Understanding the One-ness
Fearlessness & attitude
Recently, I cooked for a group of about 20 close friends over four days during a private celebration. When someone asked how I manage to cook such delicious food, I began drawing parallels between painting, cooking, and music.
When I started painting oil on canvas (I am a self taught artist), I was more concerned about not wasting the canvas and paints than focusing on the actual painting. Realizing this, I stopped worrying about the canvas and started focusing on the painting itself—enjoying the process of carelessly "throwing" paint on the canvas (some friends find this terminology amusing). This shift made me fearless, significantly improving both the quality and speed of my work, while making the painting process deeply enjoyable.
I applied the same principle to cooking. I don’t measure ingredients (something many professional chefs might find absurd). Instead, I “throw” spices, vegetables, and other ingredients into the pot, thoughtfully considering the flavors I want to achieve. There’s a sequence to adding ingredients, but there’s also a sense of fearlessness. Believe me I have never ended up spoiling my dish :)
As a matter of fact, Pandit Ronu Majumdar jee, the world renowned ace flautist (Maestro) and my Guru, also tells me to play fearlessly to let wonders happen.
On a hind sight, I realized that this fearless approach has also helped me achieve many commendable milestones in my professional career as a leader.
In summary, fearlessness (not carelessness) is a critical success factor for greatest outcomes. This applies to every aspect of life, whether you are cooking, painting, playing music, playing sports, or conducting business.
When I started painting oil on canvas (I am a self taught artist), I was more concerned about not wasting the canvas and paints than focusing on the actual painting. Realizing this, I stopped worrying about the canvas and started focusing on the painting itself—enjoying the process of carelessly "throwing" paint on the canvas (some friends find this terminology amusing). This shift made me fearless, significantly improving both the quality and speed of my work, while making the painting process deeply enjoyable.
I applied the same principle to cooking. I don’t measure ingredients (something many professional chefs might find absurd). Instead, I “throw” spices, vegetables, and other ingredients into the pot, thoughtfully considering the flavors I want to achieve. There’s a sequence to adding ingredients, but there’s also a sense of fearlessness. Believe me I have never ended up spoiling my dish :)
As a matter of fact, Pandit Ronu Majumdar jee, the world renowned ace flautist (Maestro) and my Guru, also tells me to play fearlessly to let wonders happen.
On a hind sight, I realized that this fearless approach has also helped me achieve many commendable milestones in my professional career as a leader.
In summary, fearlessness (not carelessness) is a critical success factor for greatest outcomes. This applies to every aspect of life, whether you are cooking, painting, playing music, playing sports, or conducting business.
Understanding the Palette
Each artist has their own palette—a set of chosen colors that bring harmony to their paintings. An artist creates his/ her own color palette to best represent how and what he/ she perceives in the mind. People have dedicated lifetimes and earned Ph.D.s studying the palettes of the great masters. These colors also create moods that affect viewers (an extreme example of this is modern art, where an idea, mood, temperature, or sound is often expressed as a color). Using a color outside the palette can make the painting look "off" or somewhat weird, lost in harmony.
This concept applies to music as well, specifically to Raag. Each Raag is a combination of certain notes (both Major and Minor), following specific rules of aroha and avaroha. Each music note also conveys a mood and a certain emotion to listeners. Which is why there is a strongly divided opinion among greatest artists about the importance of words in vocal music. Some argue that emotions should be conveyed purely by the musical notes (tones) and words do not matter while some others argue that words are equally important to convey the emotion and message. Nevertheless, choice of a wrong note in a composition comes across as "off", something missing, out of sync or not melodious, even to a musically untrained ear.
In cooking, recipes and cuisines have their own palettes of ingredients. For instance, South Indian cuisine often uses urad dal, mustard, methi, dhania, and curry leaves, while North Indian cuisine typically includes jeera, dhania powder, bay leaves, and sometimes saunf, but not always curry leaves. Italian cooking features olive oil, oregano, parsley, and other ingredients. Each cuisine has a distinct palette, a Raag, with signature elements.
Each domain, whether it be painting, cooking or music, indeed has its own unique "palette" or set of elements that define its character and evoke specific emotions or reactions. This concept can be extended to many other areas of creativity and life, highlighting the universal principles of harmony, balance, and signature style. It's fascinating how understanding these underlying principles can enhance our appreciation and practice of diverse art forms.