Writing Together
A love letter to my writing tribe; 1 year of writing with strangers on the internet
I look around my writing desk.
A page holder. A hand braided wool band. A journal with many birthday wishes. A novel with a handwritten note. The Slack app on my phone bursting with conversations.
What do they have in common? Why are they still here?
These were gifts from “strangers on the internet”. These are remnants of a grieving phase of my life where co-writers healed me. This was part of the gift I gave to myself- “When life is going south and my world has come crumbling down, a personal memoir writing workshop might soothe my broken heart!”
The gift, in my mind, was supposed to be the experience and my writings. The gift, in reality, turned out to be the emotions - confronted, processed, expressed, absorbed, transformed, and most importantly my fellow writers who I now call my dear friends. My beautiful writing tribe!
“I have a writing tribe”, I tell all my friends and family members with gleeful excitement.
“Who? The group whose pictures you post - sometimes of zoom screens with many windows, sometimes on picnics in Sundar Nursery? They look very different from your other friends. Some older too. Eccentric!”
“Yes, they are the ones! My wonderful group of friends. My writing tribe. They are all the shades of the sky. They are the beauty of the Ochre Sky. That moment when the sun and the horizon meet, when one’s heart and soul are in unison. That gorgeous magic is what my writing tribe is. It is my creative, compassionate home where I feel like a human again in an otherwise monstrous and robotic world.”
“Do you write together?” many of them ask.
“Sometimes we write. At other times we just talk. We share. We overshare guiltlessly. We write fearlessly. We express ourselves unabashedly. We skip sessions unapologetically. We come back to each other innocently, like we never left. They make every big and small moment of my life a rousing celebration. They decorate every painful moment with their silent solidarity and immense support.
We hold each other in the warmth of our words. We fight fear, shame, anxiety, stress, burdens and traumas with the sword of our words. We weave aspirations, ambitions, desires and passions with the thread of our words. We offer permissions to live, heal, dream, pursue and chase through the tender touch of our words. We cultivate the safe space to crumble down, break down and melt down through the bricks of our words, welcoming difficult emotions and tears.“
“So, yes. We do write together. They mean so much to me!”
How to explain the innocent joy of finding a 100 rupee note in the hidden pocket of a folded away jeans you stumbled upon? How to explain the serendipitous sprouts of spring in the month of autumn? How to explain being caught up in the sudden rain when a quiet cloud came by to pause the storm, saving you? How to explain that shaam ki adrak wali chai that your full tummy doesn’t need but your parched soul craves?
Writing together has helped me write better. More notably, writing together has helped me live better. I pay attention more. I trust people with my vulnerability. I feel more intensely. I share more courageously. I engage more deeply.
I am invested in the journey of so many of my writing friends that I imagine myself as a cheerleader in so many “main character” stories. It never felt so good to be a part of the audience, rooting for someone as you witness their glorious life play out.
This September marks a year of writing together. This is a special kind of milestone because it involves my special people!
I will cherish these objects on my writing table forever. I will cherish these people, my writing tribe forever. Hence, these objects are here in my room. Hence, these people are here in my life. I carry them in my heart everywhere I go. Every word I write is an ode to their warmth, empathy and camaraderie.
Thank you to my writing tribe for keeping me in good company as I make sense of life, words and the turmoil in between the living and the writing -
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Anusha, Anam, Deepika, Khushboo, Shivam and Prerna :) Grateful to forever!
What is this salty discharge 🥹
Three cheers to all of us, Vulture! This is the best love letter I have received ever. I offer you hugs, wine, and lots and lots of good wishes.