“I am my own master, paint now as I please----”
-Robert
Browning (Fra Lippo Lippi)
What inspires you to write? I’ve written about it once
before. I’ve written on how words turn into strangers as you go on scribbling
them. People turn into strangers too. They have a grip of your hand at this
instant, and the next moment, they shy away. They’re bound. We’re bound. We’re
all similar- we’re slaves of society. We need to break free, we need magic! Not
the magic that happens after you say abracadabra; it’s the magic that gets your
pulse racing. Listen! Listen to how the sounds of the night connect- how they
embrace and caress each other and turn into an everlasting harmony. The music
ceases to be when night ceases to be. But there is this one good thing about
the night- it comes back. It comes back when you need it the most. You can’t
touch it, but you can love it, play with it- oh, you can hurt it and you can
scream into its ears- but the night will never betray you.
The night is magical. This is not just a romantic assertion-
the night truly is magical. Many a times I would stand on the terrace and
question the dark nothingness. I would have a broken piece or a snapped cord
inside me every time and I would be sure that this is the last time I can
endure it. It doesn’t answer your
questions; it fixes you- heals you entirely. So break free into the night, move
to the rhythm of its voices; these voices will not mislead you. They will not
take you to foreign lands; they will only drive you to your soul. And the soul
is a beautiful place to be in- there will be peace, there might me nightmares,
but nightmares come to an end too. Everything goes away, magic as well. Magic
happens, magic doesn’t stay. Only memories stay.
Let’s talk about fantasies! Fantasies are magical as well.
You know they’re not true, but your insides feed on them. You live them already
before you live them for real, if you do. What is so fantastic about fantasies?
I’ll tell you! Reason and reality are the essential elements in a Homo sapien
that kills eccentricity. Eccentricity is the essence of a wild, free and
magical life. Now, coming back to our question, these elements are not hampered
when fantasies are concerned, but at the same time, they do not interfere with
them either. Fantasies are magical because we travel two parallel worlds while
being mindful of both simultaneously.
When we write fiction, we travel. Here too, we travel two
parallel worlds, something which is not possible without magic. One is not
naïve enough to believe in fiction, but one has to be whippy enough to switch
to and back continuously. We must not confuse it with having a grip on reality
because once we talk of reality, we get this question of “What is reality?”
which none has been able to define in absolute terms yet. So, we will try to
understand reality in terms of only what is “apparently real”. The writer might
have the grip of what is “apparently real”, but has to create a world where one
can slide to and from these two ‘constructed’ and ‘apparently real’ worlds
without much difficulty. In the constructed world, the reader will experience
what is magically not true, and in the ‘apparently real’ world, they will
realize with hindsight that there might, after all, be some truthfulness in the
construction. This is where the real job of the writer lies. The job is to make
the reader see that writing is free from society.
By saying that writing is free from society, I do not mean
that while writing one has no social obligations. The words I write will need a
society to read them and appreciate or detest them. What I mean is that what
the writer writes is not bound to the dictates of a society. The writer, in my
opinion, needs to openly condemn what hinders their art and hurl some magic
towards its face. This magic is the kind of magic that will intimidate the
obstacles by making the reader realize that what is happening in the text is a
parallel world which should, if necessary, enhance, but never disturb the
goings-on of the “apparently real” and “seemingly normal” everyday life. And we
are all wise enough to determine the difference, at this point of time, between
the changes that enhance our lives (even if they bring us face to face with
some harsh facts), and which are the ones that disturb our lives (the ones we
can do without). And just like the night that keeps on coming back, creativity
will keep flowing into your veins, with no hindrances whatsoever. There will be
magic in the words that you scribble.
