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 how Aatman 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 consciousness echoed through those words scribbled in black and white.
Then came Chaitanya, who perceived creative writing as a blessing everyone could acquire, who looked at Aatman 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 which worked better.
May be Aatman was that button which reminded Chaitanya of his super powers, that doorstep where Kanish stood, 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 was the story I had been eternally writing, with these characters bringing their colour and texture, weaving the story with me while I sat there among them extracting meaning out of the story.
There in that session, I sat wondering how Aatman asked us questions and we all gave our own answers in our own unique ways, just as we continued seeking different things from life, while Aatman bound us all together with the thread of writing.
Creative writing is helping us write our own stories as we are living them, while discussing them in bits and pieces with others so that they witness our stories and in turn, leave them with a part of our stories breathing in their life, running through their veins while they walk their unique paths. Have you found your Aatman yet?