What creative introverts can teach us about the joys of social distancing – The Hindu

The lockdown has not rattled me. I have always had a self-imposed quarantine, says poet-novelist Vinod Kumar Shukla, over the phone, discussing his choice of lifestyle that requires minimum social interaction. Not a recluse in the true sense of the word, Sahitya Akademi Award winner (1999) for Hindi literature, 83-year-old Shukla, is content without meeting people for days together. He lives with his family in his home in Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

Winner of Mathrubhumi Book of The Year Award 2020, Shukla sent his acceptance speech, a warm recollection of a time when he had visited the University of Calicut two decades ago for a seminar on Hindi. The letter was read out at the event in Thiruvananthapuram, in February this year. However, he kept away.

I have my own method of social interaction. Writing for me is talking with people. Reading is about knowing them. I dont need to meet people. I find all of them in the books I read and write, says Shukla, who first stepped out of his village Rajnandgaon (in former Madhya Pradesh) when he was 18, to make a rail journey.

Though I have travelled a lot, even outside India, it has only been for literature. Even going to my neighbours house is like making a pilgrimage. According to me, remaining local will make you global. As a writer, I learn everything sitting at my desk. I watch my wife, observe her and I know about womankind, he adds. Shukla writes daily and reads for seven to eight hours a day and, to him, the lockdown has made no difference.

I dont find this forced isolation of the lockdown strange, says writer and former bureaucrat NS Madhavan who signed off from Twitter last August to concentrate on his writing. I took a sabbatical from social life and it has paid off. I find the constant buzz in my head has gone. Yet, Madhavan adds that he loves to travel as it gives him the material for his writing.

Ceramic artist Priya Sundaravalli chose a sequestered life, away from the city, in Auroville, Puducherry 18 years ago on her return from the US. The lockdown has not made a big difference to her way of life, which is one of little social interaction. Priya says shes not one to catch up with friends very often. Virtual connectivity is adequate.

Surprisingly, as a teenager, Priya did not have this temperament. She recalls being a part of cooking parties and sleepovers in the US, but also remembers a niggling sense of inadequacy; of something missing. I am trying to find wholesomeness in my days, she says, explaining that the milestones of her day are routine things like drawing kolam, making a good breakfast and such.

Being close to the wilderness, places untouched by human beings, gives her joy and was a reason to relocate to Auroville, a commune that leads a secluded lifestyle.

Priya spends large parts of her day at the potters wheel in her studio. When you get into the zone of creativity, you experience a singularity with the creative process. Time, space, tiredness and physical needs drop off.

What doctors say

Kochi-based jazz musician Salim Nair too spends long hours in his home office, developing software and making music. I am uncomfortable with large crowds and become acutely aware of how I must handle people when I meet them, says Salim. When he relocated, eight years ago, to Kochi from the US, he was very conscious of the fact that he needed seclusion and built his house accordingly. I like to observe people rather than mingle with them, says Salim, who lives off the virtual online community he has built in the past 10 years.

Does isolation fire his creativity? I find my productivity increased if theres another person actively working with me, but it depends on the person, says Salim. In the lockdown, he has been streaming live from his FB page SalimNairband. Not dictated by deadlines, he follows his pace.

One of the countrys leading abstractionists, Achuthan Kudallur says he cannot paint when there is another individual around. Seclusion and solitude are important for his creativity. Having recovered from a recent fall, which meant bed rest, he has adjusted to the lockdown, calling his state a quarantine within a quarantine. Kudallur savours the quietness of his home in Neelankarai and its proximity to the sea. I love the sea and my solitude. The current upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has robbed him of the mood to paint. But when inspiration strikes, he says, his art will reflect the colours and structures of the pandemic.

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