Thank you Premchand

The story of how a quote put me back in my place, almost changing my course of life.

Ever since I started taking writing seriously, my world has changed for good.
I write every day, mostly on Instagram, lately on LinkedIn and starting now on Substack too.

The idea is not to amass thousands of followers across platforms.
I didn’t quit the rat race to join another one.

The idea is just to have a writing routine and social media platforms allow and encourage that.

Over the past many years of writing on Instagram, I have made a wonderful community of artists, writers, and photographers who support each other’s work wholeheartedly.
Instagram also keeps me accountable and I have been trying to write every day for the past 2 months. (Mostly been successful at it, other than a day or two)

Almost a year ago, I realised why I couldn’t proudly say to people that I was a writer or wanted to be one full-time.

The reason - I wasn’t writing as much!

I would write on days that I would be next to a serene river or on a solo motorcycling journey, mostly I would ‘become’ a writer when I would feel romantic.

My life and perspective changed when I read Premchand’s quote on writing -

मैं एक मज़दूर हूँ।
जिस दिन कुछ लिख न लूँ, उस दिन मुझे रोटी खाने का कोई हक नहीं।
- प्रेमचंद

Translation - I am a labourer. The day I do not write anything, I have no right to eat.

I remember feeling absolutely naked when I read this quote. I felt as if Premchand had written this quote for me, to mock me and to look me in the eye and say that you’re just someone trying to look as a writer, you’re never going to be one.

I know Premchand would be much more empathetic than I portrayed him in my thoughts but it certainly helped. This quote changed a few things for me.

I initially took up writing purely because of the validation that I used to get from people in my early days of writing on Instagram. It was much later when the comments stopped pouring and the algorithm put me at the end of the queue that I realised that comments or no comments, I loved to write.

A promise I have made since I read this quote is to write every day.

I have been doing Morning pages (almost) every day for the past 2 years. Also, as mentioned, I have started leveraging platforms to build a writing practice.

As I write this post, I promise myself to not go back to read the post a hundred times, scrutinise myself, fall into the well of self-doubt and delete this account forever.

I promise to write what comes to my mind, I promise to write regardless of whether it makes sense to anyone or not, I promise to write well, to write like a toddler and to write imitating someone but I promise to write.

I know Premchand is looking at me from above!