How it began: Writing (Act I)
Series : How it began
A quick note about the ‘How it began series’ : I want to get into writing a bit more about my life experiences and my process that have led me to becoming an artist or even to have the most quirky likes and dislikes. I want to take this opportunity to improve my writing and in the process share a few anecdotes along the way.
Growing up, I have always been a fan of writing. ‘A Tamil-speaking smart mouth tween turned writer’, there’s a story that’ll write itself, but since it won’t, I’ll write it for you. Back then, I did not know that it was a particular liking of mine but it was definitely more of an escape from the grueling chains of mathematics. Words made sense to me, numbers did not. Looking back, it does make more sense. I remember having more than one preferred way of writing. It was not always an essay or a short story, although it did start off like that, I also ventured into writing films.
My initial interest for writing in the story format and almost in this narrator’s voice method started in 6th grade. I was fresh out of 5th grade, just came back from a month long summer Europe trip, ready to face the challenges of the next big grade. Life was easy so far and it was all about to change, they split up science into three separate classes. Now this meant three additional homework assignments, three exams and just 3 new ways of taking away what light was left in my schooling days. But amid all this, like a bright shining light, came my new English Language teacher, Mrs. Ramesh. I’ll bet every writer holds a special place in their hearts for their English teachers.
Quite charismatic in her own way, with her own brand of wit and humor, she brought along the assignment of creative writing. If I remember correctly, it was called ‘Composition’. We basically were provided a prompt and had to compose a whole essay based around it. Among all the science-sounding noise, compositions very quickly became one of my favorite assignments. I started looking forward to school on days where all we did was sit and write, and for those 30 minutes, I was a totally different person. Buried myself into the world that my mind would take me to and just explore the lanes and towns in there. I would even come home, give myself prompts and keep on writing. I vividly remember one english exam where I was so excited about the composition question, that I misread one of the ‘fill in the blank’ question, assumed it was a composition question and wrote a whole story. Filled up a space for one word, with a whole world.
A lot of the books we read as part of class have also had a great impact on what I like to read and how I like to write to this day. ‘Treasure Trove’ was the name of our textbook and a story from it that really stuck with me was ‘Girls’ by Mrinal Pandey. It’s a story about a small girl who travels to her grandmother’s house for Durga Puja with all her siblings and her very pregnant mother. The story unfolds the observations of patriarchy through the innocent questioning of this 8-year-old. The fact remains that the style of writing, the topic and the protagonist have all stuck with me through the years. I always think of this story very dearly.
As school went by, I could not practice my writing as much as I would have liked. I did have to focus a lot more on the science subjects. I needed a space that was just for my writing, which is when my friend Nidhi, Aparna and I found Mrs. Ahuja. How can I describe Mrs. Ahuja other than a ‘strict, chin tilted up high, with her glasses at the tip of her nose woman’, who was in her early 70s and loved English more than anyone she’s ever known. Aparna, Nidhi and I would sit in a circle around the table in her living room. A quaint little house tucked away between the streets of Bengaluru, we found a writing sanctuary. The 2 hours that we spent in Mrs. Abuja’s house was ours. I definitely had my moments where I would monkey around, but for the most part, I got back some time to be with the language I love. Sometimes, we would all lose track of time, lost in the tales of Mrs. Ahuja and her worldly travels. She was a well-traveled woman and not only did she speak of it constantly, so did her interior design. Her house also landed up being a sanctuary for my writing (not that I was aware of it then).
I’d like to think that Mrs. Ramesh, Mrs. Ahuja & ‘Girls’ plus so many more short stories I have read have led me to the first phase of discovering the fact that I am a writer. Soon after I left the shadows of these amazing teachers I had till I was done with 10th grade, I was faced with a new challenge of trying to find that source of positive encouragement via school. I was still not aware of my liking beyond the scope of my education. Suddenly, compositions were not part of my curriculum and it never found time in my busy school schedule. It was the end of my first writing era. It is nice to look back and look at the journey I have had as a writer and artist. The only creative writing I was doing at this point was writing answers in an exam I had not studied for and it came in very handy.
Thank you for reading my work! Keep an eye out for Act II and Act III of this theme, and let me know if you like this kind of writing and I will continue this series.