Writing is not escapism

When I was younger, I used to write love letters, to a non existent girl, ananya. And yeah, sometimes, it would be reshma and sometimes rritu. If you ask me, if the girl was the projection of characteristics i liked in girls, i would say no. Those girls didnt exist, i didnt have an image of them, nor did i attribute any characteristics to them. For me, ananya was not important, what was important was the relation i had with her - a soul to soul connection if you say.

And inspite of this beautiful habits of writing letters, when any of my friend asked my advice on how to propose a girl, my advice never included writing a letter. I have asked guys to fly down on the girl's birthday to appear on the girl's door with a teddy, to take them for a beautiful evening walk along the beach and so on. And I always warned them against writing letters. Because, its not only that when the girl hears your proposal on a paper, you miss the facets of emotions popping in her eyes, it is also because, you lose the moment to be with her, when you are saying you want to be with her forever.

There is also a fear, the one developed during school days. The letter you write is a proof of your love. IF she says no, the letter remains forever, to haunt you for the rest of your life. Letters are proofs for and against the moment. I dont advice guys to write letters, because, it will help them move on, if and when she says no.

However, inspite of my own advice, I write letters. Why? the first ofcourse is, I dont want to move on and therefore i leave the proof of my love. Second, needs a lot of explanation.

Imagine, I like this girl, I walk down to her, go down on my knees and tell her - I love you.

three words, for the millions of different feelings I have in my heart? I can write three thousand novels, just to explain the first moment I looked at her.

How can I put into words, the time, she walked beside me, and her dupatta brushed my hand, and the world around me changed that very moment. Probably I would have turned to her said - wow thats nice. What a dampener :(

Writing is not an escapsism. Writing is trying to capture the moment in its fullest glory. Writing is like photography, in eight thousand nine hundred dimensions of human emotions. Probably painting comes closest to writing as a medium to freeze the moments, but then, there is only so much colors in the world.

ofcourse theres only that much words in the world :(