Thank you Artists, for 2020 : Blog # 351

 

Thank you Artists, for 2020. 

I have heard many wise people asking “What is the use or purpose of artists in this world? Do they add any value? Aren’t they just having fun at work? Can’t they take up something more ‘productive?”.

        I felt 2020 was an answer to all the above questions and much more. Imagine having a sound, healthy body and mind. From the first breath till the last, one utilizes this body and mind for the benefit of oneself and for others. Yet, when bidding final goodbyes, one might wonder if they have lived their life at all, if their soul is filled with a sense of contentment.

For that sense of fulfilment, I feel one needs moments of wonder, admiration and happiness in one’s life making the soul feel that it had a worthwhile journey and that is exactly what an artist does – enrich our souls while we go through the tempestuous voyage of our lives. 

When the pandemic struck and all of us were forced into a lockdown, there was an initial euphoria of being able to spend time with oneself and family. Many of us found time to bring back to life, our forgotten hobbies and passions. Some of us took to fitness like never before and some others, took to food like never again.

However, once a couple of months passed, the reality of having to face one’s life without having any other distraction whatsoever kicked in. We gradually realized the work, office commute, tea breaks, work meetings, office politics were all helping in their own little ways to take out minds off our own magnifying glare down at our lives.

In those moments of despair, came in artists – to calm our nerves and soothe our souls. I know I speak for much of humanity when I pen down the below words to thank artists for being the saviors of humanity.

If we did not have music to listen, to help us uplift ourselves from the abyss of worries and to celebrate the short spikes of exuberance throughout the lockdown, we would have become imprisoned in our own deafening silence.

If we did not have movies to watch and get absorbed into the magical stories and the worlds the brilliant directors and talented actors created, our own world might have crushed our spirits. Although momentarily, we were invested in the worries and lives of those characters we watched which helped us forget our own tribulations.

If the dancers weren’t kind enough to share with the world, the grace and poise that the human body is capable of, we wouldn’t have lost our thoughts to wonder and admiration. Those moments helped us understand the talent and beauty that humanity is capable of creating, once they apply their minds. I must admit, when no one was watching, I might have broken into a step or two with as much grace of that of a Polar bear.

If the stand-up comedians did not observe the world for its fallacies and translated their thoughts into a smile on our face, we would have forgotten how to cheer amidst all the gloom and doom of 2020, the annus horibilis.

If the painters were not kind enough to move their brushes at will and showed us how beautiful this world of colors is, we might have got lost in the grey of gloom.

If the chefs did not cook up the most imaginative of dishes, we might have forgotten to develop a taste to the new normal of the world.

If the writers did not spin a tale using the abundance of their words, we will not have had the comfort of escaping in to the worlds of their protagonists. We would not have been able to learn from the greatness and more importantly, the fallacies of their characters. 

Thank you, Artists, for being who you are and for helping us becoming who we can, in a time of misery and melancholy.

Arun Babu

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