Creative Journey

Ever since I read Rabindranath Tagore's কাবুলিওয়ালা (later revisited many times as an adult), I felt... something.
Deep within me: an urge to create a world only I could see.
The young boy's journey to the unknown in Ruskin Bond's "How Far is the River" was the final push I needed to write my first poem, 'Nature'. Ever since, I've lived as a creative, with intermittent seasons of block and mist. I started with writing, but have found childish joy in different art forms: through pastel, the camera lens, or film.

Onscreen

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Retrospective

Author Amitav Ghosh sits on a white couch, holding a book and a pen while speaking. A smiling woman wearing a peach-colored jacket and light blue pants sits beside him, looking at him attentively.

Meeting the human who brought the heart of Kolkata storytelling to a global stage was a religious experience. And getting my library book (never returned) signed by Shree Amitav Ghosh.

Author Andre Aciman is seated at a table, signing a book with a pen. A smiling woman in a pink and white striped top stands across from him, watching him sign. Another man stands behind the table, looking on, with stacks of books visible in the background.

Somewhere in northern Italy southern Kolkata, getting my journal signed by André Aciman.
Of course, I brought up his email from the year before. :)
Manifestation.

A spiral-bound diary page from February 2009 featuring a handwritten poem titled 'Nature' by Swatilekha Roy. The cursive text describes various elements of natural landscapes and animals. The bottom half of the page is filled with a colorful colored-pencil illustration depicting a sun, a tree with an owl, a crowing rooster on a rock, flowers, and a flowing stream, matching the imagery of the poem.

As you can very well see,
I was no childhood prodigy;
Just a girl, delusionally non-self-conscious,
Ready to take on the whole wide world.

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." - Maya Angelou