WRITE CHALLENGED

Writing is not an easy profession. Creative writing isn’t at all. Writing in every form is tougher than the toughest tasks in the world. Only a few are blessed with the skills of writing something noteworthy, valuable and sensible. Writing can be categorised into two very important principles: 1) Write to make others happy and 2) Write to make own self happy. The former guarantees a square meal. The later form of writing promises starvation.

People who have over the years taken up this challenge to write have been verified & scrutinised through angles of suspicion, disbelief, agony, jealousy apathy. Take for instance an author who for the most of his or her life researches a theme and writes on it. The manuscript is readied for the so called intellectuals to go through. The moment a minute drop of controversy is found hanging around the text, the book or the thought the author wishes to convey dies an untimely death. This happens even before the book hits the stalls, the libraries or bookstores. Then there is the incredible breed of creative writers or copywriters, who slog day & night to write stuff that, sell products, create brands, paint a corporate image and create a revolution. They write slogans, they churn out jingles and they pen the infamous punch lines. Oh yes! They are also accused of being arrogant, cranks, attitude driven and idiots. But they are what they are. On innumerable occasions they write without a proper brief being made available to them. After they are done with the creative labour; a creative head/director, a marketing manager, a client servicing executive and an uncreative guy screw his happiness. Sometimes a creative writer is compelled to think without a cause and work without the basic internet connection to his availability. Then there are the task masters who expect them to work like machines and demand two copy matters be produced on an hourly basis. Then there are those untimely phases of insistence made by perfect nobodies – write something, do something and create something.

There are a very few who have ended up writing to make their own self happy. They are now legends. Some are living legends and some are long dead. Their creative geniuses still remain unchallenged. Take for instance the case of Sri Ram Krishna Paramhansa. Read through his Gospel and you realise how a man who had never touched a book in his life had the God’s gift to celebrate about. His verses and quotes were documented & interpreted by his followers and disciples spread worldwide. They then carefully compiled the same and printed millions of copies to be read in multilingual modes. Mahakavi Rabindranath Tagore, Veer Savarkar, Mahatma Gandhi, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, P. L. Deshpande, Ismat Manto produced literary gems which have gained the status of being timeless.

Writing is an art which needs to be respected & worshipped rather than pushed into a dungeon or demoralised. Some also have this habit of making poker faces while reading the writings of average or above average writers. As if they were born crying, listening, talking and eating from their mother’s womb. Sarcastic comments are even made by lunatics who don’t understand the basic elements of writing or the language which is proudly called ‘English’.
As a creative writer, I too am never satisfied with all that work of mine. But there are certain moments when I think the work deserved appreciation, accolades and applause. Like an unsung hero of a forgotten war, I simply retreat into a cocoon only to push my head out when asked to take that pen again and create what is perhaps called History!

- vociferous