Was watching a bengali movie - 'Abohoman' by a well known Bengali movie director Rituparno Ghosh .. while i was getting absorbed in the movie, the word 'abohoman' was stirring up my memory to dig out the meaning ... i was amused - not disappointed , that i had to call up my father to know the meaning of the word and then i remembered- ahh i knew it , how could i forget :-D.. well, now that i get time to sit and think, i often get amazed at the creative wealth of our generations up.. going back to the memories of my granny (mother's mother) , i remember she used to manage household, teach the grandchildren at home, host guests with utmost love n make delicacies, and she didnt stop at that !! she was a genius - her thread work on massive lengths of cloth, lacework, rangolis and what not used to surprise me every time i got a chance to see her working on one..My father by profession is an artist- he produces life on paper / canvas with a pen/ pencil or set of brushes / colors.. apart from that he is pretty good at singing and writing!! After getting married, I got to see a painting by my father -in-law - it was a shock that he never learnt painting and the piece in front of me was no amateurish!! And, he sings, he plays instruments which are certainly not his means of living! The latest event that compelled me to think about "inheritance" was an email from my uncle in law who is a hard core corporate professional.. the email spoke about his interactions with Satyajit Ray - that email carried a portrait by "kaku", as we call him, of Ray -this time i was not shocked seeing the perfection and life in the portrait. My thoughts led me to the right path - all these traits and creative aspects are gifts from our earlier generations. From times unknown, our grand grand parents and their parents have nurtured these skills, created so many things and passed it with care to their children. Till our fathers', they have successfully inherited all these wealth and maintained them with much care and appreciation.
If I think about most of us, we are such a generation that we don't even appreciate all what we have inherited - we are so engaged in our own single dimensional world. We claim that we have no time, we are busy and the time we get we indulge in luxuries and non creative affairs - I have nothing against this I believe. But, if we do not carry forward and hone the inheritance from our upper generations and pass it on, one day all these wealth of creative marvels will simply disappear - wont that be very sad? What say ?
