fहndi - Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

Why do we write? It’s a question that confronts us inside and outside whenwe have already spent a good number of years in consuming reams ofpaper and scores of ball pens in writing. An initial answer can be relatedto our inner satisfaction, whatever that means. Another answer can be theneed for self-expression. Obviously we cannot talk more than we alreadydo. So what happens to all the extra words that lie in store within us? Ihave often wondered that a writer’s post mortem report could carry all thosesuspended manuscripts that he proposed to write but couldn’t. A simple incisionwould bring out his words of all hues-black, green, blue and not so blue.The best part is he would not be held responsible for this attic scrap.Another question raises its head from an escape route, why does anartist paint or a singer sing? All creative effort has a spontaniety about itand does not like to confront query. Yet the question does crop up inconversations, interviews, research programmes and in academic discussions.Some artists give vague answers like ‘it’s my inner urge’, or ‘it’s like labourpain and I have to deliver.’Imagine Maqbool Fida Husain faced with such a question and his response.Oh, he would take up his brush with the longest handle and draw a flashof a line across the horizon. What if the same question was put up to LataMangeshkar or Girija Devi. They would answer back with a loooong alapor khayal.The area of creative writing is more demanding and discerning. We allbegin like naive and novice writers ready to imbibe our predecessors’ influence.At some point of time we find it burdensome and bothersome. We are readyfor our second innings. We look around the times and environment to findfgndi • Editor’s NoteApril-June 2013 :: 5