According Abraham Maslow's theory of Hierarchy of Human Needs, there are five basic needs - physiological, safety, need to belong, self-esteem and self-actualization. Well, let me add one more to that - need to express. Blame it on the human cortex; this need is most compulsive for humans alone. Crickets chirp only for mating, penguins honk only to recognize each other while the lofty giraffe lost its voice sometime in evolution but we human need to express for more than a thousand reasons! As for me, I have found profound contentment in juggling words to the effect that I indulge in a silent conversation with that imaginary listener; I could have never had in this real life. I have always felt out of place in this world for one or the other reason and there have been several occasions that I failed miserably to make even a simple communication. Speech is beset with so many affective factors and externalities that it often tends to be inferred in ways you would have never intended!
However, when I settle down to pen a prose, it’s just I, me and myself. My penchant for written communication began some time in early schooling years when I had been dumped in a residential school situated in a remote village called Sher. While the world saw great action in this period, nothing much happened in this place. Wile US President Ronald Reagan proclaimed economic sanctions against Libya; we were busy sweeping the hostel and cleaning our toilets. While Iraq and Iran were busy fighting each other, we were busy clearing the busy undergrowth of the school compound. While Bruce Willis married Demi Moore, we were busy doing our daily morning and evening prayers. While war was looming again between India and China (1987), we were busy dozing off in our classes. No doubt we tiny tots were also busy people then! The hostel environment and schedule had kept us up and running so much so that there was not much time for individuality. The only rare times I found time to reflect upon on myself, remorse of staying away from family would overwhelm me. It was in these times that I would sit down to pen a few words for my parents and siblings. Albeit it started with shoddy and sloppy English, in the years to come I managed to fine-tune my writing skills. Over the years the quality of content improved in semantics and diction but one thing that has ever remained the same is the joy I felt in conveying my thoughts and feeling in words.
It has been a long arduous journey from the tiger-infested jungles of Sher to JIPMER (Pondicherry) to my stint today as an IAS officer in Punjab. This blog will help me to express that journey I undertook two decades back and reflect upon the opinions I have built on several issues – social, economics, polity, religion, science so and so forth. I hope, you the unknown reader will be my imaginary listener I always had. Just assume that I am the bubbly kid who has waited all day to tell my father who just returned tired from office about the day’s exploits and it’s all about my fight with the class bully, what I saw while returning home from school, my plans to go for fishing with pals the next day, how many tomatoes have ripen in the kitchen garden, how I caught a butterfly today…………………..