That place had an aura of its own- it wasn’t bare-knuckled but was the kind that would grow on you gradually. As I walked past the main door, the first voice that fell upon my ears was Falaq’s. Trying to live one day at a time, this inquisitive dentist talked of metaphysical truths and strength. She talked about how Atman helped her put down her emotions on a piece of paper and face them. There sat Kanish, stringing beautiful words into sentences, describing how his inner conscious echoed through those words scribbled in black and white.
Then came Chaitanya, who perceived creative writing as a blessing everyone could acquire and looked at Atman as a sanctum for stimulating the soul for the purpose of self-discovery. I could see his gleaming eyes while he described how the button he had got in our activity- “losing your buttons” was so special to him, that he kept it with himself all the time. Just then the happy-go-lucky Shria described how the buttons she had wanted were always lost and in turn, she got something that worked better.
Maybe Atman was that button which reminded Chaitanya of his superpowers, that doorstep Kanish stood at while he sought answers elsewhere, that AATMA connection Falaq had always wanted, the pages of Shria’s poetry book which had turned out better than she had expected. For me, it is the story I had been eternally writing, with these characters bringing their color and texture, weaving it with me while I sit there among them extracting meaning out of it.
There in that session, I sat wondering how Atman asked us questions and we all gave our answers in our own unique ways, just as we continue to seek different things from life while Atman binds us all together with the thread of writing.
Creative writing is helping us write our stories as we live them while discussing in bits and pieces with others, so that they witness our stories and in turn, leave with a part of our story breathing in their life, running through their veins as they walk their unique paths. Have you found your Atman yet?