My criticizers

Once veera_sundar asked me how you manage to write in English.

I had replied in that Blog comment it’s by practice. I personally don’t believe in born poet or anything of that sort. Well , at least not in my case. If you have interest ,creativity and sometimes good criticisms make you do well in writing. Here, I go with my story of what made me to write me better these days.

Criticisms are needed for any work we do. They are the stimulant to an individual‘s growth.

Writing skills!! This was something which I discovered in me after I joined Infy. I used to write during my school and college days but did not have much interest in it. Even very few things I wrote, I did not care to collect them. After, I came to Chennai after my training , I went through chn Ink and chn SIM. My first post was in SIM supporting reservation, which was appreciated by few Infoscions.

From then on , I started to write. After few months , when I thought to pen down my thoughts I felt comfortable with my mother tongue (Tamil). But Infy BB policy would not allow me to post anything other than English. I felt really tough to pen down my thoughts in English which was not that easy as it used be in my mother Tongue. But I tried. But my initial poems in English were mostly like translation from my mother tongue. I could feel that. But, did not bother much about that. I continued to write. My thought and content was flawless but not my language. I had to accept that. I am not an English nor my mother tongue is English. All I can do is to convey my thoughts in English but did not understand that the readers will feel that I had put some content in English but that will never give a feel of good English work but just translation of my thoughts from my mother tongue. To be precise, it was something like a Hindi serial dubbed in Tamil.

But, thanks to my criticizers manikandan_jeyarajan and windsor_stanley who later became my good friends. Each time I wrote a poem they used to call me to their place, read my work and tell where I went wrong in my work. Though initially it was hard for me to accept the criticism, slowly I understood what they meant. I changed my way of writing. Today, I am managing to put my thought flow in English (hope so) without giving a reader a thought that I have translated my work. Criticisms should make an individual to correct their mistakes , must make them understand that they are wrong and stimulate them to correct it. Of course, it won’t be possible without a strong punch, though it hurts .But as far as possible, we must make sure that it is not made in Public. Sometimes, that may have a negative effect. That will even make them not to continue further. In my case, I was given hard criticism by my criticizers but they made sure it was not in front of anyone so that I am not put to embarrassments. I feel only that attitude changed me to write still better.

It is said ,He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.” Yes, my criticizers not only criticized my work but helped me to understand my mistakes and correct them.

These days, Mani sometimes accepts my writing to an extent but Stan still comments it though my work gets appreciated. I don’t have any problem with that, because I see that criticism as a way to sharpen my writing skills.