Do writers have photographic memory ? I just finished listening to exactly 1 hr of a monologue by Mrinal Pande, famous journalist, writer, who was the guest in the Seen & Unseen podcast. Luckily I had the luxury of listening to it with my headphones and gazing at the rolling clouds from my balcony in Bangalore & was undisturbed by phone calls.
As I heard Mrinal ji, I was transported to the times when she was born in 1946 and she recalled at the age of 1 refugees who were walking the streets of Delhi and how the word refugee was used as a play thing. Then as she moved from there to schooling in Nainital she recalled Miss West who was her teacher.
She recalls how she heard of death for the first time when her grandfather died, how she was sent to the jungle and her aaya saw a dead pigeon and explained to her what death was. They buried the dead pigeon and put a cross on her graveyard and she was shocked to know that her grandfather will be burnt and not buried.
Names of publishers, what they said (verbatim quotes), description of objects including the color and texture of carpet, important dates with incidents. As I paused the podcast, the first thought which stuck me was her photographic memory, it was like a screenplay of a movie. I noticed a similar quality when I heard Amitava Kumar last week.
As I heard her I also realised that more than memory most of it were life learnings / meanings one would glean out of an incident as a child /teenager / adult and record them as as tapestry of one’s life, bookmarks which one would go back to when you are reassessing things or deciding or answering something your child has asked you.
The wife is one of the best storyteller in our family, just like Mrinal ji she would talk beautifully about her days in Durgapur, holidays in Kolkata - the sweets she liked or the death of her grandfather, many of it we have heard many times but we still cajole her to tell us.
Some time back I read an HBR article which suggested that one of the best ways to access your next step is to sit down in a garden / corner and answer the question ‘what’s your story ? I did that and quite enjoyed the process - many times on my business flight back home. I would just do that in my mind and I always come out with more clarity.
With Goa on the anvil & 2nd Innings not very far away, I am looking forward to a lot of storytelling on the beaches of Goa.
Day 12: 200 words/ day challenge; 455 words.
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