Have you ever had a month, week, or atleast a day where you felt that nothing was going your way? One where you feel that you cannot catch a break? Well, if you have never felt that way then you are not human. In life small things like a disagreement with a family member, your footwear breaking down on the way to work, a pinched nerve, your children creating a ruckus, a cancelled sale, getting dumped, losing money, a missed opportunity, a bad migraine or being passed over for promotion might not be life altering instances individually. Afterall, there are folks who have real problems in life. However, when they all happen at a stretch, even small incidents may significantly alter your mood and approach towards life. I call this state – Feeling Blue.
Feeling Blue
When I feel blue, everything appear darker and duller to me. People around me seem to be happier and their lives shinier. While mine makes me feel like a reject. Whatever I want and I cannot have looks shiny, glossy and glimmering. In comparison what I have seems blurry, unappealing. I feel as though I am being constantly set up to fail. That someone is laughing at my expense and that nobody wants to help me. I see the world in grays, blacks, and dark blues. There is a sickeningly sweet scent in the air. I feel like crying and eventually fall sick. Do you ever feel like this?
While working on Riti jewellery, I was thinking about incorporating not only sights, sounds, smells, textures but also thoughts moods, and feelings in my collection. There are quite a few happy, festive, peppy pieces in this collection. To balance them there are two Feeling Blue Riti necklaces as well. Both the necklaces are for sale with matching earrings. I hope that this would be one more of my efforts in depression awareness and prevention.
Riti necklaces – Ratri and Karumbhu
Ratri (above) is the Tamil word for night. It signifies both an end as well as the beginning that follows it. I tried to represent my Feeling blue state exactly as I described above. I have used gunmetal gray and hematite gray beads with purple and dichroic beads as accents. The purple refers to the belief in self that makes you get up and fight against odds.
The poetic line “நான் வீழ்வேனென்று நினைத் தாயோ” (Did you think that I will fall prey to these follies and get defeated) of Poet Bharathiyaar made famous by actors Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth in their movie dialogues Seems apt here. You can find the original and the translation of the full poem here.
The second piece is Karumbhu or Sugarcane. It was made for the Pongal festival as sugarcane is the main harvested crop for Pongal after rice. The hardness, the slender form and the sweetness of sugarcane along with its several breaking points provides both direct and metaphorical routes of analysis. This necklace too like the previous one includes elements of blur, shine but it is more colourful than the first. For it show how the “feeling blue” state can go away. All it needs are compassionate words, empathy, and a helping hand.
The next time you find someone feeling blue, and asking for your help, try to accommodate them. Don’t set up someone to fail rather offer to help. Show them respect and love. Let them breathe. If your roles were reversed, you would expect the same for you.
PS: Depression awareness is a cause that is close to my heart. I am glad that after many years I have been able to channel those feelings into jewellery and write about it.
This post is a summary of what some students of mine have told me about themselves in addition to my own feelings. Since the feelings are universal I have not named names.
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