1st June, 2020

Ever since my childhood days I have had an inclination towards expressing my thoughts in the form of quotes, poetries, write ups. Expressing myself always made me feel happy. One of my close friends suggested that I should use the social media platform to share with the world what I write. As such there was a limitation on my freedom of physical movement due to the restrictions imposed by Government in the ongoing pandemic phase, the emotional and mental freedom that I required brought back to the forefront of my thoughts my friend’s long pending, shoved in the corner of my mind suggestion that I must share what I write. I thought, “now is the time, indeed!” So, I penned down an article and shared with my sister for a preview reading before posting it just out of the fear of being judged by the unknown. I thought she, being my sister will definitely give me a more realistic feedback.

Her response got  me thinking, for she said that the write up was good, expressed straight from the heart but I needed to use more “big words” like “jargons” to make it impressive, you know like more “writer kind of material”. I politely messaged back a thank you as I obviously needed to be open to both appreciation as well as criticism with the same level of acceptance. 

But her response kept me contemplating that even though something is written simple, straight forward , right from the writer’s heart, still  needed to be coated in the garb of jargons to sound knowledgeable, intellectual in content and socially approvable ? Really I pondered, is that how a reader’s perspective is?

All the stereotypical thought process that we all have at one point or the other in our lives, the high standards of approval and the parameters of comparison that we set  for ourselves only with the fear of missing out, the fear of not being “in the league” , do they really help us in living a so called “correct” and happy  life  or do they restrict our growth by imposing on us the need to always keep the expectations of other people as qualifying parameter over our own choices and to do what’s trendy only to sound cool?

This incident reminded me of a scene from the movie 3 Idiots where, the famous actor Amir Khan playing the role of  Ranchoddas Chanchad, attending his first class in the engineering college shares the meaning of a simple machine in an understandable layman’s language and perspective quoting zip and fan as examples while his professor replies,” vo sab toh thik hai par definition kya hai, definition??” (All of that is fine but what’s the definition as per the textbook??) 

So, are the reader’s looking at a writer’s ability to use definitions and complex words from the Oxford dictionary while reading a post or do they appreciate what’s simple and directly from the writer’s heart?? Do share your suggestions and reviews.

Happy Reading.!!😊