Baby steps

                                          Ustad Sheikh Spear

“Kaun hota uney?” asked a friend of mine while we were sitting in a big circle during our post English class lunch break. All I could recall of the given sheikh was a particularly daring sense of fashion [baggy breeches are so 1500s] and a pointy chin beard that I aspired to grow one day, and probably tweak with two fingers while expounding on my theories about life, the universe, and everything. Coming back to the discussion at hand however, we had just finished reading a short story summarizing the Merchant Of Venice, and we were still trying to live down the fact that a man could have actually have to pay through his nose, or rather, pay with his nose for money borrowed over the trivial matter of a girl. Seemed rather fantastic to me then, but since I now knew too much for my own good, I decided to get to the bottom of this Sheikh character and pass condescending remarks over his fanciful stories with a little more knowledge about him. This led me to talk to my sister, a voracious reader of Perry Mason books (at that point of time) and she gave me her text book, opened to a scene from Julius Caesar. The first thing I noticed was that the English was outrageous. Spellings that would have made my English teacher howl in pain and righteous indignation. It was alright though, considering this poor Arab man never had Mrs. Francis (aforementioned English teacher) with knowledge just as ample as her waistline. The second thing I noticed that he wasn’t actually an Arab, his name was William, which frankly, would be a horrible name for an Arab. More guidance from my sister showed me that perhaps good William wasn’t dyslexic after all.

That started a wonderful foray into the world of literature that started with Tinkle Comics, and have tried to reach the high pedestal of Ayn Rand and her golden ilk. The by-product of reading is the ability to be more expressive, be it verbal or written. You can always find verbal release by having stimulating conversations or rap battles (I kid, dawg!). But writing is so much tougher than speaking! Things that you might have missed. Points that you might not have fully explained. Connections that might not have been apparent in the way you put your words forward. A wonderful platform for addressing that very problem, would be a blog Or writing elaborate rants on websites. Since I’m not frustrated enough to do the latter, this, my first post, is an attempt to do the former.