Reflections
on Why I Write
ELSA
Online Meet
Sunday,
28 April, 2024
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The ELSA meet brought together
literature affectionate to discuss the topic “Reflections on Why I Write.” The
varied views of the participants gave an insight into what can influence and
motivate one to write and write well.
After Prof. Ghosh welcomed the
participants, Mr. Anil Sharma shared one of his own poems in Hindi that showed
how existing reality in society can act as a compulsion for the poet to
transform his observations into literary expression. Michel Foucault’s corpus
of work and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple were discussed by
Dr. Vibha Bhoot as the prominent influence on her writings. Celie, the
protagonist of The Color Purple, has waged a long struggle against
gender and colour discrimination to emerge successful in finding her
happiness. Dr. Vibha specifically talked about the creative urges of Celia that
become a turning point in the novel. Dr. Manju, who writes poetry, said
she finds emotional catharsis as her feelings erupt in her writings. She
presented a poem to emphasize how the plethora of emotions had a
‘flow out’ in her compositions.
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Dr Deena Padayachee from South Africa stated how he uses his writings to speak against racialism and counter the negativism surrounding “Non-white.” He addresses his people as melanin-enriched are now the thicker skinned and thus better equipped to tolerate the atrocities against which Dr. Deena chooses to speak. Dr. Richa explored how her writings have evolved over a certain period. In her childhood days, while she grew up in a joint family of fourteen people, she would write to conceal her emotions in metaphors and imagery. Later, she started expressing herself more unapologetically, and her attacks became direct. Her troubles, the urgency and the restlessness she undergoes are revealed in her works. There is a need to survive what she felt and, thus, she writes. Through her self-composed poem she summed up her feelings in lucid poetic expression.
Prof.
Ghosh spoke at length and enlightened the participants by alluding to works of
noted writers and poets in different ages and cultures: John Milton’s Areopagitica, John Keats’s
The Fall of Hyperion - A Dream, James Joyce’s A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man,
George Orwell’s “Why I Write,” Writings of
Sadaat Hasan Manto, Bob Dylan’s “Blowin' In The Wind” etc. He also dwelt
on his lifelong urge to communicate, through speaking and writing, with his
students, scholars and writers from all over the globe.
Dr. Srikant Kulshreshtha draws
inspiration from Rabindranath Tagore. The Nobel Laureate’s poems are a direct
influence on his work. Dr. Anjali Singh acknowledged that writing for her is
the source of joy and she feels that the medium of writing enables
her to express herself better before the world. Mrs. Sharbani Roychoudhury and Shyamal attended the meet.
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Why I Write
Deena Padayachee
It was a pleasure to be part of illuminating webinar, a meeting of sentient souls whose insights were a pleasure to savour.
I wrote, and continue to write, so that I could come to terms with the legally permitted humiliation, irrationality and absurdities of Apartheid South Africa and beyond. All my life I have spread authentic information that was hidden from most of the people.
Some of the South African state and other media of my youth spoke and wrote happily about racism, colonialism and imperialism while denigrating socialism, communism, and the non-European countries of our planet.
An excerpt from my poem, Covid 19.
Locked down savages are stopped from their endemic invading,
theft, pillaging, raping, destroying,
Duping, bullying, smothering and
murdering.
At last, the peace of Nature is returning to our planet,
At last, the Earth is beginning to heal,
As the asphyxiating, suffocating, polluting, fractious, human horde
Is itself suffocated by a microscopic foe.
-Dr. Deena Padayachee, is a Medical Doctor, from Durban, South Africa
Why Writing Matters
Nibir K Ghosh
My earliest recollection of the urge to write dates back to my early childhood years when I began writing letters to my father, close relatives and friends. Those were the days when having penfriends was the in-thing. Without any exaggeration I can say for sure that I may have written and received over 30000 letters to/from friends. As my interest in reading literature became a passion around the age of seven and eight, I began to notice how significant a form can writing be as a means of communicating our innermost feelings and perceptions. When I developed interest in playing and watching cricket and football matches, I developed the inclination to become a sports journalist. As a student I was always fascinated by the lives and works of personalities whose inspirational stories showcased the need to give back whatever little we can give in return for what we have received as the gift of life. Even without the professional requirement for promotions, I am happy to share that I always found it a passionate experience to write for journals, periodicals, magazines and books. As Chief Editor of Re-Markings, I always look forward to writing my editorials with the focus on issues and concerns of contemporary as well as universal relevance. Considering how time flies, I find it difficult to believe that the Editorial for the forthcoming issue of Re-Markings will mark my 50th editorial for the journal. Writing keeps me connected to friends and events .from various parts of the globe. I really can't tell whether writing makes one an "exact ma" as Bacon claims in his essay, "Of Studies," but I can say with certainty that writing helps me to ascertain my priorities in terms of living life on my own terms and in contending with binaries like justice/injustice, wright/wrong, human/inhuman etc. with regard to what goes on within and around. In short, writing with empathy and compassion about discrimination, poverty, crime, suffering, abuse of power among other things, makes me understand what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., categorically stated: "An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
