May 12, 2007

Breaking free of the entangling mesh of my thoughts, I picked up the copy of Young world a few weeks ago and came across this heading: ‘Secret diaries or mothers — who do you prefer?’ The first thought that followed was whether there was a connection between the two for comparison? I mean, OK if we talk about the sharing factor, yes you can say there is a link to a certain extent. But putting it into a side for side comparison is somewhat wrong.

Sharing something with someone or an inanimate thing is a soothing but daring act at the same time. I definitely agree that no one can replace the rank of a mother when it comes to understanding a person better. And obviously, no one else can guide one the absolute way. The thing however is that, to whom you share yourself with depends upon certain factors. For instance, a person may have a lot of understanding people around him but it might be that he/she is not confident enough to tell them anything. There dwell, after all, souls like me who have always been weak at expressing my thoughts and feelings. With such inability to open up, one is left with no option but to be confined to secret diaries for we human beings require an outlet for eroding emotions to survive.

A mother’s advice in one’s troubled situation is always unparalleled, but fewer are those who are able to overcome the fear of confession of their mistake. There are others who cannot explain their problems clearly to someone and present it precisely in written form. Some simply adore beautifying their expression and play with words to decorate their diaries. All in all, diaries are always taken as the secondary option and mostly those who fail to muster enough courage to talk to someone go for it, because there is definitely no substitute for the consolation of sharing your feelings with another human being. A diary is nothing but a facilitator, not a replacement for a mother and should not be held as a competitor to human beings.

As far as maintaining the secrecy of a diary is concerned, I would only say that circumstances change. One laughs, one cries, one feels insecure at some point in life and at times one finds people one can trust with his/her life. If somebody does find a friend trustworthy enough to share everything with, there’s no harm in letting him/her read the ‘secret diary’, for it is the expression of feelings that matters, not maintaining an impression. Violating this secrecy can express an under-confident person to another living being indirectly; hence, opening gates for consolation, advice and, of course, confidence to share in the writer.

Thereby, my conclusion is that if someone lacks confidence or is or unable to share everything openly, then writing his/her thoughts is the best thing. However, whether those written pieces of thoughts should be shared or not depends on the owner. It is only a question of satisfaction as time and experience can advise too.