#8 Writing — A fucking and a pleasing profession

As a writer I believe there are no Saturdays and Sundays for writers. Writing is a solitary task. What I experience is that sometimes writing is frustrating. We have to read two books a week. We have to notice every shit happening around us. We have to shut the doors for our friends, family and love. Sometimes we spend the whole day staring at the blank white sheet and typing and doing backspace the same paragraph again and over again. We have to be real and transparent by undoing our pants and unbuttoning our shirts like a slut in a hope that readers may like us and pay us. It is very depressing for us to see the rejected manuscripts from publishers. It is miserable to see money flowing out in purchasing buckets of tea and coffee every day.  People say writers are rich. However, they are wrong. ‘You can earn more money than writers by running a gas station,’ said an Indian author, Khushwant Singh.

But whenever I look in my past, I found only a line which curves a smile on my face. The line says: ‘The greatest pleasure is in doing what people say you can’t do.’ What I come to know when you start working on yourself, people stop talking to you and start talking about you. Equally apt couplets of a poet Mohammad Iqbal comes in mind for those people:

Khuda tujhey kisee toofan sey aashnaa kar dey

Ki tere behr kee maujon mein iztiraab nahen

‘May God grant you the experience of a storm:

The waves of your life’s ocean are too calm.’

Sometimes a thought to quit writing comes in my mind, but then when I think deeply, something inside me asks, what else I can do other than writing? And then, like every time, a question appears in front of me: ‘What is the use of life?’ No use. Human beings born, grow up, get placements, pay their bills and die. The important thing is to live the path we are going through, to become better, to serve others and to have dreams. Robin Sharma often uses a Sanskrit saying in his books which left a deep impression on my soul. He says, ‘When you were born, you cried and the world rejoice. Now, it’s a time to live in such a way when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.’ That is also a reason why I write self-help articles.

Though sometimes writing is a frustrating job for me, but now it’s a part of my soul. It is my girlfriend who does nothing other than wasting my time without paying me back but gives solace and heals my wounds. I’m glad that I don’t waste my time in gossiping and sleeping. I’m doing better than myself with every passing day. In fact, after reading over hundred books I feel like ocean of knowledge. I’m creative and do work out of my comfort zone while sitting comfortably on the chair and all in all, I don’t give damn what people think about me. A book and a chair all I need to spend my life. Fame and money has a fleeting hold so it is better to invest in mind. Few lines I wrote for the one who bestowed me a gift:

Ae Khuda! Gar na dee hoti tune mjhe yeh syahi

Na mein thjhe jaanta hota na hota tera aalam

Na mein rota or na hi pakdi hoti tere naam ki kalam