May 16, 2014

Writing & Me

(composed on April 4, 2013)

During the 1998-99 school year, as a 6th grader in New Delhi, India, I was introduced to a form of creative-writing that instantly wooed me! It brought me to doors that I hadn't imagined existed. My love for writing is solidly grounded in that one grade-level, that one course, and that one single concept -- writing autobiographies of animate and inanimate objects.

Writing these autobiographies was like "reading" a mystery novel. I did not know what my pen would form next, what my mind would fathom. With the thrill to uncover the story, I would write quickly, bumping up my heartrate with excitement, allowing my arm to start hurting without fail each time. I would write more than the requirement and let my imagination do somersaults.

Aforementioned writing method introduced me to the vastness of my own mind and the creativity that resides within it. The essays were mere bait, and the feelings of falling in love with this method, though true, were also illusionary. I was actually discovering and falling in love with myself!

My relationship with writing, outside of academics [and sometimes even within it], has had the underlying theme of self-discovery. My private journals, online blogs and forum participation, personal emails and texts, handwritten letters and love notes, public comments and tweets, they all continue to evolve overtime. As do I.

Based on the need of the moment, I write to empty and quiten the mind, and I also write to fill it up with ideas, possibilities, direction; I write for clarity and to unjumble, and I also write to question and stir things up. I continue to make discoveries as my pen draws from the fathoms of my mind, and I continue to fall in love with writing, with words, with discovery, and with self!

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