Yet Untitled 116 - Doodling and Uke-ing
Learning to play again in my adult life
Dearest yet Untitler
There are two things in my life that I feel I don’t do enough of - playing the Ukulele and doodling. That’s shorthand for saying that I want to make more place for music and art in my life.
What I like, conceptually, about the Uke and doodling is that they are both diminutive though potentially powerful forms of music and art that cut me away from the pressure of trying to make Music-with-a-capital-M or Art-with-a-capital-A.
They allowed me to play.
I’ve delved into both art and music in ‘higher’ ways, having learned semi-classical Indian vocal music in school and also pursued some serious self-leaning in artistic techniques at different stages in life.
Both enterprises did not sustain, though. But I have a different experience with the kind of engagement with either that entails ‘play’.
Work ‘n play
As an adult, I find myself gravitating towards ‘play’, again. ‘Again’ because I naturally did this as a child, as my children do now. I noticed this tendency when I recently acted an impulse to take a break from my gym trainer to take up tennis!
Tennis turned out to be a lot of fun (with the benefit for 300-500 Kcal burned per session)! Immediately, I found myself wondering - what took me so long to get here?
While I wan’t so sporty as a kid, sport has been a lifelong pursuit - mostly for me to find some form of happy engagement with it. I find this engagement to be happy whenever there’s play involved. But it’s taken me a very long time to understand this.
It’s easy to fathom why. Adult life is constantly considered mundane and colourless - the very opposite of play - all grey and serious. But my brief exploration of Marie Kondo and her perspective on home-arranging made me reconsider how the most mundane of things - like organising a cupboard - could potentially ‘spark joy’. I found the problem-solving aspect of arranging cupboards and drawers as proposed by Kondo, who taught me how to fold clothes into arrangeable, modular and efficient shapes, to evoke the thrill of triumphing at jigsaw puzzles when I was a child.
The gift of consistency is play
I find that I’ve been able to circle back to play in things that I’ve been doing consistently for a long time. Thinking about it, ‘play’ to me entails variety, powered by the limitlessness of imagination. Even the gym, whose hallowed, metal environs I have been entering for more than two decades - allows me to play inside it to some degree. I enjoy myself when I go in and do what appeals to me on the day (even if I push myself to discomfort while doing it). Running, which was once torturous for me, I find to be pleasurable when I do it on my own terms.
Best play happens in the most frequented playgrounds
The place where I’m able to play the most is the place where I’ve spent the most time exploring - the page.
Perhaps, what I’m trying to say is that…
…the place where I experience play is the place where I EXPLORE.
I suddenly find myself recalling the thrill of venturing into those rooms in the old family house that usually stayed locked. Those were the most interesting rooms, hoarding undiscovered treasure, triggering the delicious anticipation of unearthing it.
I think that the reason why publishing YU every week is a welcome jeopardy is because pulling myself out of that jeopardy entails exploration, bundles in anticipation, simulates ye olde problem-solving and thus constitutes, in so many words - play.
Play is magic. It has a fantastic ability to make anything new. Thinking back to my childhood in the 90s which was pervaded by a lot less stuff than my kids have today, repetition did not entail boredom - it triggered invention. There’s a lesson here - adulthood often entails having less of the things liked as a kid, but my experience of ‘having less’ upholds that nurturing/finding an aspect of play in the thing in question can bridge that gap.
To see how intrinsic play is to human life, check out this Netflix documentary ‘Human Playground’, which I really enjoyed (not just because of Idris Elba’s sexy narrating voice).
Also, I think it’s worth mentioning that the aspect of play isn’t confined to my recreational writing alone. Some of you may remember this instalment from a few weeks ago where I wrote a piece about how I game-ify my serious bring-home-the-bread writing by simulating getting lost and having to find my way back home.
This is the kind of instalment, dear YUer, where less said is better. Because there’s potentially so much to say here, but saying any more will result in things that are half-said.
Rather, I’ll leave you with a gallery of doodles by me and my kids, gleaned from 5 years worth of backdated notebooks.
Also, here is the trailer of a great documentary about the power of the understated but mighty Ukulele. Available in India on Amazon Prime, at least till some years ago!
What triggers you to play? Tell me. I want to know!
Thanks for listening. Love you lots.
V
And
PS: If you go to Goa, track this band - Rum ‘n Colas. They are amazing. They are Calypso. And they have an amazing supply of excruciatingly entertaining dad jokes.
Always enjoy reading about your experiences
What you Enjoy, and what you want to Achieve,
Best Wishes Always, Love , ❤️