The Originals

In the space I’ve allowed myself to be, there is a spoken demand from the consumers for originality. Or authenticity. Un-precedency. Novelty. Never before. Like coronavirus. New and shiny. Yet I still see the formula of Bollywood masala films being repeated year on year, and the consumers are happily accepting it. What do the consumers really want? Can they take a stance on certain divided matters? Do they even have to make choices? Should creativity grow from the demand side of the world or supply side? I have a lot of questions.

I tried to draw like Nicoleta Anton, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa

On Instagram, I observe that if a food creator puts out content labelling it as “authentic”, you better be sure to get a “not authentic/this is not how we natives do it” in the top 5 comments. Do I feel bad for the creator? No, I am not in the food space of the internet so I don’t understand how this goes down the line. Do I feel sad here? Yes. For the creator as well as the audience.

If I were to put out a video about food, let’s say rajma chawal, 100% I’m going to make the recipe that is made in my house. Why? Because I have seen it being made the same way in 10 different households of my family, 10 neighbor families, and the 3 go-to eateries we order our food from. It feels like home to me. It tastes authentic to me. To gain traction on my content, I won’t blink an eye and would add “authentic” to it.

Can you really be original? In my humble opinion, I don’t think so. Surely it is coming from someone who doesn’t think of herself as a creative person or an innovator. But observing people around me, consuming this all information on the internet does support this. People who have made it big in their fields, have started on their success journey by getting inspired by something already happening around them, having a eureka moment reading a book or meeting a person.

Someone like me, who is publishing her third writing piece on the internet, I cannot speak for the whole creator/artist/writer community. But at the place I’m on, I don’t feel that bad about getting inspired from others. Sometimes, the final product does come out like a sad rip off. Sad because people label it as “wannabe XYZ” even when you did not intend it to be.

But should that stop people from creating? No. Nothing should. Ideas, inspiration, art, thoughts, all are fluid. All are meant to be brought into the world. Now that could be me, you, both of us, someone else or 1000 others.

Is it soon to call myself a writer? This is my third official piece. That too a journal only. Do I have to make that call to call myself a writer? Or do the readers like you make this call? Demand side or supply side?

I’m easily confused. Even more easily influenced. I think, I should just call myself “a live-r”, because I live.

Sad little live-r,

Sanyasinni