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Saturday, January 1, 2011

The mad way..

An absolute rant coming up......please switch off immediately if you desire this year of your life to be sane.....

Duality, is an inherent quality that pervades through everything. Early civilizations realised this, revered this and preached this. Well, not that I have the brains to teach anything like that. But I want to help twist this "Duality" to another thing. The quality and appreciation of "Genius".

People frown at the fact that I appreciate "firangi" works more than what was done in India. While this is rubbish and holds piss in its pouch, I have always had a nagging pinprick each time I talk about excellence in India.

One of the defining quality of excellence works of art and architecture in India, is the unflinching dependence of the established and the general expansion on scale on existing works. So, better works, yes. But pushing the envelope and inventing, hardly. This restraint, alignment with established values is an obstacle to greater glory. And this despite, civilizations in the sub continent reaching their peak when the Europeans and Americans were just murdering barbarians.

On the other hand, I look at art and architecture from Italy, France. What these countries did, was allow their artists to run mad. Genius took centerstage. Producing fantastical pieces. But also continuously inventing. Going beyond what was thought as possible. To this day, Italians are considered eccentric and whimsical and have an undenied aesthetic ability. The French still produce some of the best architectural wonders. Refer to : Ferrari, the Millau bridge.

What I am getting at, what i want to point to is, allowing genius its freedom. Of course, unbridled freedom comes at a price. What happens if a lunatic is allowed free reign? Hitler, Napoleon, Nero etc etc. The list could go on. A two edged sword. But look at what comes out. The buildings of Renaissance period Europe. The Impressionist era. Not just Europe. The Mayan culture. The Byzantines.

This is the ancient. The past. The history books. Look at the world even today. Places where talent is allowed its freedom, produces great things. Higher you go , harder the fall. Yes. And that is why the restraint and control we practise in India, has a higher probability of success. But how much of this success is immortal? It's an honest question.

So what comes out at the end of the funnel. The distillation, the conclusion, the lesson that I want to throw out there is, be mad. Physical limitations do not matter. They just do not. Cause more often than not, out of this madness, comes out the work of genius.

For me, Filipo Brunelleschi epitomises this art of going crazy to produce immortal genius.



Ride the madness in 2011. Have an insane time.

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