DARE TO TAKE THE UNCONVENTIONAL PATH AND SEE THE DIFFERENCE

Recently, co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak said that Indians lack creativity. This made many of us see red. But didn’t he hit the nail on the head? What is creativity? It’s one’s ability to think differently, wrote psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung in a letter to his mentor Sigmund Freud.

Elaborating on it in today’s parlance, it is the ability to think out of the box; the courage to tread the untrodden path.

American poet Robert Frost summed it up beautifully in his oft-quoted, poem, The Road not taken, as, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less travelled by, / And that has made all the difference.” We lack creativity, when we are scared of taking the road less travelled by. We enjoy the security of a conventional job and stop growing and exploring, which lead to the end of creativity. When my dad wanted me to become a doctor, I told him that I wanted to study languages and become a full-time writer. Today, I earn my livelihood by writing for world’s premier publications and I feel blissfully happy from within. Since Indians bring up their kids in an overprotective manner, when they grow up, forget to harness their individualistic creativity. They lose sight of their innate talents and follow the beaten avenues. Why don’t we dare to break the glass ceiling? The times are changing and we should change, too, to show the world that Indians are a creative bunch.