Writers are Rebels and So Am I!

As a literature student, now, an MA in English, I dissect a writer’s life, works and therefore his/her oeuvre. It is tacit and goes without saying that every writer is a rebel for a reason and perhaps a cause. Writing is an effective channel of expression and every writer expends it as a vent to convey and communicate his/ her thoughts, feelings, opinions and perceptions.

One such writer who thrived in prolific confessional poetry is Kamala Das. Her poems were prescribed for our fourth/final semester exams: “An Introduction” and the “Old Play House”. What inspired me to write this post is the news of her death; she passed away early this week. Both the poems are poignant as they portray the raging conflict between her opinions and those around her. She wrote in times when women were beginning to enter the portals of schools and universities. Das tells in her poem “An Introduction” that people (could be her parents, extended families, neighbours etc) around her, asked her to refrain from writing in English and said “don’t sit on the wall, don’t peep through window, be Amy, be madhvikutty (she is a malayali and that’s her pet name)”. This is precisely how girls are conditioned and silenced. She confesses how growing up was an unpleasant experience for her as it added to her insecurity. She broke the stereotype and revolted by cutting her hair and wearing her brother’s clothes.

Irrespective of a girl or a boy, we all do find ourselves at loggerheads with our parents and the world at some point in time. Most often than not, one can feel the heat when points of view do not match, when you feel a proclivity to some norm fabricated by your parents or the world around you. I’m born to orthodox and conservative parents and there is a lag of about 30 years between my parents and me. So, one can understand the intricacy here, though, I believe that it’s a boon to have seasoned parents; as they have seen the world more than you have! They admitted me into the best educational institutions: Rosary Convent, St Francis and Osmania University College of Arts and Social Sciences and ironically didn’t expect me to be opinionated and make my own choices. “Minu (my pet name) don’t laugh loudly, don’t wear this, don’t talk like that”; was the rhetoric doled out to me. I’m neither hesitant nor apologetic to say that I was a rebel when I was in my teens and often couldn’t see eye-to-eye with my parents on most matters. I took a bold stance and candidly confessed that I will live life on my own terms and will not let anybody live my life. Things gradually changed and today I make my own choices, opinionated, bask in my freedom and live life on my own terms, and my folks, are happy and proud of who I’m.

At college, we as a batch both in Francis Junior and degree college rebelled against the dress code: salwar kameez; and retorted by wearing casuals. Some other rules charted by the college wouldn’t make any sense. In junior college, we assiduously created a chart, wrote few catchy, pejorative sentences and pinned them up on our notice board. We never revealed our identity though and had the principal guessing if it was the Sciences, Maths or Arts group. She was such a pain in the neck. However, most conjectured, it could be us, as the sciences and maths group will not have ample time and the guts to manipulate. It is college damn it and let us be as we are! While pursuing MA, the entire class forayed into rebelling. College days were so much fun! I wish I could turn the clock and go back in time. Those beautiful moments today, have become most cherished and sweet memories and will remain green in our minds.

Shakespeare, the romantic poets: Keats, Wordsworth, William Blake; Elizabeth Barrett Browning were all rebels who produced finest pieces in literature. Though they were a host of them, I put only few names coz this post is only getting longer. So folks, feel free to add other writers who you think were rebels of their times.

A Room Of One's Own

Of all channels of expression, one channel that brings out the best in me is writing! I most certainly articulate myself better when I write. What I can’t say, I do it with ease when I write.

Writing is a writer’s rendition of what he perceives, thinks, feels and believes. It could be poetry, drama, novel, epic, plays, essays, short stories and now might I add blogging also. Francis Bacon, the immortal essayist, in who the idea of an essay found genesis mentioned in one of his prolific essays: “Of Studies” that “Writing makes a man perfect”. This is true though we perhaps overlook it. When we read, we might not absorb; but when we write, it is ingrained in our minds. An example one can most likely relate to is spellings of words. English comes with its own idiosyncrasies of rules and it is fraught with more exceptions than rules. When asked to spell an intricate word, all of us can’t get it right until we do a simulation of writing by groping our fingers on a table or any surface near to us.

What is already written I can refine and edit but it reaches the pinnacle when I witness an event/experience and thereby translate it into words in solitude. Isolation
from the world is must for me and for that matter a writer also. Solitude inspires a poet to write better as s/he locks the World out. Wordsworth meant what he stated in his famous lyrical Ballads:” Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings and emotions recollected in tranquility”.
It is only when one is at peace with the mind; one can do justice to poetry and other genres of writing. In his timeless poem “Daffodils”, Wordsworth concludes
“For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with daffodils.”
Here it is tacit that the sight of Daffodils flits across in his mind’s eye, when in seclusion from the World.

To satiate the feminist in me, I have to quote Virginia Woolf who postulated a nugget of truth in her prose “A Room of One’s Own” She quips “A woman needs a room of ones own and 500 pound’s a year to write fiction”. This was written way back in the 19th century when women were snubbed behind the four walls of a Kitchen and education was a distant dream. She was one in a thousand women who had access to education because of her educated parents who encouraged education of a girl child.

Even an inkling of sound or commotion can hamper the flow of thought. Writing just doesn’t happen out-of-nowhere. An uninhibited thought process is the key to good writing. I cannot write about things I hold disdain for, yet I can write if my angst for things I dislike merits writing! Now that’s SCHIZOPRHENIA. The other day my Professor was saying that we all have split personalities. Will deliberate that at length sometime later. As s/he grows and hones skills a writer must also fine tune his/her mind to look at things differently. Why should the reader read your Story? They are multitudes who can write. But what sets you apart from the rest? This is the Question a writer should ask oneself!

This Post is getting longer and I can just go on and on…

Do not be surprised at my macabre love for writing as it is this that keeps me alive and going!