Ashok Sharma
Diary writing is a valuable but a forgotten art which is dying a slow death in the modern fast times.A few years ago when social networking sites such as Facebook,WhatsApp,Twitter etc were nowhere in sight and had not invaded the minds of the people across the world,diary writing used to be the only means by which the people used to converse with themselves, kept track of their life and wrote their innermost and darkest secrets and their encounters with people around them onto the paper and also put their emotional reactions to those happenings.In those days, life was not so fast and the people had sufficient time to write diaries and record their day to day experiencies every day.The diary in those days used to be a prized possession carefully guarded from others including parents, siblings and friends. It used to be available in large varieties with pages having carefully printed quotes and pictures.It also used to have a lock so that it was safe from the peering eyes of parents and friends.It contained the honest account of the diarist’s joys,sorows, bitter and sweet experiences with their emotional responses and reactions.This was a wonderful way to revisit one’s past and to know one’s past journey as one grew up.As one stepped in adolescence and adulthood,the diary assumed a special significance as the lovers would record their darkest secrets about their meetings with their beloveds. It is a useful habit, which, besides recording one’s trueself, serves as a means to improve one’s expression,vocabulary and helps in attaining mastery over the language.We have had famous writers and historical figures who used to write diaries and gained name and fame by practising this art.Anne Frank’s posthumously published diary ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ written while in hiding at a young age of thirteen years during the German occupation of Amsterdom in the 1940s chronicles the emotional account of a young girl about her views about her parents,close relatives and teachers.
It wad edited by her fatherOtto Frank and has has been translated into many languages and thus,widely read.One of the earliest diarist Samuel Pepys(1633-1703) and his contemporary John Evelyn wrote diaries which served as the primary source for the Restoration Period and considered an eyewitnesses’ accounts of great events such as the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London. Similarly, the diary written by Captain Robert Scott, a British explorer and leader of an expedition to the South Pole in 1911, is an interesting account of how Captain Scott and three other explorers died one after one due to frostbite, extreme exhaustion and running short of fuel and food.Their dead bodies and the diary was found by the recovery party eight months after their tragic and painful death.
The world famous writers, Lewis Carroll R W Emerson, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf,the Polish scientist Marie Curie, the 26th President of the USA, Theodore Roosevelt and the painter Frida Kahlo figure among those who had cultivated the hobby of writing diary.
Thus diary writing is a useful and rewarding hobby which benefits the writer in more than one way.First,it improves the writing ability.The diary writer invents new and fit words with each passing day to record his thoughts and experiences beautifully and accurately and to suit his fancy.Thus, the diary serves as a fertile ground for his thoughts to germinate and flourish helps us to keep a track of our life as we move on the journey of life.We cannot go back to the past but we can remember the past by reading entries in the diary and affectionately cherish our happy days and how we managed to get through a challanging time. Diary can also serve as the primary source for those who may be interested in researching your life or the times you lived. Diary can also serve as a treasure that the future generations will love to read.Who will not love to read the story of his father,mother or grandfather as to how they learned, grew or progressed in life.
They will cherish the story written in their own words.Your diary can also remind you of any fact or details of conversation that you have forgotten. Diary also keeps the dirist encouraged as he has to record something.When s fay seems devilish,one can read back through the account of such other days and if the past days were full of joy,the fond memories will be triggered.Therefore,children must be encouraged to write diaries at an early stage.In the initial stage,they need to be guided to record their pleasant and unpleasant experiences without caring for spellings and grammar.As they grow up ,they will learn to put their experiences on paper in a natural manner as also record their deepest and wildest secrets.
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