Almost a sapling

"I find it somehow melancholy, the way these artists have to work. I mean, it takes a couple of months to make the idols alone. Then comes that painting, the details, the designs. While I watched them at work, I observed how minute the details were. How each brow was shaped, how the little strands of hair slipped into the forehead, how the red shell shape was designed on Ganesh's trunk, how the third eye stood in its place, silent and all-seeing. The brows, the lashes, the lips, the nose, the folds of skin on the neck... I mean, every detail is painted with so much love and devotion."

"But isn't it their profession? Isn't that what they get paid for? Isn't it how they make their living?"

"Everything is carved so intricately. They wouldn't do it for the money alone, would they? I would like to believe they have an attachment towards the God they paint. They have a deep sense of reverence for the deity."

"But on what basis do you believe all this?"

"Putting in months of toil for a Goddess that will stand upon a stage for only five days, for the watchers who'll mostly have their eyes closed for the few seconds they'll get to spend inside the pandals, jostling the huge crowds, for observers who will hardly see, don't you think there's remarkable will power needed to persist with all the intricacies in the face of all these odds? As for the watchers, they'll only vaguely remember what they saw and would later say, 'Yes, this one was good' and so on, without remembering exactly why. And what do you think will happen to all the carefully chosen colours they paint with? All their hard work will dissolve into the muddy waters of the Ganges. So, how does it all fit in?"

"Well, don't forget that this is not a festival that's overlooked. There are loads of prestigious awards to be won. Each aspect of the Pujas has a prize associated with it. There is a lot of money as well and accolades here too. So, it is a competition that trickles down to the artisans and would in turn determine the pay they get to take home."

"You have to see them working and you'll know. It is not because they have someone watching over their shoulder that they will do all this. They do this because their forefathers had done so; they keep that tradition alive. They are proud of what they do. Because they care. To them, the idea and even literally, the scale is larger than life. They do it out of inspiration. Is that so hard for you to believe? Does everyone need to have an ulterior motive for everything they do? Or be scared that someone keeps an eye on them?"

"I mean, don't you think they envy the rich people in the city - people who draw fat paychecks? Do you think it matters to them if the rich people care about the jobs they hold? It's a tragedy of the human condition to want what we do not have. You have your money, but a job you don't care for, so you long to be like them. They have something they care about but no money, so they long to be like you."

"Don't you think that after having seen the sunnier side, as you would call it, and realizing that it is far from sunny, one is in a better position to appreciate what is real?"

"You are getting too carried away. How much of their reality do you know? Are you aware of the practical challenges these people would have in their day to day existence. You've had your job for years, seen its highs and lows and now you come and see these people for five minutes and jump into all your conclusions? Your mind needed some free space to prance about, it idealized a situation it hardly understood. To act on the basis of an irrational whim is not sustainable."

"I know you are talking about percentages and rules. But do you think it matters, those little pains of day to day life, when you know there is a larger goal that drives you? It is an idea that inspires you to move forward, an idea that is delicate like the mist, the more tightly you try to grasp it within your palm, the most easily it will slip away. You are inspired by something that cannot be defined, something you know is larger than you. You surrender to this idea...When we are truly inspired, the practical difficulties only fade away."

"In the beginning everyone thinks they are an exception to the rule. That's only in the beginning."

"Many great things have been done on what you'd call a whim."

"More foolish things have been done upon a whim."

"I know what I'm saying. And there'll always be cynics and romantics."

"Still, give it some more time."

"I knew you'd say that. But there isn't always a lot of time."


Just in case, here's a bit more perspective.