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Hardest thing for me to do is, reading the mind that is not there – Al Koran, the mind reader

How often are we really there?

Imagine yourself at the coffee shop with your dear friend at the table sitting next to you. Assume it is one of those odd hours when the shop is practically empty. So technically it is just the two of you. And yet he / she waves his or her hand in your face or snap the fingers just to get your attention. Then you realize, for a short while, you were not there.

The culprit is the conscious mind.

So any practice that would promote silencing the constant chatter of the conscious mind or ‘being in the moment’ is welcome.

For that

1. A New Age guru would recommend you to do meditation or yoga
2. A therapist would recommend you to lose yourself in an activity that you love most say, swimming, dancing, workout … in order to regain yourself.

But how about an activity that dates back to prehistoric times, and yet universally appealing. An activity that is so old that, in its time even language was not evolved.

I didn’t mean Sex. Sorry to have disappointed you. I meant drawing.

You don’t have to go in search of caves to do your paintings. In the comfort of your home, on the couch, with just a paper and pencil you can start to doodle. When you doodle there is no purpose, no standards to gauge by and no critic looking over your shoulder to judge it to be right or wrong.

What can be easier than that? And it costs very little.

Surprising that this advice comes from me who considers himself a practical man, who thinks any form of human activity should be directed towards a purpose. I even wrote a post earlier titled ‘Why are we doing this anyway?‘

While a modern art or graffiti on the wall would drive me crazy, a civil construction drawing, or machine assembly drawing, a part drawing would always look elegant to me. For they have a purpose. I used to think such creations of Pablo Picasso as a sheer waste of time. Even more frustrating for me is to see art critics giving several interpretations for one abstract painting.

All that was until I saw Picasso in action, making sketches in real time; in one of those BBC documentaries titled ‘All in the mind’ (Secret of Drawing, Episode 3).

Picking up a sketch pen, he walks towards the easel like a robot or a man under a spell. With a blank sheet of paper staring him in the face, he starts to draw. First it starts with a dot or a single line and a few lines later (before you know it) the sketch is ready.

I said to myself, “Oh my God!”

It was one of those divine moments when creation takes place. You can sense the sub-conscious mind expressing itself freely and directly on paper, keeping the conscious mind out of the loop. 


If seeing Picasso in action is too much trouble for you, (I would highly recommend you see all the four episodes of the BBC documentary the Secret of Drawing ) you can choose to see your five year old at home or the kid in the neighborhood totally immersed in drawing.

I remember once there was a discussion about why those UPS white board ads are so mesmerizing. The powers of the narrative, the white background, the uncertainty as to what happens next were all offered as reasons. But I think basically it is the drawing that binds the narrator and the audience. You can see one on the right. Click on play to see what I mean.

Now that I have become a convert, on my deathbed if someone were to ask me, “What would you like to do before you die?”

I would say, “Can you please get me a tablet PC with the stylus. I would like to make a few sketches and etch them for all eternity in the digital world” 

If that someone were to reply, “I am sorry. We don’t have that kind of budget here”

I cry out, “Then for god’s sake, please get me paper and pencil or at least a piece of charcoal and move me closer to the wall”