Imagination is the most advanced technology that we have today. What is equally true is that technology today is also as imaginative… and so there is obviously no lockdown for an imaginative use of technology if one adds a bit of technology to imagination!
The doodler within me is forever waiting to sprint to converse with a diverse set of ideas and convince them that they can also exist meaningfully as doodles. And so the lockdown phase finds me blogging in text, transforming ideas into little chunks of podcasts(they’re still waiting to reach out) and gliding the S-pen on the reasonably large Galaxy Note screen to draw, sketch, and paint.
Burst of Colours on my Note
‘Isn’t this difficult?’ asked a friend once, and added, ‘I erase more than I draw and the page usually wears and tears sooner than I expect.’
Hmmm… I told him that my page exists in the digital universe and is immortal in many ways, if this is what matters. I then added that though using one’s finger-tip is permissible, an artistic nirvana is possible only with the S-pen.
Artistic Nirvana with the S-Pen
Life, according to me, is what flows out of the tapering end of my S-pen… and in my hands it is what a wizard’s wand means to Harry Potter. My wand dives and brings up water colours, oil paints, chalks, charcoal, pencils, pens, markers, brushes, rollers, palette knives, tones, and textures. There are symmetries, strokes, and guides that pop up to help. All I need to do is to let my imagination and the technology of Galaxy Note merge seamlessly to create. ‘The power of technology,’ I said, ‘helps me bring my imagination to life.’
Let Life’s Imagination Run Wild
So far as my lockdown time-table is concerned, let me just say that I don’t have any. I have realized that flowing with the moment is probably the most immersive emotion that there is… and this is how I was able to convincingly say that the skies over Delhi are now clearer and bluer. One evening as I stood on my seventh floor terrace near Gole market in central Delhi, I aimed my camera in all directions and clicked a number of picture… and realized soon enough that a reasonable zoom had me staring at Qutub Minar that is around 14 km away as the crow flies. Astounding, isn’t it?
There is always one or the other immersive moment waiting to be beckoned and embraced. I believe it is the right time to hug as many varying tasks and skills as this may help us finally to discover what it is that we want to stay on in love with.
[Arvind Passey is the Editor of The Education Post and writes on a range of topics including technology, travel and environment. His short-stories and poetry have been published in several journals, anthologies, and magazines in UK and India. He wrote this piece at the request of Samsung Newsroom India]