Jagmohan Sharma
With an extremely rapid pace of development and advancement in the field of technology, our lives too have become extremely fast. Using technology in communication, we feel so proud, contented and satisfied. We can write to or talk to anybody sitting across any part of the world in no time. Just a click can make every communication instant. No doubt it is important to keep up with these fast paced global advancements, lest we lag behind — but do we ever bother to think, what all we are losing, what all we are missing upon. Just a few weeks ago while sorting out some old books, magazines and journals; I found a diary maintained by my younger son, Akhil, when he was in 3rd standard of his junior school. It appeared to have been a part of a school assignment by his English teacher on the topic ‘Diary Writing’ or ‘How to maintain a personal diary’. While gingerly turning over the pages and glancing through the details, I read a few sentences like “My Papa is a big liar and cheat. He had promised to gift me a new video game during the summer vacation but has not got it till date!! Half of my summer break is over and mom has also gone to Chandigarh. I don’t like asking for something again and again. If he does not get me the video game by this weekend, I will complain to grandma or become Katti with papa.”
I was not just surprised to read it but obviously shocked too!! I realised that willingly or unwillingly we ignore so many important things in our day to day life that have a deep impact on the minds of our children, parents, spouse, siblings or the family as a whole. In no time I could also realise that diary writing is indeed a great source of self-expression and a wonderful outlet to our anger and pent up emotions. There are feelings that otherwise we dare not to be explicit or just don’t feel comfortable sharing the same. So this incident prompted me to take up the issue, write something on it and share with the readers. Not more than two decades back it was a time when diary writing was a common trend among many a youth. Even I used to write my diary daily without fail before going to bed. But now in this IT driven era many of the youth might not be knowing anything about Diary Writing, or otherwise do not consider it worth for anything .But the fact is that diary writing is a keystone habit that leads to the development of many good habits and produce a number of positive outcomes in our life. As an example of my son who at the age of 9 odd years was not confident enough to express himself before his father but had a diary as a medium to express his anguish and drain out the anger. There were also other interesting anecdotes with expressions of joy, and happiness intermingled with subtle anger and surprises at times. I am sure it may have been somehow fulfilling for the young soul at that time.
Many of us tend to be in a state of negative emotions at times. More often than not, we realise negativity is extremely un-healthy and can lead to depression, suicidal tendencies and even criminal leanings among many other bad habits. However If we are in a habit of writing a diary, we can easily provide a vent to our negative emotions via this medium. Our positive emotions are happiness, confidence, eagerness, enlightenment, peace, enthusiasm, comfort and gratefulness whereas the negative emotions include fear, shame, worry, depression loneliness, anger, dissatisfaction, jealousy and revenge seeking etc. Both these sets of feelings need to be expressed and unfortunately everyone is not lucky enough to have a friend or an acquaintance with spare time to listen and understand your predicaments and euphoria.
Our diary is always available for us. Just grab it and pen down whatever all comes to your mind. I am sure it will never leave you alone, never let you down and will always be there for you as a selfless companion. Going through these memoirs in your personal moments can be a balm for your nerves. I am sure everyone will agree with me on this. I promise to share some very important and healthy tips, in my forthcoming articles, to start inculcating this habit of writing a diary which can be a catalyst for wonderful changes in your life. Till then “Be Positive”.
(The author is associated with the Regional News Unit of All India Radio Jammu as a Dogri News Reader.)
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