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 Words and Whimsby Manali H. Shah. Mumbai, India
Well, since this was going to be the first post on my column that I have decided to call "Words & Whims", it had to be special. I must admit, a lot diverse ideas kept hovering my mind as I struggled to think what this particular write up could be all about. I also read up all the existing columns to get some idea about what the others write. As I read, I realised that all the columnists on Word Catalyst Magazine are immensely talented and incredibly good writers. Other common thing that these columns had that I noticed was the passion. And I got my answer. Since childhood, life in Mumbai has been pretty easy going and fun. Apart from a pleasant life that this city offers all of us, other key factor that made everything simple for me was to be blessed with super parents. Unlike many conservative parents in the country, my mom and dad have been pretty liberal about their thoughts and have always encouraged me and my elder sister to try diverse things and attempt various hobbies. My sister, who is a little more then a year elder to me, has been equally cooperative. This attitude of my family made me open up since my childhood, and thus I have always been amongst one of the participative students in my school and college days. May be not as good as other kids in my class, but I was always ready to attempt. Many such unsaid factors instilled inside me during my upbringing days have certainly made a lot of difference to what I am today. Let me share a beautiful phase from my babyhood days. When I and my sister were small, may be around 3 and 4 years respectively, mom sent us to a school that was almost fifteen minutes walk from our house. Unlike other parents, after my mother realised that we had now known the way correctly, she sent us to the school alone. Gradually, I and my sister went walking up to the school all by ourselves. While we used to hold our hands and playfully walk from our home for the school, a lot of people from the building generally gathered to their balcony just to have a look at us. The sight of two slightly identical little girls walking hand in hand in the school uniform was certainly amusing and surprising for them. Not only school, but my mother also sent us to do household things like buying vegetables and bread, going to grind the loaded grains etc, which probably many kids of that age did not do. Well, the idea to mention this period is that, after spending twenty one years of my life, today I am really grateful to my parents for doing this. This has made me a completely fearless person. Now, when I have to perform any difficult task, I do not hold myself back. Being a young girl, of course I do get nervous and fear failure, but… I ultimately end up attempting it. Once I remember, when I was in my 7th grade, I had found out about this particular one month camping group that took girls and ladies between the age group of 10 to 39 for various arts, sports and hobby lessons at a place called Saputara. This hilly place falls under the state of Gujrat, which is miles and miles away from Mumbai. I broke this idea to my parents. I showed them the prospectus that I had borrowed from a tuition mate, and they surprisingly agreed to it. Of course the fee for that camp was very expensive. However, it did include interesting things that I had probably never heard about or done in my life before. Professional training in basics like Judo, Jambia, Lathi, Rifle Shooting, Lazim, Trekking, Singing and Yoga were just some of the few things that I and my sister learnt in a month long summer camp. And we were probably the youngest girls in the camp too! On our first class to all of these subjects, I never thought I could even perform the demonstrated art/s by the experts - but certainly, they trained all of us. And I, like the rest, with a lot of effort, picked up each of those moves too. Apart from learning many new arts and sports, I also learnt to stay with so many different people, made a lot of friends who were considerably elder to me and obviously had great time. At the end of the day, the certificate that we got was enough for me to flaunt about the adventurous summer vacation I had in front of my school friends. Today, I am not sure if I can do the Judo at all or for that matter if I even remember all the correct moves of Lazim, but… on the contrary, I have learnt that nothing is that difficult as well, and one can always try to learn and probably even excel in the things they are passionate about. That particular camp had progressively given green signal in my unconscious mind that 'nothing was unattainable… if tried.' I never intentionally deciphered all this while I was growing up. Nevertheless, when today I look back, I comprehend how simply a 'perfect' parents my mom and dad made, and understand the how important it is to be let free and learn things by own self. A close friend recently told me that Tibeten monks never stop a child if he is trying to touch the fire. They knowingly let the kid smoulder his hand and even let him cry, so that he learns about the fire by himself and never touches it again. But thankfully, in our case, I and my sister probably learnt what fire is… without having to touch it. Hence, now, when I dream of becoming a successful published writer, deep within I do have the faith. Faith in myself… confidence of taking the risk… attempting… learning it my way… still not giving up… because, after all I just know it is going to be all right. For my parents I am a Content Writer and
a Freelance Journalist today. They may not know what I really
want to become, but, one thing I know for sure is that they have
already blessed me with the courage to go reach for my destination
that I dream of today. Manali H. Shah was born in Mumbai, India. She received a Bachelor's in Mass Media, specializing in Journalism from Mumbai University and is now working as a freelance content writer and a journalist. She enjoys fiction, poetry, essays and blogs - thus exploring different styles and genres of writing. Manali has been published extensively both in print and online. |
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Hello
everybody! First and foremost, I would like to heartily thank
Shirley Allard, whom I courteously call Shirley Mam, for giving
me the opportunity of becoming a contributor for this incredible
magazine! I can't express how glad I am to be here.
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