When i quit my corporate work to give more time to art the first thing i wanted to do was to unlearn a lot of things i had picked up along the way : leading the way was multi-tasking. Being in the space, in the moment, would definitely be something I would want to bring to my work.

So I decided to practise forgetting. i stopped remembering anything. so it's like this : if a friend calls me and says i am coming over to your studio this thursday, i make a note in my calendar and simply forget it.

So if you ask me what I am doing on Thursday, I would have to go to my calendar to know what i am doing on thursday. and then I realise oh, I have a 5 pm appointment with a friend coming over. So we can meet at 2 pm, or may be some other day. If I need to plan for the meeting on thursday, I simply note : prep for and plug it in on wednesday 7 pm.

This means smses are silent. Phone calls are not taken. Mail flags are not seen. Whatsapp is on silent.

This means I do only one thing at a time. If I am reading, I am in it. If I am painting, that's what I am doing.

If I am travelling, I am not doing anything else.

The other thing is that i don't give end time. If i am meeting somebody and want to have a lasting interaction, it makes sense for me to not look at time and let the conversation flow. I don't do it if there's a fifteen minute slot. No mixing friends. I avoid meeting more than two people at a time : no shallow conversations.

I see squirrels running. I have the time and mind space to feel the warmth of sunshine, how it moves on the skin. I can hear the Maina. I get time to hear the silence.

Felt a bit weird when I started, felt as if I was disconnecting a part of me.

Would I lose something that I have developed over years? Would my memory have a long term impact?

Three years down the line, I think it's been very valuable. The forgetting has definitely changed my work.

Freedom is quite a simple thing. And just as amazing.