JOIN USHow powerful creativity is. How forceful the urge to give expression to it — Life is never ever lasting, yet the ‘ever lasting’ nature of creativity makes the temporariness of life a mere term. The harmony and sublimity of creativity make people forget their physical pain and dejection.
When Dr Nirupama’s loving, dutiful daughter-in-law invited me to attend the launch of her 114th book, I had not imagined how emotionally over-whelming, how harmonising, how humbling the experience would be. It is said that disease, atrophy, pain and suffering are only to the ‘lesser self, the spirit has a dormant energy that upholds itself during crises.
I saw that phenomenon in Dr Nirupama, a well-known erudite bi-lingual writer of Karnataka, who despite losing her voice completely and fighting renal failure, stands as dignified and as serene as a mountain summit. She, who was a much loved orator, is now eloquent in silence, profoundly creative in pain, drawing inspiration from her ever fecund inner resources. She had written the book ‘Sahityada Sobagu’ intermittently, between hospital visits and dialysis procedure.
Amidst a vibrantly excited gathering of writers, the book launch happened very solemnly in her house. It was a picture of absolute love and understanding, respect and empathy — the way her family members planned the whole event. It was a life-sized celebration befitting a prolific writer’s stature.
The grace and courage, the boundless enthusiasm I found in a teenager is another example of the power of creativity and how it removes the mental blocks to forge ahead with intense virtuosity. She is afflicted by cerebral palsy and is wheel-chair bound. She can use only the little finger of her left hand — rest of her limbs do not move.
She is beautiful to look at and has a beautiful heart too. She is one of the twins (other twin, her sister, is absolutely normal). When she had sent me a write-up, I was struck by the deep love she had expressed for her twin-sister, and what made this piece of hers so special was — she, apart from authoring it had typed the whole article herself - with just that one obeying little finger of her left hand.
This bright youngster had proved that she could rise way above sibling jealousy, even when life so cruelly had gifted opposites to them — physical perfection to one and utter disability to another. I felt proud and privileged to carry her work in our literary website. I had sent her a note — ‘twins are twice as much to love, two blessings from above.’