This world hates artists

Swimming against the tides

The title is not there to seek your attention or to hook you up to my words. This is not LinkedIn.

I have been feeling anger within me for various reasons. The only sentence that summed up my bottled emotions is the one in the title.

But Rishabh how can you say this? People love music, dance, poetry, films and books.

Sure they do. It’s like the old saying - भगत सिंह तो सबको चाहिए, पर अपने नहीं पड़ोसी के घर में
Translates to - Everyone wants Bhagat Singh but not in their homes.

I feel it translates the same for artists. We all want music, film, books and good art but we don’t want our sons and daughters to indulge in the creative field. The biggest hypocrisy is that support for an artist is directly proportional to the amount of success they get. People feel second-hand proud in telling their peers if they happen to know a very successful singer or an actor whereas very few want to associate themselves with an emerging one.

The creative life is a rebellion against everything that society pushes down our throats. Artists need slowness, time, leisure, meditation, community, solitude and space. Everything that capitalism and corporations despise.

It took me 27 years of my life to be able to say to myself that I will now work towards becoming a writer. I toiled for years to earn an income, studied for hours to learn how to manage it well, risked all of my savings and invested it to beat inflation and now I stand on firm ground to be able to live the creative life for another few years.

Alas, society hates it, someone wanting to live off their truth, experience, solitude and freedom. As long as people see one another running the same way they do, the society stands undisturbed but when an individual decides to carve their path, somehow it affects the entire collective who fall prey to their insecurities and fears and dump them all on this courageous little person.

It is tremendously difficult to live like an artist. You are always in fight or flight mode. What makes it even more difficult is that usually, the fight is against the people “WHO LOVE YOU”.

Family, friends, partners, relatives, and cousins all participate in wanting the brainwashed artist to come back to reality, earn an income, marry, have a child and participate in the programmed way of life.

My words spew anger today and it is required. I am glad I am writing on a computer or I would have gladly broken a few pen nibs.

Have you faced something like this as a creative person or an individual? Feel free to express your anger here. This is a safe space.

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Last weekend I co-created an immersive walking pilgrimage for a few community members. I held a few spaces and thoroughly enjoyed talking about writing and the process of nature immersion. I rode to Dharamshala on my bike. From there, we all travelled to Kareri together. Kareri is known for the Kareri Lake trek but we went to another remote trek a couple of hours from the Kareri village.

The weather was mostly pleasant with hailstorms and rains on the day of returning from the trek. I swam in glacial cold water with my friends and had beautiful conversations along the way. No photographs would do justice to the beauty I saw there but here’s one of my favourites :)

I am holding another writing space this weekend!

Creative Writing Laboratory (7th Week)
Creative Writing Laboratory is an online intimate and safe space designed for writers and creatives seeking inspiration and connection.

Register here.

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As a feature of all my newsletters, I will be sharing one song, one book, one plant-based meal, one film/video that inspired me, and some photographic updates from my life.

• I am reading “What Makes You Not a Buddhist” A very interesting commentary on what counts as Buddhism and what doesn’t. What makes it all the more interesting is that it is written by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, a celebrated Buddhist scholar and filmmaker.

• I made Bhindi again but this time it tasted better. I love that I now know basic cooking and have reached a stage where I can afford to experiment with a few recipes to make them suit my style.

• Two of my favourite artists, Abdul Hannan and Kaavish together worked on a Coke Studio song. It is brilliant and I have been listening to it the past few days.

• Lastly, here are a few photographs I took on the trek.

Thank you for your time! If you like what I share, do share it with your friends and family. Hope to see you in the space I am facilitating this week.

Hope your week was fine too! Wishing good health and lots of love to everyone.

Have a lovely week ahead :)