Some live through stories of others

-

 I am a middle-class graduate whose college was about doing something for sustenance. I have a boring life. I haven't travelled. I don't take risks. I don't have many experiences. I live a comfortable standard life with practical decisions that should ensure food on my plate few years down the line. 

But I dream all the time (with eyes open and closed ). And how do I live it?  By reading fiction.


Through these fiction stories, I have lived many lives. I have felt the rush of a banker whose millions were at a stake on a timely decision. I have felt the adrenaline of a detective who had to fake-date a serial killer.I have loved a man on a wheelchair and mourned his death. I have seen a one-legged cancer virgin boy through the eyes of a cancer girl. I have craved the warmth of a touch being a CFer. I have been in a toxic relationship and learned to learn myself. I have loved a boy who lost his mom to cancer and got abandoned by his father at 13. I have been a prisoner waiting to avenge the wrong done to me.I have loved and been loved by the school's popular bad boy. I have felt something similar to depression while living through a suicidal and depressed person. I have tried to understand a judged girl and a wierd boy. 

I have lived pain, joy and love through my characters. People like me experience life through characters in these stories. 

You might think it is a sad way of existence. It's not, really. Every story has something to offer. I have excelled at taking something from every story. Maybe I understand a person with troubled mind a little better, maybe I understand trauma a little better, maybe I have learnt to emphathize, to put understanding before judgement, perspective before notions. I have learnt when to listen, when to use humor, when to act solemn and when to act childish. 

Books don't fail you. Give them a chance.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meet your Genius

-
Image
                                   How often have you called someone a genius? Too big a title huh? I am not saying that it is wrong, I am just saying it is putting too much weight on fragile human shoulder. Cambridge dictionary defines genius as very great and rare natural ability or skill, especially in a particular area such as science or art, or a person who has this. Merriam Webster defines as an attendant spirit of a person or place. Commonly defined as a person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative. The definition I find peculiarly interesting is given on Wikipedia, In Roman religion, the genius is the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place, or thing. Much like a guardian angel, the genius would follow each man from the hour of his birth until the day he died....
Read more

To my Thinking Brain

-
 You know why you should read books , a lot of them? When you have read a lot of books, you somehow stumble upon the book you need at the time. You stumble upon the right excerpt from a book at the right time. You somehow read the thing that you didn't know you needed but that helps you or you just recollect something you had read long back in a book that helps you now. I am going through a traumatic experience and I just start shuffling my books in the rack, and smell books randomly and at the start of a book, I noticed I had scribbled a page number so I flip to that page and find that it is a ' Letter to the Thinking Brain' talking about the Feeling brain. As I kept reading, I realized that it was what I needed to hear. I started feeling better and I understood what I needed to do next, I found few ways to cope.  So guys, read! You can't imagine how that helps. Things you read in a book pop up when you need them and if you have read a lot, you learn to identify those ...
Read more

Musings at 3 am

-
Sometimes I feel like everything around me disappears. When I am watching or reading psychological thrillers or dark stuff, I feel like I am one of them with all the darkness around me. The fictional world becomes my reality. I sure as hell start using their vernacular and accent, also in my head. But its not just that. I am aware that I am not living one of the character's life. It is more like I am suddenly  more aware to the gnawing emptiness in me. A feeling that keeps me rooted to inaction. Its like in that moment, I'd rather want my life to just drag on than me being in charge. I would do and  accept anything that will immediately occupy my mind and not let rationality in. Its like I am starving for mental distraction, to not think consciously and not come out of the trance. I will continue watching one series after another. I will keep reading that book which I know is trouble but before I think it is too much and actually muster the courage to stop, my mind has already...
Read more

Jay Shetty on finding your passion

-
Image
  Wishing, waiting and wanting is the state in which we spend most of our times. Let's change it now. When water is still, you can see into it clearly. Similarly, when things slow down and they are still, you get greater clarity. We may identify certain areas of our life that don't fulfill us. In this uncertain time we are getting the time to slow down, let us gain clarity. I let Jay Shetty guide me towards my passion in a podcast. He outlines four steps to get started with the process: 1. Overcoming overthinking and procrastination 2. Two paths towards your passion 3.value of strategy, expertise 4. Regret(getting into action) 1. Overthinking We spend so much time thinking that we never get into action. Jay procrastinated for 2 years before he launched his first video.First, lets remove a misconception. We think distraction is stopping us from moving forward. But it is an attraction issue. We are simply not very attracted to the thing so we don't do it. Think about it. Do w...
Read more