It was just a few days ago that I read the most ridiculous piece of news on the Internet. A London based journalist had sent the opening chapters of a few Jane Austen novels to various publishers as an experiment to see precisely where some of the greatest writers ever would stand in today’s competitive society. Contrary to what was expected; the replies that he received were not letters subtly hinting at plagiarism. Even more horrifying was the fact that all the publishing houses politely but firmly refused to publish his, or rather Austen’s work.

Being an ardent Jane Austen fan, I launched into the resultant Internet group discussion with great gusto. Although this bit of news appropriately shocked most people, there was the occasional oddity celebrating it.

‘Who needs Austen when you can have Fifty Shades of Grey?’ proclaimed one genius. (Unfortunately, you can’t prevent people from posting comments on the grounds of stupidity.)

‘Her work is great and all but it lacks that thing, if you know what I mean. I mean like, its not creative enough,’ read another seemingly innocuous comment.

Fully prepared to defend one of my idols, I flexed my fingers and positioned them threateningly over the keyboard. But then I stopped short; much to my chagrin, I realized that I didn’t fully understand the comment.

“Huh,” I mused, “what exactly does she mean when she says ‘not creative enough’?” And that was it. The idea had been planted and now it was to grow.

Unable to comprehend what the word ‘creativity’ actually meant and precisely what it denoted I decided (I like to pretend as if I have some amount of control over my obsessions) to embark on a journey to find out. Upon first thought, I had a clichéd definition of creativity ready. Creativity is a new, different, imaginative or innovative approach to something. But I needed something more; I needed a more satisfying, definitive meaning.

Given that most brainstorms and inspirations are struck when at one with nature I decided to spend some quality time with Mother Earth. Armed with a pen, notepad and a box of cookies I sat next to the largest window (this was just about as close to nature as I was willing to get at the moment. Ah! The 21st century teenager) I could find and gazed out into the open sky and the lush green garden awaiting my Eureka moment.

I waited…and waited…and then waited some more. Now, I would like to say that after spending a considerable amount of time staring out a window I had emerged at least slightly wiser than what I was earlier. But the truth is, all I received for all this was a big fat nothing.

Undeterred, I approached another way of feeding my morbid obsession. I read and viewed work commonly described as ‘creative’ and then tried to formulate an opinion on creativity. And this probably helped my juvenile brain comprehend this concept slightly better.

Creativity, I realized, doesn’t lie in some high-flown, well thought of idea. It is a lot simpler than that really, creativity is taking the most mundane and boring objects- much like the pen near you or the chair you’re sitting on- and creating something highly scintillating and inspiring from it. Much like a magician, it is being able to conjure up something beautiful and thought provoking out of thin air. It is the ability to express your passion through your work, to share and invoke emotion in others.

I know what’s expected here. The deep, profound conclusion. Well, there isn’t going to be one because this conclusion is something that we all have to find for ourselves. After all, if there’s one thing I can say with some confidence is that the whole point of creativity is to encourage a new, unusual, perhaps even bizarre thought process. It is to urge different ways of looking at the same thing. (And honestly, I have no clue what to write here.) So for now, all I can say is be creative.