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Dear diary... revisited
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Writing your own diary can be greater fun than reading others'
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DEAR DIARY, There's a new boy in school. He looks like Shah Rukh Khan, I hope he'll notice me... .
Remember those days? The diaries with lock and key designed to keep secrets safe from the prying eyes of little brothers, annoying sisters and even inquisitive mothers. Then, writing a diary or journal was a way to share confidences with a trusted friend, the written page.
You don't have to be a great writer, perfect speller or creative thinker to keep a personal journal. Now, keeping one is an answer to life's ups and downs. Says Tejdeep Kaur Menon, IPS. "While I was training at Mussoorie I kept a journal. Then later when my daughter fell ill, I kept one to keep tabs on her health. But now I pour my emotions into poetry and the office keeps my diary for me," she laughs. "They keep a different kind of record, 24x7."
Different strokes
The diaries of Samuel Pepys can induce slumber while the poignant diary of Anne Frank is a lesson in life and love and the diaries of Anais Nin are for your eyes only. What if you are not a wealthy landowner or a writer looking for publication, just a single mod woman like Bridget Jones trying to get the best out of life? Why should you write a journal? What will keeping a diary do for you? For most it's a record of their lives.
"It keeps me organised," says Arvind Chenji, photographer-filmmaker. "I chart out what I have to do in a week's time, a month or a year. My diary is filled with target-oriented stuff, nothing personal."
Change creates its own islands — anorexic downsizing and all those hush-hush things that accompany your teens. Shaila Verma, now in high school often toyed with the thought of keeping a diary. It seemed a good thing to maintain memories, vent angst on paper rather than on people, and write, which she rather enjoys doing. But at first she never got around to it. "What was I going to say?" she wonders. "Had breakfast, went to school, came home and watched TV?" Till her cousin gave a couple of personal diaries from abroad scented, tasselled and easy to record. It surprises her no end that she now spends an hour a day writing about her thoughts, ideas and daily existence. "I'm hooked and it has become a huge part of my life."
Rebecca Khan, now in her 30s, started writing a personal diary when she was on an NCC Youth Exchange programme where it was mandatory. She still continues to do so. "My diary writing has extended to blogging and this way I still keep in touch with my counterparts."
Stress buster
A diary allows you to give vent to your hopes and fears. Vivek Miranda, who is in the merchant navy, writes on his long voyages to crystallise positive emotions while some like Rashid write only when bitten by the travel bug. "I've chronicled the wonderful time I had on an African safari. When I read it years later, I relived the entire experience."
You could blame it on publishers who mumble `there's a book in everyone', but the sheer number of people out there jostling to buy and gift diaries this New Year can blow your mind. So if you get one this season don't write stuff like price of rice-Rs. 20 or haircut-Rs. 100 or anything that will make your eyes cross when you read it later. Instead let yourself go and be uproarious, angry or sentimental. Years later these pages are not just going to make you laugh but will be the one solid, touchable, survival from the best years of your life.
DEEPA ALEXANDER
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