Teen-Day Diaries
&
The Diary as ‘Reflective Writing’
#memoriesfromdiaries
09 August 1994 💕
A Little Challenge to begin this Post – 💪
Well, if any of you, dear reader, could possibly try and decode this particular day’s diary entry of mine - at least to a 90% - I promise you a prize!
You just need to decode it and send it to my email id at rufusonline@gmail.com
That’s it!
I bet, you necessarily can’t! No matter how hard you try to! 😋
Still, you may give it a try, if you wish to!
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| 09 August 1994, part 1 |
That’s not only because it was part of a different milieu altogether, but also because of the fact that, the experiences that I’ve jotted down here are ‘I’ specific or individual specific, that only ‘I’ could possibly decode to the maximum extent possible!
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| 09 August, part 2 |
The ‘I’ or rather the elusive ‘I’ gets precedence above everything else!
Sadly, although memoirs and autobiographies equally rave and revel in the elusive ‘I’ factor, the diary doesn’t come anywhere near them as regards its literary merit!
Sad, ain’t it?
Well, yes! Mostly that has been the case as regards the literary merit of diaries.
And well, one common allegation levelled against diaries when it comes to devaluing its literary quotient is that - diaries are artless!
Yes! ‘Art’less!
The word ‘Artless’ could connote to mean, ‘uncrafted!’
In other words, diaries are ‘spontaneous!’ unlike memoirs or autobiographies!
True in a way!
Because you see, a diarist never intended their diaries to be works of high literary value anytime.
When I started writing down my daily diary jottings, back then as a teenager, little did I intend to ‘craft’ it into an ‘artful’ text of high literary value!
Nayver! 😋
Added, it was literally more of cramping (as you can see for yourself in the entries) rather than ‘crafting’ a day’s record of events as I’d experienced it, and that too - from my own point of view.
One reason why, diaries that are very artful and literary, with a beautiful writing style are looked upon with suspicion in literary circles.
Diaries are known for their immediacy, coupled with a spontaneity to them!
Every diarist has their own peculiar idiosyncrasies, their unique idiolects, their special ‘codes’, and their authentic narrative voice, when they sit at their desk to jot down their day in their diary!
The ‘I’ of the diary entry hence creates three further ‘I’s -
Immediacy
Individuality &
Identity
That’s because the ‘I’ of the subject who had written this particular diary of say thirty years ago, need not necessarily be the same ‘I’ today!
Back then, as teenagers and as school students who ‘lived’ our sweet lives in a home away from home, we had a completely different perspective to life!
Our focus was more on food & entertainment!
One cursory look at today’s diary entry –
5.20 am – Gym, followed by Coffee
Arrange cubicle, do the bed, and go for breakfast.
Posted two letters today.
Zoology Practicals in Lab (Very strict Zoology Master we had!)
English period – Free Hour
Afternoon – Games Hour
Chemistry Hour
Language Hour – Tamil – First lesson finished.
Refreshment – Wheat paniarams
Evening football – between day scholars and hostelers.
I was the goli for our side (Hostelers), while Darshan (our Class Rep) was Goli for the Day Scholars.
Yummy – Our ‘code’ for the ice-cream vendor just beside our School.
Ended the day, reading Tinkle Digest and passing it on to my friend Dany!
And interestingly, I’ve also noticed the fact that, there was never a column for the expenses part, anywhere during my school years of diary writing. That’s because we were floating like butterflies without a tinge of worry on us back then!
But the moment I stepped into college life, pop came an ‘expenses’ column at the end of almost every day’s diary entry.
Yes! We evolve! Over the years! Hence our perspectives also change (for the better) over the years.
Fridays were those delightful days when we eagerly awaited our pocket money; when our Warden gave each of us, our delightful quota of Rs.10/- each! (quite a good sum for a hosteler back in the 1990s).
No worries! No expenses! No planning for the morrow!
We were like the birds of the air, literally and metaphorically – not worried in the least of our morrows!
Just ‘living the moment’, in our own sweet and delightful ways!
In this process, the diarist creates or constructs, either consciously or unconsciously, their identity and subjectivity, under the watchful eyes of Time!
In the words of prominent critic Scupin Richards,
Unlike memoirs that are retrospective ‘self-writing’,
or autobiographies, that are ‘introspective’ self-writing,
diaries are purely ‘reflective’ self-writing in nature!
The term ‘reflective’ in diary writing would then intend to mean that,
I have to reflect back on the day, and write down what I had specifically learnt at the end of the day!
Reflective diary writing hence becomes a strategic pedagogic tool both for the educator and for the pupil as well.
That apart, a reflective diary helps in enhancing, enriching and fine-tuning one’s learning experiences for the better!
To sum up this post in the words of René Descartes -
I know that I exist; the question is, what is this “I” that I know?
Reflective Diary Writing, I guess, could prove a beautiful clue to this end!
To be continued…
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