nature has never anything too much: Around 1995, we decided to develop a series of film on creativity and innovation at grassroots. These were the first films on the subject and Jayantibhai Patel, a young producer was very enthusiastic about this partnership. For shooting the story of a very generous, though poor, potter cum healer viz., Kareembhai we went to his village in Virampur in north Gujarat. We took him along and identified a location with a nice stone to sit on and fixed the cameras to begin shooting. At that moment, the producer felt that if Kareembhai had few twigs of plants in his hand, the shot might look better. Jayantibhai plugged few weeds on the roadside and requested Kareembhai to hold these in his hand. Kareembhai was very upset. We had no clue why. I asked him the reason and he replied, ‘why did you pluck the twigs’. We explained the logic. His point was that he could have sat near the plants and would have held twigs in his hand. At this stage, I made a terribly foolish remark. I said, ‘Kareembhai, how would few twigs make a difference, after all there are so many such plants on the roadside.’ This made Kareembhai bewildered and even more angry. He said, ‘what did you say, so much? Nature has never anything too much. It just has sufficient diversity for keeping the cycle of nature going. Never say that again.’
That changed my perspective on the subject completely. I had a bad habit. While sitting in a lawn, or standing near a shrub, I used to pluck a few blades of grass or few leaves and play with them, crush them. I could not do so any more. Every time my hand would move to do that, Kareembhai’s face will come in front, do you really need this? And I will withdraw my hand.
Anil K Gupta
