Story of An Indian Writer

chillibreeze writer — Beena Augustine

My first creative output got published at age 9 in my school magazine. It was called the Autobiography of a Rupee Note. I described the birth of a rupee note in Nasik to its life journey, passing through the hands of various users and finally ending as a torn note which cannot be used anymore. I still remember feeling extremely sad when I wrote the last paragraph of my rupee note’s last leg of journey.

I think from that moment I knew in my heart I’d always be a writer. Of course, I did not contemplate much on it being so young, but years later I realized, if I could be moved by my own writing, then I had the sensitivity and passion to be a writer who could move others.

I regularly published articles and stories in my school magazine. I always scored first place in class for English, got excellent ratings for composition assignments, and in general, was considered an “English pundit”. In my teen years I went through a spate of writing romance stories (influence of reading all those Mills & Boon books). I never published those stories because I was shy and my readers were my friends who devoured them with delight. For university competitions I won prizes for Essay Writing and Short Story Writing.

It was always assumed I would take up English Literature for my B.A course, but I took up Psychology to be with my friends who chose that subject. But after completing the course, English beckoned me and I took my M.A in English Language & Literature. Though I was always comfortable writing anything at the drop of a hat, my formal training in English Language helped me fine-tune my writing skills since it instilled a certain discipline and methodology in my writing.

After my M.A I did a short course in Journalism and Public Relations, which again gave me ample opportunity to polish and hone my writing skills, especially writing for the media. Feeling rather studious, I registered for a PhD in English. Again this gave me a chance to bring technique to my language and I published academic articles during this period.

Whilst registered for research, I worked as a freelance copywriter for several advertising agencies. I also published articles in newspapers like The Hindu for the Metro Plus and Friday Review sections. Copywriting taught me how to write in different styles for different customers and audiences.

As the money was not good in freelance writing at the time and I got fleeced by many people who took me for a ride in the advertising world, I entered the IT world as a Technical Writer in order to get a steady and decent monthly income. As a technical Writer, I had to put a tight leash on my creativity and write in prosaic no-nonsense language. From a Technical Writer, I moved to the world of Corporate Communications where I got a chance to bring out my suppressed creativity as I could work creatively on advertisements, brochures etc.

After 8 years in IT, I had enough of the corporate jungle and the rat race to last me a lifetime. The money was good, but the creative juices in me could not flow freely. I was beginning to feel frustrated. I just wanted to “press Escape” and return to my real vocation, writing.

No, I would not say my IT sojourn was not a waste of time since I was always involved in writing technical, business or marketing material; I think it only strengthened the writer in me. As the last job I held in the IT industry was that of a Project Manager, it gave me experience in managing assignments with professionalism so that they adhered to quality, cost and schedule agreed with my clients; which has benefited me in managing my freelance writing career. Right now I am working on my first freelance writing assignment and words fail me as I try to convey the sense of freedom and utter joy I experience now.

So that is the story of how I evolved as a writer, and I had no regrets when I recently resigned from an IT company to become a full-time writer. I am confident I am a versatile writer because of my exposure to most genres of writing, be it creative writing, business writing, technical writing or academic writing – I love it all. Period.

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Beena writes for chillibreeze.

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