My Urge for Writing: An Emotional Catharsis
Manju
Poetry most of the time has been seen as a powerful medium for emotional catharsis. It offers a profound way to express and process the innermost feelings to the poet as well as to the readers. It provides a well designed and flexible outlet for expressing deep emotions which may be very difficult to express in words otherwise. By using selected words and other poetic devices, poets can convey those complex feelings of love, grief, joy, or despair which resonate but in the bottom of the heart in absence of appropriate expression. When a poet finds someone sharing the same feelings, he feels solace. I would like to mention a couple of couplets here composed by me expressing the same idea:
मेरा रुतबा रुबाब पन्नों पर
मेरी आंखो के खुआंव पन्नों पर
जो दे न पाई रूबरू होकर
वही सारे जवाब पन्नों पर
जो मेरी आंख ने पीया था कभी
छलक आया सैलाब पन्नों पर
वो तेरे मेरे खत बता क्या हैं
प्रेम का है हिसाब पन्नों पर।
Whenever someone
writes poetry, he creates a space where he and his readers can take a dip into
the ocean of his personal experiences and memories. Sometimes it happens when
the poet revisits his past or contemplates his current circumstances, he not
only understands himself but also helps in coming to terms with difficult
emotions. When painful emotions are expressed through words, the poets begin to
make sense of their suffering and find a sense of healing. Whenever poetry
flows directly from the heart without making any effort, it takes the poet as
well as the readers towards emotional maturity. The lines of my poem shared
here explain it well:
The Poem
In heart's cage keeps
bouncing a poem,
Looks out of its
window
And knocks on its
door;
I dress it in precious
clothes and deck
It with glittering
similes,
And imprison it with
rhythms of a veil.
The quiet, beautiful
girl
Now bides her time in
shy hesitancy.
Dr Manju, Professor UILAH, Chandigarh University
Language,
Power and Gendered Social Inequality: Foucaldian Perspective
Vibha
Bhoot
Foucault's analysis of society centers on the concept of power and its pervasive role in shaping social institutions, relationships, and identities. He argues that power is not merely a top-down force exerted by governments or elites but is diffused throughout society and manifests in various forms, including disciplinary practices and norms. Foucault discusses how institutions like prisons, schools, and hospitals regulate and control individuals through surveillance and normalization. This concept refers to the management of populations by states through an array of techniques and strategies to optimize and control life. Foucault introduces this idea to explain how the state exercises power over the population and individuals' conduct through governing practices and policies. Foucault examines the role of language in the formation of knowledge and the exercise of power. He views language not just as a means of communication but as a tool for structuring reality and enforcing power relations. Foucault emphasizes the importance of discourse, which refers to the ways of speaking and thinking about the world that are governed by rules and conventions. Discourses shape our understanding of reality and are a means through which power operates. Episteme refers to the underlying structures of knowledge that define what is considered true or false in different historical periods. Each era has its own episteme that shapes and limits what can be known and spoken. Foucault argues that knowledge and power are intertwined. Knowledge is not neutral but is produced through power relations and serves to reinforce them. Foucault's work on social justice focuses on how power relations create and sustain social inequalities. He is critical of traditional notions of justice that ignore the complexities of power dynamics. Foucault challenges the legitimacy of social institutions like the legal and penal systems, which he argues perpetuate injustice under the guise of maintaining order. He emphasizes the importance of resistance against oppressive power structures. Foucault believes that marginalized groups can challenge dominant discourses and practices through various forms of activism. Later in his career, Foucault focuses on the concept of "care of the self," advocating for personal practices of freedom and self-transformation as a means to resist and subvert power. Foucault's work provides a critical lens to examine how language and power operate within society, revealing the underlying mechanisms that perpetuate social inequalities and suggesting avenues for resistance and change. Critical opinions were included in the presentation which accentuated the above statements by Michael Foucault.- Dr Vibha Bhoot, Dept Of English, JNV University, Jodhpur
Why do I Write?
Richa
Apparently, it is an easy topic to speak on, “Why do I write?” but when
I started thinking about it, it took me to an ongoing journey that began long
back.
I can roughly divide this journey into three phases namely, writing as a
child, as an adolescent and as an adult. I began writing diary quite early and
I remember communicating with it quite often. I don’t know what had I written
under the title ‘Black clouds of my life’ when I was probably 11 or 12 years
old. There must have been reasons. I was a lonely child in a long joint family
of some fourteen members. So, having no one with me, I began writing purely to
share my feelings, to vent out or to rant. I liked it and I had a company of my
pen and notebook to cry with me. All I know is that it was urgent for me to
write then.
