Art

Well to me, it always sounded like an activity which is clearly meant for people who don’t have any work or use it as a method to pass time and show off that they have bank accounts full of money. However, my perception towards art, which was just limited to drawing and painting drastically changed last year. I was planning to buy a birthday present for a girl I once loved but my mind was not ready to help. I was lying down on my hostel room’s bed a month before her birthday and started thinking about what should I give her. My mind with the internet ran to a series of options, from a ring, a dress, a teddy bear, a flower bouquet, a pair to boots, a novel, a show piece which portrayed love, a painting and some other cute silly tacky stuff. I started to analyze. A ring or a teddy bear is a very common idea and any boy would go to a shop and buy it, a dress or boots was out of option as we were just good friends and I was not her daddy, novel can be boring and lastly a show piece and a painting are the lamest gifts I could have thought of.
Disheartened, I tried to sleep but could not. A great advantage of hostel is that your friends are available to you all 24 hours. I got up, wore some woolens and went to Ankur’s room. It was 2 am and as expected he was still awake, playing counter strike. Informing him about the ‘life & death’ situation, I looked at him for solutions. He came up with some but those didn't help. It was a low moment for two Bros, who believe to create rather than buy. Besides, there was no idea of what to create either. After searching on internet for more than an hour and not finding anything creative, beautiful and aesthetic, Ankur like all other addicts logged on his Facebook account. He was going through his notifications, when my eyes went to an ad on that page. It was some random T-shirt ad saying “Personalized T-shirts”. I finally got the idea. I would make her a T-shirt which she could not buy from any market. It was 4 am after everything was decided; only some hard work was left to be done, so I went to sleep, quite relaxed.

The next task was to search for a good company or dealer. I found one near my university. When contacted him, he was ready to print but the problem was that he only printed T-shirts with a small photo in the center which too was not of good quality and even the fabric was cheap. The search continued for about a week through internet, phone calls and personal meetings but I couldn't find any who would agree to my terms. I needed a fully printed T-shirt, not just a small photograph in the center, plus it was just a single order and no big supplier was ready to take it, they wanted a bulk order with minimum 100 pieces. When my hopes were low, my dear friend Ankur came up with good news. His father, who worked in a government organization, was giving a bulk order for printed T-shirts for his workers to one the suppliers in Delhi. Ankur’s father was an open minded man, so we asked him to help and he happily agreed. With his reference, we called the supplier who accepted all our conditions; he had to as he couldn't afford to lose a major order from the government. After a few meetings, everything was fixed. It was time for some action.

Nights after nights were booked for the ‘ultimate gift’ as we called it. Ankur was the best guy I knew for Photoshop and he without losing his temperament worked late nights for the gift I would give to the girl I loved. But that’s what real Bros do. Our days were already booked for various classes and rehearsals, thus nights were the only option left that we could use for our creative work. So the concept was that we would use her already uploaded photos on facebook and put them together to form a beautiful collage and that would be sent for printing. But the results were not satisfactory. It didn't look too good.

After a long discussion which included serious talks, jokes and even fights; we came to a solution. It was to go out and explore some creative places; maybe we could get an idea. We headed to various art galleries in Hauz Khas and Noida, some old monuments and even a handicraft fair. To be true, handicrafts fair was of no use, except we spotted some really pretty girls there. But in total, it was a great experience. I had now started to observe creativity and deep thinking behind everything. ‘I was the new Sherlock in town’ (a little exaggeration intended). A number of photos were taken and the idea was finally in. Photoshop has some very detailed features in which layers after layers could be overlapped. So we formed a collage of the photos taken from the trips and it came out beautifully. Then I chose her best picture and placed it on that collage covering major portion of the poster and other two pictures that were merged with the collage. One on them colored to old style red shades and it started appearing like a painting of a princess hung on a wall. The other appeared from the ground in various blue shades in the ‘delusion form’. A space on the top left side was used to quote one of her status updates. Some hidden texts were also engraved in the collage that was to be discovered with time. After three more sessions and various editing, color & style revisions, clipping at sides and final polishing, the great poster was done.

I went to the dealer and hand it over to him specifying the dimensions of the T-shirt and the poster. A week later after about 30 phone calls, few emails and three more visits to Delhi, he finally handed over the packet to me just two day before her birthday. Nervous about how it has turned out, I slowly opened it. It was one of the most satisfying moments of my life. I was simply flabbergasted when I had a first look on it. I wish I could show it to you but it requires a private permission, which I will not get. So I can just try express it in words. It created a true belief in me for Art. I now try to think creatively rather than theoretically.
When I showed it to Ankur, he too was very happy. We packed it, which too was a clever design. It didn't gave any hints whether there was a T-shirt inside or something else or anything at all. The day finally came, I presented it to her. First she thought there is nothing in it, but then I told her to open it alone at her place. I was in mess having dinner when she called. “Oye! It’s so beautiful. I just loved it.” were her first few words, the conversation continued for a little while. When it was over, I was contented. After more than a month of hard work, liters of fuel, sleepless nights and a big hole in my pocket, I got the reaction I was longing for. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it.

This whole mission made me realize two things. One is about the ‘Bro code or True Friendship’. Other is about ‘Art’, for me it was this T-shirt or maybe Love, for you it might be something else. ‘Anything we do with passion that we enjoy doing, to create something ravishing, unique and beautiful is how I would define Art.’ It can be anything not just painting or drawing. It can be a striking new mobile phone, a mesmerizing landscape, a beautiful flower, a computer tablet, a stunning car or an attractive girl. There is art in everything. Steve jobs believed that a good product is created with the intersection of Art and Science. I never fully agreed before I actually experienced it. Finally, being a science student all I can say about Art is that Science is never complete without Art and Art just gets better when comes along with Science.