stories

I have been thinking for some time that most stories are extreme approximations of actual lives lived. Details glossed over, unpleasant and embarrassing parts left out and moments of doubts and anxiety omitted. I heard an accomplished film script writer saying no one wants to know about the boring life of a protagonist -  if they show him waking up, going through the motions and getting ready, audience will lose patience. But who will ever see the hero waking up, just having dreamt a bad dream, lie awake thinking about the day ahead and pointlessness of the job he has to do, but still make the effort to get up and put himself through the paces. That itself should be heroic enough. Sometimes we come across an ordinary moment from daily life written up in a book and think that is the first time someone else had expressed that exact thought which you always had and never told anyone.

I heard someone say that we should tell our stories so that for someone somewhere it might become validation that such thoughts are normal and such lives are okay. But it takes enormous courage to say it as it is. I hope I can express myself in words that are true to what I feel, have courage to be seen and never judge others when they do the same. Without being a cynic, know also that I might not have heard the full story still, that it is hard for another to say it and make allowance for the same.

1. I came across this passage in the book “If on a winter’s night a traveler” that triggered above thought – “Do you want to demonstrate that the living also have a wordless language, with which books cannot be written but which can only be lived, second by second, which cannot be recorded or remembered? First comes this wordless language of living bodies then the words books are written with, and attempts to translate that first language are vain…”

2. In what I think of as déjà vu, happened to come across this facebook post which was talking exactly about untold stories. 

3. There are 115 days left in 2020. It is one of the weirdest year I have ever lived through and it is not yet over. Rather than getting rid of this year and deciding new “new year resolutions”, I thought why not start now itself? What if I take on a 100 days challenge – read atleast 25 pages a day, write journal or blog daily, exercise for 30 mins and cook a meal. At the very minimum, it will distract me from all the other worries and anxieties. I have 15 days cushion too to make up for any lapses.