As an adolescent, I continued writing because I liked it and I started
writing poems in metaphorical language or through references and allusions. I
was probably scared to be judged or questioned and I chose poetry as a cover
up. Yes, metaphors can be a great cover up, you speak and you don’t speak. This
led to a unique experience of mediating between concealing and revealing. The
side effect was self-absorption. Writing became a source of avoiding my
troubled surroundings and getting too much into myself. But I can’t deny that I
continued because it was still urgent.
As an adult, I realized that or I was made to realise that writing is a
political act and we must write to resist, to question or to simply intervene.
So, I dropped the metaphors, (more or less), removed the adapted decorative
linguistic veil and started writing as I am, as I think. Writing enables me to
move in and out of myself, to be able to be empathetic and most importantly to
be honest. So, I write about my absence, I write about other absences too. As
an adult I have learnt to understand loneliness and crowd and I write about
both. I write because I have stories, I write because I am stories, ‘Graveyard
of stories’ (title of one of my poems). I write because it is important to tell
the world that I am alive, or I am watching you. At the end, I can say that I have restlessness
enough to write and helplessness enough that I can only write.
And yes, I write because it is urgent.
-Dr Richa, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Patna College
Reflections on Why I Write?
Saurabh Agarwal
It implies that reading good
literature will automatically get reflected in the person's writing
and motivate them to write more. Well in my case, not to be taken as
a rule in general, but may not be a secluded example, reading has proved to be
debilitating when I compare my meagre output, quantitative and qualitative,
falling way short of anything of value, but parasitic on the readers time and
effort and eventually not imparting anything worthy of the temporal investment
that one may have made on it.
Such self-attributed deficiency
remains a hurdle and set against the standards of the stalwarts, remains hidden
in the layers of self-criticism rarely surfacing when the urge to express is
strong and assisted by the art of skillful expression to convey. The necessity
to write arises as the ultimate tool to lend the disorganized thoughts a
concrete shape that will find a meaning of its own and should be
endowed with some power to bear the onslaught it may have to bear in this
age of trolling.
Writing is an offshoot
of one's sensitivity. It has a strong tendency to be a carrier
of the writer’s personality traits and if not
skillfully camouflaged by strong imagination, it will be
judged and dissected to reveal the meanings never intended to be there.
The fear of own weakness glaring out can do damage to the originality
and lead to the use of subdued tones. This makes me hypercritical of my own
writing and aborting it.
While I may encounter numerous
situations that instigate me to wield the pen, habitual procrastination may
remain the unsurmountable challenge that has proved to be the death knell for
sudden ideation. One streak that produces a good piece may not be enough to
qualify me as a writer. Thus, writing has to be meaningful, methodological
and consistent to leave a lasting impact and till such strengths are
not acquired I would rather not write.
A World More Real: A Short Collection of Haikus
Jessica
Joel
Reflecting on why I
write, I can’t stop but reminisce how sensitive I was as a child. I couldn’t
bear to see people suffering in the hospitals, begging by the roadsides,
scantily dressed children with dirt stuck on their hands and feet crying for
help. Capsuled in an imperfect world, I would find refuge in the perfection of
the garden at my grandmother’s house. The lawn was too big for us to run in a
go without heaving, but the best escape from the world. As Robert Browning once
said, “God is the perfect poet”, I found perfection in the sturdiness of the
trees; I found serenity in the gentle breeze filling my lungs with whiffs from
the distant flowers, there was joy in observing the bees and insects racing for
bright petals, I loved the story behind the squirrel chase, or birds preening
each other before having a pecking argument and flying away. This was the world
more real to me, and more than a perfect escape, it taught a child who was
nervous while talking to express through words. And as I would hide behind the
tall Gulmohar trees at the end, all covered by the bushes of wild periwinkles I
would take out the pocket diary and write about the ants marching over the
freshly fallen leaves, the morning dew sliding from the grass, and with time
rhyming naturally oozed out in my expressions, and without any knowledge of
what was meter or intonations I started writing poetry and finally found an
outburst of emotional expression. Just as William Wordsworth said, “poetry is a
spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions, it takes its origin from emotion
recollected in tranquility,” poetry happened to me.
Soaking in the nature and
writing it down, I now realize that Plutarch truly said “Painting is silent
poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.”
Since it was visual
imagery that provoked me to writing, I want to express through some haikus, how
these images provoked me emotionally till it made a way for thoughts to race,
and the race to be finished in written words. As I write, I transcend to the
world that is more real to me, the world that I am creating, where I am at
peace and can question nature at length, where I can feel beyond the pain and
cope without being slayed, where I can escape the brutal pangs of this world
and show the real me. Below are some Haikus that are a result of words inspired
by the world that is more real to me.
I am more than grateful to ELSA for this session of reflection; some beautiful memories long buried can realign the future.
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It is exceedingly sad that one of our very regular members, Prof. Santosh Gupta, former Head, Department of English, Rajasthan University, Jaipur couldn't attend the meet. I learnt with profound sorrow of her untimely demise from a friend. She was an integral part of ELSA and Re-Markings.Will always miss her affectionate presence.In Memoriam
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