One universal truth is that life is unfair. It runs in exactly the opposite direction of a man’s true wishes and aspirations. When they’re young, people tend to be very optimistic and see their whole life ahead of them with endless opportunities and countless chances to write their story the way they want it to be. However, man always proves feeble in front of the time. As life progresses, they learn to live with their unfulfilled dream and broken hearts. A fear of little time left creeps in when their years gone by are more than the years to come. They carry a psychological burden of broken dreams. Life, or rather their great expectations from life, disappoints them. Some people succumb to their sorrows; others remain trapped in making sense of it, failing and trying and remaining frustrated. Tragedy of life makes some people disenchanted and they grow a tough shell around their personality as a protection. Less unfortunate grow optimistic and take what life has to offer them with an open heart.
Life cannot be fair until poverty, crime, cruelty and deprivation exist. Beyond the obvious ugliness and injustice of life, there is a realm of tender human feelings. Man’s ugliness to man, a disregard for feelings, faithlessness and some burning questions about life and existence keep torturing a human mind. Even if man’s unfairness to man ceases to exist, nature’s unfairness will keep haunting sensitive minds.
Legendary poet Jaun Alia once wrote: “To live a happy life, one needs a lot of insensitivity”. Generally, writers are a sad lot because no creator of fiction or poetry could be an insensitive person. Great fiction writers in quest of realistic portrayal of life do seem to be devoid of emotion, but the very fact that out of billions witnessing and experiencing life, only a handful of people choose to express their feelings in writing is a testament that writers are much more sensitive than other people. Life inspires and affects them intensely and gives birth to their creative drive. Another common thing among all writers is that they are always good readers before becoming good writers. Books quench their curiosity to understand the mystery of life and polish their creative minds. Besides having a firsthand experience of life, all great writers have been highly knowledgeable and well read in fiction and non-fiction. Writers have deep thinking processes and an urge to see relativity of things and beyond the obvious. All this richness of mind enables them to understand life better than others and also reflects in their writings. Great fiction and poetry all over the world is mostly about sadness and tragedy, for the simple reason that the world itself is a sad and sorry place. It’s true that as life progresses there’s an ever increasing sense of loss. Once you come to realize the reality of life, it takes a lot of heartlessness to stay happy. For sensitive souls, tragedy of life engulfs even the brighter side of things.
Intellectuals' insight sets them apart from the crowd. Ignorance which is orientation of the majority is not a choice for them anymore. With this comes the loneliness of being different. To them, only conflict in the world is between ignorance and knowledge. Intellectuals have high and noble ideals and want to shape the world accordingly. All true intellectuals believe in humanity as the greatest value and do not believe in any harmful or problematic divisions between people. At times, they dedicate their entire lives in hope of realizing their dreams one day. As it always happens, their shattered dreams of a better world leave them more miserable and disillusioned than ever.
In a society where knowledge is faded in front of ignorance and material rules over immaterial, it is only natural that a writer’s work is least appreciated. Aptitude gets its deserving reward but hardly in the fine arts. Few people possess the eye to appreciate the true worth of a work of art. To writers, like other artists, their skills and craft is the whole world for them. Very few writers have had the fortune to receive the appreciation they deserve in their life time. In most cases, writers have to work in other fields to earn their living. It leaves them deeply unsatisfied and unfulfilled. It’s nothing less drastic than a doctor working as a salesman to make ends meet. Most of the world still has this misconception that poetry and fiction are useless and fantastic and have nothing to do with the real life. On the contrary, as brilliant writers of the movie Dead Poets Society say:
“Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for”
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