A 10 minutes journey to creativity

“Creativity”- the word itself conjured up motley images right before my eyes. Painters, writers, actors, dancers, musicians and the list goes on. For the record I do not or rather did not consider myself to be creative due to the precise reason that I did not fit into the above mentioned images. However, I got rid of my myth one fine day in an Integrated Marketing Communications lecture a.k.a Advertising.
The lecture required us to prepare an advertising brief for two products and so the Professor before giving us the assignment asked if any of us did not consider ourselves to be creative. There I was amongst the first very few people to raise her hand. What happened in the next ten minutes has acted as some sort of an impetus for me to start writing a blog. The Professor gave us three random words Nail, pebbles and river and asked us to come up with a story using these. I don’t how, what or why but the minute he said that I put my pen to the book and couldn’t stop writing until he introduced another word, chocolate. Continuing on the lines of where my imagination was leading me I finished the story which is presented here. Please note that our imagination was given a reign in the sense that the above mentioned words could be used in any context and not in the literal sense.
Pebbles was wandering down a grass-laden path enjoying the scenic beauty of the nature that surrounded him. He was in search of something but did not know what. He was just about to lie down under a tree when he came across a wooden board, he got curious and went towards it, on top of the board was written in big white letters the words “NAIL”. He wanted to know what it meant and started moving around it, in the hopes of finding a clue. He took “NAIL” across the gushing river that was flowing nearby and sat on it and sailed across the river. He was getting excited by the minute and his curiosity and joy were well rewarded when he saw where “NAIL” had brought him. It had brought him to a beautifully structured monumental building. He approached it tentatively and what he saw next made him feel as if he could not stop smiling for the rest of his life. The door said, “WELCOME HOME” and he finally realized what he was searching for. The bliss of having a haven in this beautiful place made the whole experience of wandering taste like a wonderful chocolate which gives you pleasure every time. The exciting anticipation before you pop one in your mouth, the contentment when you are having it and finally the lingering sweetness of it all.
So to sum up in the words of Debbie Allen, "But out of limitations comes creativity." This limited, timed, unexpected exercise was all I needed to know the true essence of creativity.