Before you begin, this piece is not going to be anything about vases. Or Pots, if that’s what they are called. The idea of repeat and perfect seems to be the staple winning strategy these days. No wonder it presented itself to me quite a few times over the last few months. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat until it is perfect. I guess that makes sense, at least from where I stand as I am writing this. However, it's not always like this.
Let me clarify the vases and pots for you. Apparently, and I am neither sure nor interested, there was this crafts professor at an American university. The bloke decides to conduct an experiment. Nothing fancy — all he does is divide his students into two groups and assigns them a task each.
Imagine this bloke speaking like someone from Victorian England. That’s how I do it. It's nicer that way.
He says, “Group 1 shall make me the perfect vase.”
“On the contrary” he continues “Group 2 shall make me as many vases as they can possibly manage”
I don't think anybody in victorian England ever said: “can possibly manage”. Sadly, I was born in the 1990s. I have no idea how they spoke. Just imagine the accent and maybe the ‘I am a proud knight’ tone.
Anyway, back to the story. Apparently, it was the 2nd group of high-functioning machines who turned up with better-looking vases than the former tasked with making the perfect vase. Repetition made them better. Wow, such wisdom and this and that. Well, I won’t be truthful to you if I told you that I didn’t find this story fascinating when I first heard it. I am not a very honest man you see. I tend to embrace public opinion readily because I am too late to form my own. I spent 5 years of my life believing I liked The Beatles more than I enjoyed listening to A.R. Rahman. I was wrong.
I also told myself that pineapple toppings on a Pizza are disgraceful. Why wouldn’t I? Everyone said so. Alas, they were wrong. I was wrong.
I began criticizing myself. “You’re a stupid man Avinash,” I spoke in the mirror. All this while I was trying to write a perfect script for my podcast episode when instead I was supposed to re-write and then do it again and again until I had the perfect vase. Umm, script sorry.
Segway moment: here’s the podcast that has not seen a new episode in 2 months — https://anchor.fm/avinash4127. Give it a shot I talk about life and stuff. Very depressing, you’ll like it.
Okay, where were we. Right! The vase conundrum.
Anyway as I came out of the influence of public opinion I began having doubts over my takeaway from the story. Did I want to be the people from group 2? Grinding out as much as I could out of myself until I can achieve perfection. Or was I to be a part of group 1?
The source of my confusion was the definition of perfection. What do you consider perfect? I was inclined to think it was the Bagiyas my grandmother makes. Those are just perfect. If you don’t know what Bagiyas are I recommend you find out. It is a Maithili word. Yes, Maithili is a language.
But wait a second. Even the Bagiyas sort of taste a little different every other time she makes it. Does it mean I like it more sometimes? I don’t think so. Every time I compliment her and say they turned out to be ‘perfect’. Every time, my assessment of perfection*drumroll* changes!
I put myself into a thought experiment before I went to bed one day. I imagined being at this Univesity in this professor’s vase class. Craft or something I think. I was placed in group A. Spent a month making this perfect pot. Had a little help from my mates. Had moments of doubt over how the vase was turning out to be. Had moments of ecstasy that I got the roundness right. Dropped it on day three and had to start all over again.
Come judgment day. The professor announces his message to the class. Everyone’s in awe. I look at my vase and see myself evolving with it for an entire month. I recollect all the emotions I harbored while I worked on it. I smile. The professor continues imparting his wisdom. Maybe I should stay and listen. I don’t.
I go home and pour some water into the vase. I get some Lillies from the garden. I said Lillies just for the sake of having to name a flower. I am bad with flower names. But it had yellow petals with deep red edges. I don’t have a garden either.
I realize that we have replaced ‘perfection’ with ‘validation’. I go to bed.
