Welcome back to my world!
It was an early Sunday morning, while jogging through the
pristine landscape of my favourite Cubbon Park in Bangalore that I chanced to
happen to almost wiz past a wall that displayed a series of beautifully painted
watercolor illustrations mounted on simple black rectangular cardboards. I
immediately slowed down and came to an absolute halt. Creatively done paintings
in pleasing colours, hues and shades spread breathtakingly across a large expanse of the wall. Impressed, I just had to
the meet the artist and searchingly looked around till I finally located him
lovingly caressing a couple of his creations!
Lakshman
Ganiger was a 21 year old passionate young artist whose welcoming eyes twinkled
with enthusiasm while his warm smile spread charmingly across his face as I
introduced myself. He was happy to talk to me for a while and we settled
ourselves down on the grass verge close to the Bandstand.
Lakshman
and his family hailed from a small village named Kurchi close to Belgam in the
north of Karnataka. Born to a poor family, his father was an arts teacher and,
quite obviously, he seemed to have become a chip of the old block. While as a
child he had dabbled with his father’s paints, he had never taken his talent
seriously till much later when he realised that formal education in any other
subject than art was not his cup of tea.
While
as a young child artist he had won several prizes for his paintings in local competitions,
it was when he won the prestigious Pratibha Puruskar Award at the age of 15
when he seriously started contemplating on furthering his natural dexterity in
his inborn forte. It was his father who eventually encouraged him to enrol
himself in a course in Visual Arts for a better understanding of this medium.
As
we sat engrossed in conversation, I realized it was a wonderful journey I had
embarked upon with him: a depiction of what art meant to an artist. To Lakshman
art was about totally dissolving oneself into ones creative existence within
the mind which ultimately would catalyse the process of crafting the definitive
creation. Painting, unlike most other forms of art has no sound or vibrations.
It only has a visual impact and communiqué. And this is why he believes that
painting is one of the most powerful mediums of self-expression.
In
addition, Lakshman also believes that there is an artist in everyone. It all
depends how deep you seek within yourself to find it. He also believes that art
is a natural talent and one should not entirely depend upon a teacher to
nurture it. One should not imitate or follow another artist’s style of
expression or else one will lose one’s own individualistic articulation and
will merely become a clone of another.
Apart
from his passion for art, Lakshman also has a strong faith in the fact that
everyone can achieve their dreams no matter what it takes. While in the
National Cadet Corps during his teens, he had noticed that many of his
colleagues who dreamed of finally joining the Defence Services gave up their
aspirations because of personal or monetary pressures. This led him to create an
association which he termed as the ‘Roaries’ whose tagline was: Stop killing
your Dreams! Through this association, he and his team members have helped the youth
to take their first few steps onto the trail of finally achieving their desired
goals in life, including a future Olympics hopeful in rifle shooting!
Lakshman’s true concept of Leadership is to be
absolutely conscious of every moment that one exists in. And not only to be conscious
but to exclusively exist in each moment and attempt to create each and every
moment into a masterpiece of one’s expression!
Finally,
as the sun rose higher into the morning sky, I asked Lakshman what his final
goal in life could conceivably be. His eyes took on an expression of mixed
enthusiasm and determination as he looked at me and said, “I want to reach my
highest possibility as an artist and yet I have no idea how or when that will
ever happen. But I will never ever give up and will keep practising till the
day I achieve it!”
And
then with a twinkle in his eyes he further added, “But the real question is:
when I finally achieve my highest possibility, will that be the ultimate or will
there be an even higher possibility to achieve?!”
Lakshman
Ganiger. Age 21 years. In search of his highest possibility. I looked up at the
Universe and smiled…
Anand
K Nair
Leadership Coach. Motivational
Speaker. Life Counsellor. Author. Business Consultant.
Founder,
Anand
Nair Leadership Foundation
Email:
anand@anandknair.com
www.facebook.com/anandnairleadershipinitiatives
Author
of: The Sledgehammer's Edge
