Let’s Toss-Read versus Write?

Let’s Toss-Read versus Write?

I evenly split my life into two-Before 40 and after 40. Reading came first writing came much later. Both are equivalently important and are empowering. Writing is useless if there are no readers and what will readers read if writers didn’t write? My reading journey began when I was 5. My sister gave me homeschooling and I could read at 4. She introduced me to books and I will always be indebted to her. I would read anything I found, from romances to thrillers. Magazines and newspapers. Born to refugee parents, ours was a humble upbringing. There was no money to buy books. Being the youngest among five, I did lack in means but not the intent. We didn’t have money to splurge, but there was reading, values, and confidence instilled in us. A library run by a Britisher a kilometre away was my haven. He would let me read in the reading room for an hour and then I would take 2 books home for 25 paise a week. I have been reading a lot until I was 40 and people knew me for my binge reading habit. I never tried writing until I was 40. Here I share my life experiences on Let’s Toss-Read versus Write?

Why reading is important to me–

1. Reading took my mind off my spartan life and transported me into the realms of castles and I took off on flights of fancy. Fairy tales were my ticket to fantasy land. I would be Cinderella if I flipped through her story or Snow-white, similarly.
2.  I fell in love with the manifestation, costumes of ball gowns and furs, and characters, with the words they uttered and became their hearts. I fell deeply in love with their life.
3. Just as every good thing ends, every book takes you on a magical journey. You fall in love with the characters, and the book ends, but the memories linger forever.
4. Books were my best companions. They helped me grow and become my very soul.
5. Travel was something we could ill-afford. I was an armchair traveller, and I have seen fabulous and distant places.
6. Reading increased my vocabulary. The Oxford Dictionary was my best friend. I would look up every new word, amassing a sizeable word bank.
7. By reading a lot, my reading became better and faster. It adds to my general knowledge and awareness of current affairs.
8. I honed my comprehension skills and would get top marks in class for essay writing.
9. It helps build my mental health by expanding my social spectrum. 
10. Reading provides me with diverse perspectives and helps me calm my mind.

Life after 40-

My parents knew me as a bookworm, and my husband always tried to reduce my book reading. In return, I gave him and my kids the habit of reading books. Most evenings after dinner, the four of us would read before dozing off. Now comes the writer in me. When I was 40, I lost my husband, and I was clutching at any straw that would help me from drowning. I started writing seriously after our Bookwormz club was interviewed by The Hindu. I wrote a weekly article for the Hindu Metro Plus. It was as if the universe heard my pleas and served them to me on a platter. I was overage and a novice to creative writing, but it was the straw I was looking for. It was pro bono for the first year, yet my interest only grew with the rising reader appreciation. The vocabulary amassed through reading and the styles of writing that I had read gave me the conviction to match up with the fresh graduates from journalism schools.

Here is my viewpoint on writing:

1. Writing is love, as it gives me an escape from reality. There may be many answers to one subject, but what I write is my perspective, tailor-made in my brain.
2. Writing is the living form of reading. Something tangible I have written.
3. The feeling of letting my thoughts overflow onto the page, the words wringing out my ideas. The words tumble out like a dream, strung together into sentences.
4. Writing allows me to express my reflections on my experiences in life, mental health and saving the environment.
5. I write as it calms the turbulent thoughts in my head, reduces stress, and keeps me remuneratively occupied.
6. Writing is the channel to air my views on a gamut of emotions and topics.
7. All readers do not turn into writers. But reading and writing are the same sides of the coin we toss. When you write an exam, read the question and then answer. Just reading will not get you through school.
8. Writing is therapeutic, gives freedom to the churning thoughts that make you happy and jot them down.
9. Writing is also an escape from all the depressive times in my life. It gives me solace during my solitude.
10.  My writing could be simple and creative. I could be a superwoman or use it as a weapon. (Cliché but true: The pen is mightier than the sword)

Finally, Let’s Toss-Read versus Write?

I can’t be Rapunzel and lower my hair for the prince or come back to life with a kiss. But my writing is a passion that has catapulted me after years of ideas gathered from reading. Reading is a pleasure, and I just read and interpret according to my perceptions. However, as a writer, my tone has to express a message and how I should be wary of how it affects the reader. When I toss the coin of reading and writing on either side, it lands on edge. Both are complementary, even though reading is passive and writing takes physical and mental effort.

My previous post on the Blogchatter Blog Hop is a Story-Twin Souls- Message in a Bottle and 4 things about today’s world that puzzle me.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop.