Unfortunately just when my travels started to gain real momentum the covid 19 pandemic struck. We went through a series of strictly imposed lockdowns, that made travel impossible. However, during one of the brief interludes of the lockdown, I decided to walk somewhere, anywhere at all away, as far away from home as was possible to be. I had never been a great fan of walking, but the lockdown had made me a kind of aimless wanderer.
So I set out of my home and
“discovered” for the first time that on both sides of the road were large kohomba (margosa) trees. From what I understand the margosa tree is one of the true shade trees that thrive even on the meekest trickle of groundwater so it is invaluable for those of us who can’t afford to air-condition. People in Sri Lanka, India, and Africa love it for this reason and its many medicinal and other uses. So it is surprising that it was declared a weed tree in northern parts of Australia in 2015. Introduced as a shade tree for cattle in the 1940s, it spread so quickly, that It is now illegal to buy, sell or transport plants or seeds. I have always wondered why this was, for as everyone knows nothing much grows in most parts of Australia except gum trees. Then I realized that in reality, many great trees grow in Australia, most of them endemic. An aunt of mine once visited Australia and she told the story of how she ventured into a wooded area (she was always venturing into wooded places) and found that there were countless Uguressa trees full of fruits. When she inquired from an Australian, she got the answer that it was not edible, and was in fact fit only for birds. Hey, we eat this fruit around here, it’s one of my favorite fruits.
Greatly troubled by this thought I moved on and entered a shop. It was a small model of a supermarket, with difficulty you could move about and pick what you want, but the suspicious salesgirl kept a close eye on you with a series of convex mirrors. Shops like this that pretend to be supermarkets have spread all around Sri Lanka in recent years, which I think is great. As I was eating the quickly melting ice cream without a mask, I came upon a picturesque lake that was lined by a long row of Kumbuk Trees (Terminalia arjuna). For me, the Kumbuk tree, with its shiny smooth bark and colorful leaves is one of the most pleasant trees that God has put upon this earth.
Then I looked at the lake, it was a large man-made lake, whose primary purpose seemed to be to collect the rainwater and wastewater of a thousand houses that had been built less than twenty years ago. In this short period, it had become a proper ecosystem in its own right. Cranes, herons, and a strange crow-like bird whose primary purpose of existence seemed to be to dry its feathers all its life made it a strange place to be. Which made me wonder what the difference was between a crane and a heron. A crane's neck is shorter than herons and cranes hold their necks straight, while herons typically curve their necks into an “S” shape, particularly in flight. It was also full of fish, though fishing wasn’t allowed. It seemed that even in a dry region if you dig a large hole deep enough and plant some trees around it, it will soon fill with rainwater, and if you put some fish, in no time it would be teeming with life.
At a distance, I could see cashew trees. The trees in this area seemed to do a weird thing. They spread so widely that they sagged down and were supported by the ground though still attached to the tree. Now isn’t that clever, no stilt roots or other complicated roots are needed. Entertained by this foolish thought I moved on.
I decided to walk all the way to Colombo but gave up halfway and got on a bus. I got down at Pettah. I decided to wander around Colombo as much as possible during weekends and write about this city for I found myself greatly attached to it. As everyone knows Colombo isn’t exactly New York, but it is a bustling, happy city where a lot of interesting things happen all the time. Its port is one of the busiest in Asia, and it really is a flourishing city, but what makes it interesting for me is that it is a city with many art-minded people. Some people accuse its artists of copying the West, and worse being decades behind the West but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
I am not an expert but as far as I am concerned the West has come to an artistic dead-end, where even the most idiotic paintings are called brilliant. Calling everything brilliant is the same as saying that nothing is. If you paint a red circle, on a black background and call it something like “The portrait of the artist's soul” it could be sold for millions of dollars if you could first get the artist to kill himself although, for most people, it looks like a traffic light. Or if you have a clever artist who can talk great things bordering on philosophy and psychology then that will sell for millions too. I am a great fan of surrealism and have great enthusiasm for this kind of thing but sometimes it makes me wonder what it is all about. If you put a small chair in an enormous room and call it minimalism for example it seems to be a very clever thing to do. If doing next to nothing seems to be the point why bother doing anything at all. But this problem is not found among artists in Colombo for they are busy drawing colorful complex paintings.
I am not trying to be professional, but for many years I have wondered what the answer was to the following question: WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL ARTIST. (In an artistic sense, rather than a financial sense). I guess the simple answer is: If art makes the artist happy then he/she is a successful artist. But why I wondered were so many artists so unhappy? The answer is that art is such a thing that it makes most people prisoners of style and prisoners of their own success. In the music world, it is like being condemned to sing the same few songs again and again, because those songs were the ones that made someone famous. It took many years for me to realize this, but one day I realized that I was a prisoner of my own unfortunate painting and drawing style. But I want to change that and draw in different styles, mediums, and subjects each time I draw or paint. I think many artists are prisoners of their own technique and success, for almost all their paintings look alike.
But “WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL ARTIST” in the financial sense. Artists, as everyone knows, have highs and lows (not substance-induced, but natural ups and downs of the creative process). When in a high an artist is capable of doing great work that could be sold, but when the artist hits a low which is almost all the time their paintings are uninspiring and can’t be sold. The aim of the artist if he/she wants financial success is to improve his technique to such an extent that he is able to paint great, inspiring paintings even when he hits a low and the only way the artist can achieve this is through constant practice.
After wandering through Galle face and kolpity, at last I came to Bambalapitiya where I visited the Majestic City, and decided to meet a godforsaken relative of mine. Godforsaken because although he is one of the cleverest people I have ever met, he said some of the biggest bullshit I have ever heard. It seemed like there was nothing he didn’t know and understand fully. I suspect he knew a great deal about human nature. He believed that a large number of people in the modern world had depression and it was his duty to advise them and treat them if possible. At that time I had a lot of problems in life and was really feeling down.
Perhaps sensing this he said a strange thing. He said that a cure for unhappiness could only be found if we know the definition of “Happiness”. Happiness, he said is really a “sense of improvement” which many sad people seemed to lack. But by adopting a “philosophy of improvement” that is by making “small conscious improvements every little while” they could find true happiness. He said “When you walk into a room, by the time you walk out, make sure either you improve or someone in the room improves with your knowledge, or something in the room improves, when you walk into a garden make sure you plant a tree, or at least water the plants. I thought this theory was a joke, but in some way, it also fascinated me.
So when I returned home, decided to try out his weird theory more as a joke than anything else. I made small, ridiculous improvements every little while and found a strange kind of happiness, a kind of job satisfaction that seemed to increase every time I did something. It’s incredible how much progress you can make if you follow this seemingly idiotic theory. Every time I walked into a place I made a conscious effort to improve something in a small way before walking out. At that time I did not have a job, so I took small steps like learning new skills, improving my CV etc, and found many opportunities coming my way. Things started improving around me, things in my room seemed neat and tidy, I had a small but flourishing vegetable garden, I had made new friends, and new opportunities came to me more than ever before, it was unbelievable really. I really believe that this method works and should be followed by anyone having a bad turn in life.
