YOU THINK WRITING IS EASY……………? NAH…ITS NOT!!!!!

Tagore once said, “Timid thoughts, don’t be afraid of me”. Writing is an outlet for the timid thoughts of life. 26 letters. They combine to form words – thousands of them. All you need is an author, someone who knows what to write and get it down on paper.

God bless the Chinese!!! Had it not been for them my bag would have been weighing tonnes with scrolls and scrolls of parchment. Thanks to Lewis Waterman, for saving us from quills and ink. Some find solace in writing, others do it for earning a living and there are some who do it for the sheer joy of it. We can’t forget a new set who actually dread the whole process. The only time I dread writing is during exams. I can still remember…a Physics question paper on my L.H.S (left hand side) and the crisp white of the answer sheet on my R.H.S (right hand side) smiling at me to pen down the answer. I pick up my pen. I can hear my heart thumping against my chest. I wonder whether the invigilator can see the rise and fall of the fabric of my shirt. I turn cold and my hands go numb. Damn writing! Why did we have to write? This is one phase of life all of us must have walked on. Not a pleasant path I must say.

For the solace-seekers, the diary is their weapon. When you feel that you are carrying the burden of the entire world on your shoulders, pouring it out on paper would make the heart feel feather-light. You may be feeling angry with thunder clouds hovering over your head, or feeling sad or empty like a painting washed off its colours, the diary dons the role of a best friend.

And when it comes to love, its cupid’s turn to strike the bow. All the Romeos and Juliets would have turned a part-time literature freaks atleast once in their lifetime when it came to writing love letters. Be it asking your friends to help you write it or referring old 'love' letters, you would have put even Marvell to shame. One simple request to the drooling love pups is that please make sure that your not-so-literary ‘flames’ understand your thoroughly researched phrases of love. I say this because I am reminded of a coy, sloppily sentimental and (of course!!) stupid friend of mine who once addressed her ‘just a friend’ as ‘the anchor of my heart’ and his face underwent an extravagant display of emotions and ultimately ended up looking as blank as my answer sheet. She might have hit the right cord had she called the biology whizkid as ‘the aorta of my heart’. Poor soul!!

For all those who are waiting to wear the laurel crown of literature, the scene backstage may not be to your liking. Young writers are buoyed by the notion that all they need to do is to throw their literary works at the world’s feet and they are given the title of the new light in literature. A true artist’s life is weaved in a web of disappointment, rejection, inability to reveal his feelings and the difficulty of gaining the public ear. You are accused of plagiarism even for your original works. The more than once accused Miss. Rowling would agree with me. What is literature if you are not allowed to speak your thoughts? Why was a fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie for his ‘Satanic Verses’? Why was Dan Brown condemned by the church for his ‘pure’ fiction? Plagiarism seems to be the latest trend in literature. Kaavya Vishwanath earned fame for plagiarism than name for her debut novel.

Some of the best literature may have been lost in the dustbins of the editor’s office. It is ‘launch-a-book-get-a-critic-free’ world. Many are seen to abandon the profession of pen after suffering the silent torture and savage criticism. What the critics slay is not the writer but his creativity and soul. A lot of people may agree that writing has become unfashionable. Even if you are creating blogs on the net or sms-ing your friend does not become ‘keying’ your thoughts? Had it not been for a diary, the memory of Anne Frank may have long remained buried beneath the remains of the concentration camp.