About Writing and living

To borrow from Somerset Maugham, "I write as though I were a person of importance; and indeed I am- to myself". I have been writing since long, possibly since the time I wrote my first poem in the school at the age of around twelve. Unfortunately, I never could take time out to extend this writing beyond what I wrote on the back of the cigarette packets, and last pages of my notebooks during engineering. The standard Indian middle class chase started somewhere in school which was to end with a degree in Engineering, and by the time I finished my engineering in 1994, the new middle class milestone of MBA was ready to set me on new chase, and ended with a PG degree in International Business. To give it time and discipline in order to get a neatly crafted piece was totally out of question, with the interest in writing fighting a losing battle with the equations of electrical control systems. Once, however, I came to know of the possibility of getting my writing out in print, I did take to writing as duck to water, the finesse was and is to an extent missing. It was more about things wading in and out of my thoughts as dreams and nightmares, spilled out on paper. There was raw force of truth and honest in what I wrote, but I am not supremely confident of the grace and beauty in it. Reading it backwards, it sure does give a pleasure to read what I have written if something nice turned out, mostly out of accident.

However, working a routine and regular kind of job, selling telecom equipments, I felt has given me a level of legitimacy, however, legacy was another of the human need, which was totally left hanging out of balance. While legitimacy defined what you are, legacy describes what you are meant to be and borne to be. Writing came to my rescue in this pursuit of legacy, as I wrote a book called "If Truth were to be Told" which is less of a disciplined writing but more of an outpouring of thoughts and opinion on life and things which constitute life, like love, family and work. The Print-on-Demand revolution gave me an opportunity to formalize what was informally written out, and trust me, it was a great feeling to see what you have written in print, for all to see, and read. It made me feel something like Clark Kent, taking off the formal clothes, and getting into superman's outfit, or in my case, rather into a writer's cloak. A parallel life came into existence with everyday new things to be done, new steps to be taken, how to promote the book, where to place it for public view, how to better the writing and keep writing. I wrote because I could think and because I could write. It was my way to leave the mark of my thoughts on the sands of time for posterity to see and take note of. My daughter's birth was something which brought me alive to the sense of smallness of my own life on the earth and made me aware of the miserably, infinitesimally small proportion we as human beings hold in the overall scheme of creation. The way things are for a very long time we tend to push away thre thoughts of our own end, believing it to to be untrue to even be a consideration. After a while however, it more and more appears to be nearer to you and becomes more and more of a possibility. You start building your life around it, and as logic would dictate, you start doing things which you feel you are destined to do before the doomsday. Writing, was my salvation, and way out of smallness. For me it was writing, for others it could be painting or photography,or music. While your left brain has given you a foundation, you need to give a chance to the right one, that stores the memory of you which nature created. You have lived a long time living as one society had created, be what you are meant to be before it is too late. Do not postpone it for a while, you could have been dead yesterday, today is a gift.