I flung my mobile down on the bed. The Shortlisted stories for the Contest – 31 were out and my name didn’t feature there.
What’s wrong with my writings? Am I plain bad or is there something more than meets the eye in all these contests? I couldn’t help crying out aloud.
When was the first time one of my stories got published in a foreign newspaper? I must have been in my early 30s then. The encouragement was enough to keep me writing and sending my stories to different magazines, newspapers, and so on. The concept of Online Magazines was yet to materialize in those days. I was satisfied with whatever little I was achieving as a Writer in the making.
My first and foremost identity was that of a teacher and even then I had to help my students write stories. I especially recall those weeks before the Boards when 4 sections of the same standard, would be happily engaged in authoring stories in pairs, groups or individually. The sharing time was a joy to be monitor to be believed!
I took to writing stories full-time after my superannuation from Bhutan Civil Service. Those days when I started sending my stories to various online magazines for the biweekly contests, were days of hypertension and anticipation mixed with acute agony. When the second story I sent to “Practice Write” (name changed), a very popular flash fiction site, won me second place, my happiness knew no bounds. Besides, the comments made by the fellow contributors were enriching. I kept on sending stories to that site alone for close to 2 years. I was also trying my hand at 50/100-Worder, 101-Worder and what not.
I was featured among the Top-5 frequently in “Practice Write” all right but never won the first prize! I felt like I was telling you earlier, frustrated after 2 years and gave up contributing to that site. Some people, I thought to myself, were not meant to be a writer.
2 more years elapsed after that. One day, fortunately, or unfortunately, I received an email from “Practice Write” again. The prompt literally took my breath away. CORRUPTION.
God! This is my chance of voicing a genuine concern, I thought to myself. The pent-up fury and frustration that had kept me preoccupied for a long were screaming to be let out, voiced, and heard. So, I wrote a story on the prompt, whereby I criticized the highhandedness of a section of writers who were clearly controlling the outcomes of the contests, unknown to most others. I used the contracted form ‘I’s” for ‘I was’ in the story for the first time.
The group picked up on me! They didn’t want an Indian to point out the loopholes in the system. Nor could they ever accept an Indian trying out something new in the language. Used to conventions and practices as the group was, they refused to accept my claim that instead of greeting someone with the customary “Merry Christmas” on the day, we could also use “Happy Christmas” for a change.
A veteran writer even went to the extent of pointing out what he termed as, my ‘grammatically erroneous English.’ What was my mistake? My mistake was that I had constructed a sentence with a contraction not exactly of my own. I had written a sentence like ‘Finding her son feverish, Sonam’s crying her heart out.’ My mistake was that I was trying out something new. The learned friend, while commenting on my story, opined that he was not aware of any such contractions, and saw very little sense in my attempts at modernizing the language.
I tried reasoning out with them. I told them that because the Western World had been using “Merry Christmas” since times immemorial, is no reason why the usage of “Happy Christmas” had to be wrong. I also pointed out that ‘Sonam’s crying her heart out’, didn’t pose any problems to an average reader. That anyone could make it out from the sentence that ‘Sonam’s’ contracted from ‘Sonam was’. But the war went on. They didn’t have much against my story but for that small flaw, as they termed it.
I decided to withdraw from the contest once and for good. I told myself that some people aren’t meant to be a writer.
But my love for writing hasn’t dried up. I love writing irrespective of whether my writings fetch me awards or not. I love writing because nothing else gives me more pleasure. Love writing for it is in my blood. So, no matter what my detractors have to say about me, I will go on writing till my last breath regardless of rewards or awards, god willing.
The end
By: Rathin Bhattacharjee
Write and Win: Participate in Creative writing Contest & International Essay Contest and win fabulous prizes.
