What! Where did you come from?

I am doing my usual weekend chores on a Saturday afternoon. Everything is as normal and mundane as it can be. There is nothing novel about the weekly process of cleaning and washing and dusting and then suddenly something changed all that.

Nothing extraordinary but something that stirred up memories within me; some very fond memories. So I had just finished my laundry and had taken the clothes out of the dryer and was folding them. (Yes Yes I know this is boring but I am getting to it) It was my bed sheet's turn to be folded. I just shook it hard once before starting to fold and something rolled out from it onto the bed. It was a small dark object. At first I thought it was an insect and was a bit freaked (yes I am petrified of the creepy crawlies) and I certainly don't expect to find them in fresh and clean sheets. On closer inspection I discovered it was a coffee bean. I was like What! Where did you come from? It was particularly strange because I remember clearly that there was nothing on my sheet when I put it in the wash and I certainly don't think my dryer has coffee beans in it. The strangest thing is I don't have coffee beans in my house. I use instant coffee; so it was a very strange find.

What was so amazing was that the little coffee bean transported me back nearly five years, when I was sixteen. My friend/philosopher/guide/crush I don't really know what he was to me then; had just visited Coorg and had brought me a present. It was a little jewel box with a coffee bean in it. It was a promise that I would never lose it and will always keep it; might sound a bit corny now but it meant a lot then. The coffee bean reminded me of the innocence of that promise and the strong bond of friendship that I still share with him and all my other friends; that I made in those golden years.

After some time when my mind drifted back to reality I realized I still did not know where the bean came from. It certainly wasn't the same coffee bean; as I still have that box with the bean at home in India. All I know is it reminded me of that promise and of a simpler time...

I wonder why...

When my mind starts asking too many questions, I get the strong urge to write. My hands ache to jot down each and every detail of the events that shape the questions in my head and all that which makes me wonder why...

I live in Melbourne, a beautiful city; a city known for its love for the arts. A few days ago when I was passing by the State library with a friend, we both noticed some colourful leaf and animal paper cut outs hanging from the thin, linear branches of a bare tree. Both of us found the installation a little ridiculous and we ended up having a discussion about why would anyone want to take away the charm of a bare tree,to burden nature with yet another souvenir of man's existence. We just dismissed the discussion with a single line "It's all in the name of art."

Please don't get me wrong I am an ardent art lover, I study design at University; it is what I enjoy the most. It is my academic learning that often propels me to question things. It is at one such Public lectures held by the School of Creative Media at RMIT where this question crept in my head again. The lecture was based on art and architecture linked to animals and insects; about the glorious designs of nature. All that talk about art, nature, excess and simplicity boiled down to one question what is it in us humans that makes us commission art projects, buy art, even though it is in fact "useless"; why does it resonate with our feelings, our mind, body and soul.

I wonder why...