"Our character is inevitably shaped by the social conditions, heredity, and the environment in which we are placed!"

A Voice of Your Own!

23rd July 1997 ❤️

#memoriesfromdiaries 

What does keeping a diary mean to me?

As I had remarked yesterday, I couldn’t have imagined that, one day, I would be posting about my past diary entries of say, 26 years ago, onto a virtual blog space as this! 😊

Yes! but why do I have to post these past diary jottings of mine here?

The main reason is that, these diary entries are a voice of my own!

Yet another reason is that, my personal diary entries provide a microcosm of my life, as I have lived it in my own terms, - in the good ol past - that goes a long way in revealing vignettes on my character, my individuality, and on my multiple identities - as a friend, as a classmate, as a student, as a son, as a sibling, etc, and how my character and my personality are formed, acquired and influenced by the environment in which I am placed.

In fact, a famous literary movement of the late 19th and 20th centuries – American Naturalism – puts forth a similar proposition. 

According to the American naturalists, then -

Our character is inevitably shaped by the vast array of social conditions, heredity, and the environment in which we are placed!

I repeat -

Our character is inevitably shaped by the vast array of social conditions, heredity, and the environment in which we are placed!

And since a diary resonates the social conditions, and the environment in which the diarist is placed, a diary, [like a novel], can provide a lot of enriching insights into the character of the diarist as well.

So for once, let’s look at this particular diary entry to do some character analysis on this diarist –

Firstly, ‘went for French Class’. Yes, a few of us had opted for French, just for the excitement of learning a new language. 

For all ye language enthusiasts out there, who love learning new languages, if you wish to try your hand at French, do get for yourself a copy of this book titled, Modern French Course by Dondo Mathurin, a book that helped me a lot in my tryst with French.

Secondly, Bagat Singh and myself, we offered to take up ‘Sports Quiz’.

And well, that’s because, we both had a penchant for Quiz, and we both had so dutifully resolved to participate in all the Quiz Events that happened in our College and beyond!

We were placed fourth, out of a total of seven teams that participated in the Quiz Comps today.

On this particular day, we both had offered to give our names for the Sports Quiz!

Thirdly, my love for playing songs on the guitar. 😊

You see, for long, I’d been wanting to play the guitar, but somehow I didn’t have the right person to teach me to play on the guitar. 

Having grown up listening to the likes of Billy Joel, Jim Reeves, Cliff Richards, MLTR, etc., who’ve always had their major hits on the guitar, I had this passionate love for playing songs on the guitar. 😊

In this regard, I should acknowledge the fact that, my MCC School days proved very helpful for me, since I had a lovely friend from the North East, Lang Karpoori War, who patiently taught me the eight basic chords, and also coaxed me to sing simultaneously, as well!

That’s why friends are for, ain’t it? They know and understand the song in your heart, and they can beautifully bring it out from within you, for the world to see it!

From thence on, it was no turning back for me, you see!

Whenever I got an opportunity, I never failed to capitalise on it.

In fact, along with my friends Wesley and Prabhu, - we took guitar classes during our spare time on an ‘irregular’ basis, from a guitarist in the locality as well.

On this particular day, in the Welcome party given for the freshers, I gladly volunteered to play on the guitar to one of my favourite songs! 😊

Ebi was my senior and a close family friend, who had just then come to my class, when class was in progress and called me out, simply to talk to me! 😊

Finally, during the night, after 10.45 pm, we had an evening of songs on the guitar, with my close circle of friends that included Wesley, my closest buddy! This is again something I so cherish doing! Playing antaksharis with friends all day long, and all night long! 

Coming back,

So yes! A diary helps in giving you your own inimitable voice!

You are ‘Yours faithfully yours’ and ‘Yours honestly yours’ in your diary entries.

Which you can rightly call, a Voice of Your Own!

That’s so phenomenally yours, and so uniquely yours! ❤️