contrary to our popular misconception, we are still very much couples with rest of the world and more importantly the US. Most of the so called economic boom you are saying was from FII investing in our country. IT industry, which itself accounts for a huge chunk of our GDP, is totally dependent on outside the country.
What is development where by we are mired by corruption?? How come when TATA Telecom launches Blackberry it brings out security issues, yet Airtel and Hutch/Vodaphone had been giving Blackberry services for over an year. How come our politicians still get votes by promising free TVs sets, electricity and rice?? But I guess I am moving to a different topic of debate.
But if you are saying we are developing by a very rapid pace, I would ask you to classify in which category does countries like South Korea, Malayasia come??
We are so happy about the Rs 5 rupee insurance which will cater for basic of medication. I wonder, what you comment on other countries which have free medical health cover for the basic things??
BTW, did you know, an Indian is the most taxed person in the world. Where by we are taxed at every stage of the production/purchase cycle?? Where does this all go when I still face 10 hrs a day power cut, 2 hours for 2 days a week water supply and pot-holed ridden roads??
I think it is about time we started to open our eyes and face the reality instead of just sitting and watching the Rosy picture which the machine of government propaganda has been showing us for years.
Kid.. try looking at India from a different perspective, trust me! we truly are blessed to be born in the country…
anway Like i said.. I rest my case…
it is a great to see that you want to challenge yourself and the others to open their eyes and can I also add mind to think, create, contribute to our development…. I thank you again for creating this platform for discussion. Looking forward to reading more such thought provking posts!
I guess, I started to look at the country from a different perspective and that’s why the post came up. And yes, I am proud to be an Indian, but that does not mean I turn a blind eye on the flaws and places where we can improve.
Point Taken, sir!
Ps: do you have fan club??? can I have the link to it?
I am not in a league where I would have fans !!
have a great week ahead!
However dissipating, follow your thinking about the lack of creativity in India to its end. I did the same many years ago. Perhaps you will come to this approximate conclusion:
What we praise as creativity in people or societies are riddled with biases. Over the centuries, no one society or people set out to be creative deliberately. Mostly, they were being deliberate about one or two things such as religion and social status. Shifting fortunes, accidental but happy coincidences; in other words perfectly random happenings can sometimes combine to create wealth, educational vibrancy, etc. We, the later generations attribute it to an inherent merit, which it is not.
In other words, there are few general rules such as hard work, honest work, curiousity, etc., that promote creativity. However, success is mainly due to random social happenings that combine with basic rules.
Can one plan to be creative? I think not. We can only be truthful in our approach to general inquiry in our lives. Leave it to others to attach labels calling it creative or dull.
So, continue in your musings. Just make sure you are truthful to yourself. You will find the true answer.