Observation – the key to open locked doors

Observation is a beautiful thing. It helps us pass the time, and it helps us learn a lot.

Our mind is a strange thing. It is highly receptive and notices things that our eyes don’t. It is time we put our mind to use.

I love sketching. I love the way the lead of pencil moves along a piece of paper, the way soft lines caress the subject, and the way subjects come alive in black and white. And yet, I was never drawn towards colour. I never could understand colour. I was colour – sense – challenged. And this did cause me certain anguish.

One of my friends Sriram, noticing my restlessness, advised me to observe people – especially women. His reason was that women wear the most brilliantly co – ordinate clothes and accessories. So, by observing them, I could glean an understanding of how colours work and complement each other.

This was an exercise I wasn’t going to refuse! I took to observing women, and this turned out to be the most enjoyable and helpful exercise of my life.

I graduated from a web developer to a web designer. The insights I gleaned helped me as a web designer. I developed a sense of colour that I put to use when I was managing satyam.com.

Observation, and knowing what to observe, will never go wrong!