Notes of an Overthinker

“The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.” ―  Anton Pavlovich Chekhov The democratization of technology has made tools once exclusive to professionals now accessible to everyone. Anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection can become a photographer, a musician, a painter, an artist, an author, or a poet. The barriers to entry have been dismantled so thoroughly that the true essence of being an artist has been diluted to the point of absurdity. Gone are the days when art required peer review and validation by credible authorities. When people understood the concept of being rejected and accepted the idea of not being good enough. The self-serve platforms have effectively obliterated the need for hardened training to excel in any craft. Instead, we're drowning in a sea of self-proclaimed artists who possess the tools but lack the discipline and skill honed through years of dedication and critique. The result? An overwhelming flood of what can only be descr...

“Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.” ―  Emil Cioran A few weeks back, I was sitting in the food court of a mall with some friends having Taco Bell and I had just finished reading 'Nausea' by Jean-Paul Sartre. In the book's Afterword, the editor mentioned Albert Camus drawing comparisons and parallels between the two greats. The editor also mentioned the famous conclusion from Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus - one must imagine Sisyphus happy. This thought was left lingering in my mind. I carried it with me for a few days until that evening in that food court where I saw something which etched it permanently in my brain. I had a moment of epiphany. I saw a woman who was not well; you could see she was suffering physically just by the look of her. She was handed over a tray of food from a shop and struggled to hold it together. Her hands were shaking and a person standing next to her had to support the tray so it did not fall on the...