Shahid Insaf's Blog - Posts Tagged "camouflage"

How can one define something as complex as creativity? I've often struggled with where it really comes from. I liked drawing ever since I was three. My first was a precocious rendering of my grandmother's glasses. My interest to write blossomed in fifth grade when one of my teachers saw something in me I did not and forced me into an essay writing competition meant for ninth and tenth graders. I was awarded a consolation prize. I finished two novels as a teenager and then relegated them to the corner of an antique armoire in India after reading them three years later and realizing their naive immaturity. Several attempts to write and publish a novel were ultimately successful last year when I published my first.
As I look back, that initial spark, that first craving to create something new was probably something my father inadvertently gave me. A writer of soulful poetry in Urdu, a masterful charcoal artist and an extemporaneous storyteller who could spin elaborate yarns and then deliver them with enthusiastic gusto to the kids gathered around. He made our sides split with laughter. I remember wanting to be like him and everything I wrote or painted had to pass the litmus test of his reluctant approval.
One the years, distance and philosophy have made us grow apart. But I feel I owe him a debt for igniting the spark of that creativity. My father is gravely ill, although timely intervention appears to have, at least for now, averted a crisis. I do not know how much time we have left. Life can be a very capricious partner.
I find myself working feverishly to finish my next novel. It is about an artist and I will be dedicating it to the man I wanted to emulate. The abruptness of life and the urgency it creates is my impetus is to finish the book well before it is time for that long goodbye.
It would be a pity if it became a belated dedication.