Indian Talent, Global Content
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Indian Talent, Global Content |
November 2008: What's in the breeze |
How and Why I Became a Writer
Most of my childhood is a blur, punctuated by books of different kinds. An only child growing up in a concrete jungle, I would spend most of my free time through adolescence, pouring over books from the library. The librarian became my friend, my guide. I wanted to be like her when I grew up. At school, though Math came naturally to me, I enjoyed Biology the most. The teacher believed I would do well as a doctor. In high school, when I joined the Missionaries of Charity as a volunteer, the nuns told me what they needed most was doctors who would treat their children for free. I was determined on taking up medicine in college. At college where, incidentally, I never got to study medicine, I started spending most of my evenings teaching children in red light areas. It was fun—the kids were a riot trying to learn the basics of language and math, I sang and danced to them, my friends were with me. What else could I want? I definitely wanted to become a teacher. There had been times when inspired by Steffi Graf's Grand Slam win, I wanted to become a tennis player. I hung around friends who took tennis lessons, would try to take coaching from them, and gladly gave up my favorite shows on television in favor of tennis matches. When Satyajit Ray won the Oscar, for a brief period, I was sure that if there was anything I would be when I grew up, I would be a film director. I maintained scrap books, collected trivia, and even took up film studies in college as an additional subject. There was a time when Kalpana Chawla had fired the spirit of the astronaut in me, the Beatles struck the chord of the musician, while Nelson Mandela's stories aroused in me the desire to become a statesman who would set the people free. Lofty, but true. Never did I dream of becoming a writer. But that is what I became. My love for the written word surely was not enough to propel me to become a writer. Everybody likes a good story, so did I. With not many kids my age in the neighborhood, stories had been my best friends. And with a wild imagination, I had always maintained a note book with scribbles—my own stories. Taking up the job of a librarian, I realized, would not be enough for my constantly wandering mind. I did not need to be continuously surrounded by books in a windowless, high-ceilinged room to be close to words. I could read anytime, anywhere. And more importantly, I could create my own world on paper. That surely must have been more motivating than handling someone else's words. While I dreamt of becoming a doctor, my proficiency in Chemistry and Physics was not that hot. So medicine was out of the question for me. But that did not stop me from writing science articles in the local newspaper. Halfway through college, I realized that being a teacher would prove a wee bit boring for me. Teaching the same syllabus again and again would try my patience. In my social responsibility endeavors, I would tell stories to the children, the gist of which I would write myself, trying to incorporate some kind of learning in each tale. I would encourage them to make their own and tell me. We would all write together. Those were fun times. Those were times when I studied Literature, philosophy, mass communication, followed by years of reporting on current affairs as a journalist, creating e-learning course material as an instructional designer, developing sales collaterals for large companies as marketing communication specialist. Words were at the core of all my jobs. And now, that I write for a living, everybody tells me that they had seen the signs early on. Though why I had never got a glimmer of the same, I cannot fathom. So while sports, aeronautics, films, statesmanship, books are still lolling somewhere in the recesses of my heart, I am closest to my love for words, when I am writing my own. That's where I find my footing in the real world… Chillibreeze's disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article.
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