Writing & Reading

26th August, 2015
I remember having learned from reading when I was as young as 10. My first books being one of the many Children Books written by Enid Blyton. It was an experience with enormous consequences. It opened my mind to exploring the world through books, it showed me the power of my imagination and its magical land I got transported to, from which I would reluctantly return.. These were quite life-changing revelations for a 10-year-old.
I remember even more vividly my first writing experience. We would write essays for school, sure! But I had my own journal when I was 12. It showed me how to organize thought and helped me work out kinks and tangles in my ideas I wouldn't be able to work out in my mind. When I read my journals the other day, I was transported to that world I lived in at that time, the world that I had described, albeit in broken English and with a lot of grammatical errors. The clarity of expression shocked me. I had never read my writings in all these years. Now when I did, it again opened a whole new vista in me. My writing got better over the years, as did the expressions I used. I enjoyed writing, for it gave me clarity of thought like nothing else. It helped me in those moments when even talking to a friend didn't help. I do write occasionally now. I compose. I write stories. I enjoy it even today, in a different way, but nothing beats the desperate scribbles of my first journals. They are precious to me despite their flaws for it shows how I fought my battles and how I evolved as much from writing as from the books that shaped my imagination.

P.S. Thank you, Sreedhar maam for giving me this idea. I'm learning ever more from writing now. Not only am I learning by reading the posts but am also learning by writing my thoughts down about it! It's almost like you quoted this quote to me the other day. Haha.

Cheers!