An Idea to Spark an Idea

The world is full of inventors, bringing forward their innovative ideas, whether it be in the
field of science, art, or technology. It is only due to their creativity that we are introduced
to many indeed curious inventions, led by the vibrant ideas that bloom in their minds.

But of course, the root of the best inventions known to human mind, or the best art that
appears like eye candy, was once a small, fragile sapling, an incomplete idea. And it is
that small sapling which holds us in awe, looking up at its height and enjoying its sweet
fruits. An idea is the foundation stone for building wonders.

I had been working on this quaint contraption for a few months now. A strange, broad,
black helmet with a few wires and knobs sticking out of it along with parts from old
mother boards and circuits. I had envisioned it to be a revolutionary object, a devise
capable of sparking the dormant ideas in the brain of the receiver by stimulating the
mind to develop it, turning it into a full-fledged, developed thought.
But, by far, it had seen no success, and it would be a lie to say I wasn’t a bit
discouraged by the state of my little project with little glitches and coding issues failing
the system. The holidays were ending, and I had anticipated it to end by now, when I
was in the planning stages of the project.

After quite a bit of experiments and trial-and-error, I decided to go for a walk for a quick
breather, for my laptop had been hanging repeatedly for a while now, which was quite
frustrating to work with.

The sun was setting and had painted the sky in hues of orange, fading into blue with
myriad of shades in between.

On my path, I came across what appeared to be a young girl with a short stature, close
to my age, starting Intensively at a piece of paper, a thick book filled with equations in
front of her as she gripped the bench beneath her. Curious as to what she was doing, I
decided to sneak behind her to see the paper she was working on. Ah yes, geometry,
what a delightful topic.

"D’you think I don’t know where you're hiding, sneaking. up behind me!" she snarled,
quite rudely I must say.

“Well, uh- I was interested in what you were solving, if you don't mind, I replied.”

"If you know so much, you may as well help me," she proposed sweetly. I approached
her to look at her worksheet, which had been troubling her for quite a while.

I had given her hints, not truly revealing the answer to her, just leading her on a path to
the solution. Her hand jutted down the answer when a solution finally came to her. It
was quite refreshing to see the satisfaction that took over her features, relaxation over a
simple math problem.
"Well, I guess sometimes the answer remains in clear sight, we just have to move things
around," she chuckled.

She briskly thanked me, and I continued my path. I pondered whether my invention
would help her, or human help would have sufficed. In that case, if we all manually
stimulated our brain, we could spark new ideas, and increase our brain power. We
could’ve even directly searched the answer on the web, though that’d be much too
convenient to be called learning. Even then, my little device had yet to see success after
months of work. Being deprived of the taste of success was not sweet. It was basically
useless. Thinking, I trudged along the uneven path. It seemed to have become dark.

The atmosphere had become chilly, and the street deserted, except for a dark
silhouette standing under a flickering lamp post. I advanced towards the figure, not
explicitly approaching it. The person seemed to have a shadow cast over their face, in
quite similar attire to me. But the weight of her gaze made me conscious of the weight
my back a laptop bag just barely covering my idea stimulating helmet. They opened
their mouth, proceeding to talk, words barely coming out in a whisper. But I heard them
loud and dear. I had stopped in my tracks, unconsciously, and turned my gaze toward
the figure, their hood fully covering their face.

"You are right" they said in a heavily distorted voice, “You don't need to." continue your
act of perseverance remained unspoken. The words held some value, after all, why
waste your time when you have better things to do than play inventor?

The weight of those words sent shivers down my spine. I had blanked out, and when I
turned my gaze back at the figure, it had dissipated into thin air.

I continued walking aimlessly, down the street, in the depths of despair with complete
disregard for my surroundings. The sun had bloomed on the horizon, golden petals
stretching outwards into the rich blue sky above. I saw an artist, simply glancing at the
heavenly morning sunrise, brush and palette in hand and facing a blank canvas. I stood
there in anticipation, waiting for the artist to take the first brush stroke on the empty
canvas, for I enjoyed watching people paint. The artist then motioned for me to come
near. Deciding I had nothing better to do, I decided to get closer to watch the process.

"Well, child, you may see as I paint. Please don't get disappointed, though, for I am
quite the slow painter, though I am quite touched you want to see me paint." There was
an unmistakable aura of kindness, like the artist was reflecting the warm orange rays of
the sun.

I decided to sit on the green grass, admiring the view, occasionally watching as the
artist stood staring absorbing the various hues in the sky, only moving to blend colors,
still not touching the canvas.
The artist had now proceeded to take phone out and took a photo of the scenery before
us, taking applying filter and briefly studying it.

"Why?" I whispered softy, for I viewed Artificial Intelligence as the bane of creativity.

The artist seemed to understand exactly what I was asking, for they chuckled and
responded warmly, "It helps me break down the shades and complimentary colors I
need. Although AI could singularly capture the view even better than I could, or form
better art, it wouldn't hurt to add another piece of my own creativity to the countless
masterpieces in the world, would it? After all, my art useless or not, it brings satisfaction
to my thirst to reproduce the view which brings a spark in my eyes, that too with my own
hands, no?" I absorbed their words. They'd somehow seemed to reflect the warmth of
the morning sun, which was like a warm embrace in the cold..

"Also, I think only you could create a spark for the flickering flame any many people's
minds. That is quite an original thought.” Then, the artist walked forward, brush in hand
taking the first stroke of the brush, a vibrant pink, not once looking at me the whole time.
The artist then turned into mist, vaporizing into thin air. I could only stare at the place
the artist once stood, whose face I never managed to take a glimpse of. I fell into
bottomless abyss.

'-jan, Gunjan! Wake up! Sleeping on your desk is not at all healthy, even if you have the
excuse that you fell asleep just waiting for the laptop to load," my older sister scolded
me, “Honestly, maybe I should take away that invention or whatever just to force regular
sleeping habits into you." Ah yes, the things you hear when you have a nagging older
sibling.

I sat up in my chair, my neck stiff from sleeping in an irregular position. That dream was
the most animated and weirdly one of the few I had managed to recollect, probably the
wildest of all. Though, it seemed to have consoled me, with all the doubts gathered
about in my mind while working on my 'Idea Stimulation Helmet’.

There have been countless great innovators who have mad scientific breakthroughs just
from a dream and a good’ night’s sleep. The power of the unconscious mind is truly
unbeatable. To think it was the threads of previous memories or recent happenings
were woven into this.

It was just then an idea struck me, a small oversight in the system-user interface code
of the circuit, possibly the reason my whole project was glitching.

"Didi, just be patient for a moment," I requested my older sister in the kindest way
possible.

"Just make sure it doesn't short circuit when I’ve worn it on my head," she warned me
harshly. “Of course not,” I grimaced at the thought and switched on the power button.
" So, I recall that you always wanted to write a story with an original premise, set in a
fantasy world. Concentrate on the topic." I said dramatically, with great anticipation.

Her eyes suddenly widened after a few seconds, and she looked like she'd reached the
brink of enlightenment. She stayed silent for a few moments, and then....

"You, you are an amazing person. Honestly, although this thing," she motioned at the
helmet on her hand, “doesn’t give out any answers, it’s still able to give answers." She
clutched my shoulders and shook me bank and forth. As much as I wanted to point out
her statement was quite self-contradictory, I let her enjoy a moment of peace. This
device truly would be a spark for Ideas. “Good, I'm proud," she smiled warmly patting
my back and walked away, probably to brainstorm her new idea.