Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

The prompt for day 6 is “Why do you write?”. I rediscovered the joy of writing this year with the prompts from wordpress editors.

Had I been asked this question a week back, I would have wondered – but now I know for sure that I write because I love writing. I find joy in writing, in expressing my thoughts, reflecting on my experiences, traveling down memory lane.

I love this bloganuary community, reading what others write and sharing my thoughts. I feel so connected with other writers and reading their posts makes me smile because some thoughts are similar, some are fresh and different. I feel happy to receive feedback from other writers.

My father was my inspiration to start writing to express my thoughts. When I went with my mother to my grandparents’ home for summer holidays, my father would write and post lovely letters to me and my mother. It was a joy to read his letters, they were so descriptive and expressive. It was also a matter of pride that I received a post in my name, I was just a little girl of 10 years. So I was thrilled to go to the postoffice with my uncle, buy a post card, write to my father and post the letter. Oh, the simple joy of writing letters to loved ones! It was a great way to connect.

I got into the habit of writing a journal in my childhood – a habit I acquired from my father who wrote in his journal everyday. At that time, I liked writing with a fountain pen on the journal/diary which had a slightly superior quality paper than my school note books.For many years I wrote in my journal, the writing was only for myself, to record my thoughts and experiences. Unfortunately I dont have any of my childhood journals now.

When I started my career, writing a journal became a process of organising my time to focus on the important tasks. Occasionally, I would express my thoughts, as a process of self reflection whenever I faced challenges. Writing gave me clarity and relief from the thoughts that clouded my head.

When I was working in the Bank, my first posting was in a small village where most of the male members in each family were working abroad in the middle east. I was required to communicate with the NRI customers through letters as part of my job. (There was no email then.}. I would write long letters on the beautiful bank stationery with my fountain pen. After writing the essential information about their bank account and our new schemes, I would also inquire about their well being, share latest news about what was happening in the village community and even give them an update about their family. Oh, how happy the customers were! They would write back to me giving news about their work abroad, their financial goals and what help they needed from the Bank.

When I became a branch manager, I started giving hand written notes of appreciation to my team, hand written greetings to my customers. I could see how a handwritten note created so much happiness.

It was when I became a trainer that I started writing stories and sharing stories of my experiences with my trainees. I found that they related more to my stories and learnt from them than from the power point presentation that I made. I started writing more and more stories which were like case studies on customer service and sales that we would discuss in the training sessions. I so much enjoyed writing and telling these stories that I collected a set of short stories and self published them as a book “Hello Banker.”

Whoever read the book appreciated it a lot and I was thrilled when I received great feedback from young and aspiring bankers. However, I learnt that writing a book is easier than marketing it. I did make an effort for two years but after that I got discouraged and stopped promoting my book. I stopped publishing my writing.

I wrote some stories for an online women’s magazine and won a prize twice or thrice. I started writing stories for women but got discouraged when my newer stories didnt get selected for publication. Again I stopped writing.

However, I continued to write journals all these years. I found this writing to be therapeutic, and when I browsed through a year’s notes, I could understand my thought process. It helped me grow as a person, to overcome my challenges, understand myself better.

When my father died two years back, I wrote a few posts, and I found that writing about my father had a healing effect on me. For the last two years, I have been wanting to write, I have a blog, but I could manage only a few posts in a whole year.

I am thankful for this bloganuary community and the bloganuary prompt because I have rediscovered the joy of writing. I write because I want to write, I have stories to tell, and I find joy in writing.

I feel happy when my writing is able to touch a cord in others, when it makes a difference, gives joy or brings a smile on their faces. I am happy to connect with other writers because I feel I belong in this community.

I write because I love to write.