A creative journey from personal to universal
The morning routine is incomplete until I’ve finished reading the middles in newspapers we get at home, and then others in online editions. Newspapers have been carrying these feature articles for decades as far as my memory goes. Thousands and thousands of these articles, consisting of heart- warming stories by people from among the readers, have created an unbroken chain for years. Fortunately, I happen to be a small link in this chain, though my contribution has been like a drop in the ocean.
At times rejections make me sulk and wonder if I’m losing steam, but then I bounce back with renewed vigour to write. What impels us to write these articles one after another?
Stories have been an inseparable part of human life; and writing, reading, and sharing them the biggest human passion. By nature, each one of us is a story- teller or a raconteur. As soon as the child is able to think and imagine things for himself, he creates his own stories – excuses for not going to school or for incomplete homework, or recounting his school activities with mirth and enthusiasm – and then it goes on for life.
These personal, agreeable articles based on humorous and witty anecdotes, nostalgic recollections, personal experiences, encounters with interesting individuals, or reflections on compelling current issues, have their strength in their relatability. If it rings a bell, if readers can relate to it, and if it can bring a smile to their face early in the morning, the writer can pat his/ her back.
Our desire to share our experiences originates from an impulse to break out of the prosaic predictability of human life. We write to stay alive and our narrations are the preservation of the quintessential human experience. Middle articles provide the best opportunity to reach out to people and showcase our literary talent. Each writer, who is writing about something different, or writing differently, is trying to add a little spice to an otherwise humdrum life.
There are hundreds of stories inside us, waiting to be picked up and written about. Some of these come and stand in front of us, and won’t let us rest till we put them on paper, whereas some polite and genteel ones keep lurking at the back of the mind but let us take our own time in paying attention to them. Some stories call for rigorous effort to reach their final shape, while others write themselves out, and after finishing, we wonder if we have written them!
These short pieces, depicting reallife experiences, are our connection to the universe and allow us to take readers along on a creative journey, telling us that we are not alone in our thoughts and experiences, thus turning the personal into the universal.
SOME STORIES CALL FOR RIGOROUS EFFORT TO REACH THEIR FINAL SHAPE, WHILE OTHERS WRITE THEMSELVES OUT, AND AFTER FINISHING, WE WONDER IF WE HAVE WRITTEN THEM!