Starting Out

In writing, anything is possible. As a writer, you can finish off the hero in the middle of your story by throwing him into a cave of one and a half eyed monsters. You can create a fantasy world like Narnia, make people laugh and cry at the same time, or transform a society forever.

My love for writing began when my dad asked us (me, my brother, and sister) to write an essay every day. Though I always have the passion, I had this fear, ‘what if I’m the only one who enjoys my writings?’ I had bad experiences when I was a co-editor of a newsletter of college students’ fellowship in Imphal. Thank God I did not stop. Writing also became an escapade and a compensation for not being able to speak well. In a NCF-Delhi camp, I shared my testimony starting with, “even as I am going to speak, I have written it down”. This is not the story of an accomplished writer but an amateur whose effort is starting to pay off; many thanks to the Eastern Mirror for this breakthrough.

There seems to be a kind of freedom without responsibility. I could write nonsense in my blog, speak my mind and edit myself later and not be charged for what I feel. I was responsible to nobody. But to write for a newspaper weekly; how do I speak sense and for how long before my well run dry?

This nagging anxiety notwithstanding, I believe I have something to say. The kind of freedom without responsibility that I have mentioned is the concept many of us have of freedom, ‘freedom from’- freedom from bondage, freedom from fear, etc. This is the negative aspect. Os Guinness says that however, there is also a positive side of freedom, ‘freedom for’. Free for what? The answer would be: free to do what is right, free to do what needs to be done. It is freedom that comes with responsibility. How our society is and will be is our responsibility. How then do we use our freedom (here, of speech) to shape our society? Looking at the state we are in, I think there are a lot of things that need to be ‘put to rights’ (a phrase New Testament Scholar NT Wright often uses to describe new creation in Christ). I take up this columnist job as a mission, a minor one within the wider Mission of God of gathering all things, things in heaven and earth under the lordship of Jesus Christ, as we pray, ‘thy Kingdom com ON EARTH as it is in heaven’.

Areas of my interest are Christian Theology, Health Care, Music, Science and Religion, and genreless rambles on love and life. These topics will feature often in this space. I end here for now with a customised disclaimer:

A disclaimer to think about, but not to be taken seriously:

In a time when there is crackdown on plagiarism and copyright violations are increasingly seen as serious offences, it becomes difficult for a guy like to me to say anything at all. What I have learnt is mostly from others and original thoughts are minuscule. So here I stand and give credit to the One who is the giver of all knowledge to mankind, and a big thanks to all those people who passed it on to me. Now, don't accuse me of plagiary or copyright violation.

For Eastern Mirror newspaper column BLOGSPEAK