My Experiment with Writing
Sarthak Gupte,
SY BSc. Economics (2023-27)
Editor-in-chief, Art Thou Cultured.
“Not all those who wander are lost”
– J.R. Tolkien
Now that is how I have been consoling myself till now by reading this brilliant quote again and again! I consider myself to be wandering but not lost in this world full of opportunities. I have always been a confused child. I was good at all subjects during my school days and that led to the belief that I could have an illustrious career in any field. But that conviction was eventually broken in my 10th grade when I had not-so-great teachers to teach Science and Maths. I lost complete interest in these subjects and decided to pursue Arts. Though this narrowed down my career choices, I realised there were plenty of disciplines in this stream to choose from which further pushed me into a dilemma (I sometimes wish there existed no choices for anything, that would have made life much easier. Choosing a certain path has a high opportunity cost man! I want to try everything that exists out there!). Finally I chose Economics (another dreadful yet satisfying choice) and got into GIPE.
The first semester opened up a plethora of new concepts, ideas, career paths and introduced me to a batch of hard-working and talented individuals who had lofty aspirations. Naturally, this instilled an urge to explore and pursue things and get better at them. Not that this never happened before (I’ve learnt painting, cleared a few levels of Karate, became proficient at German language to a great extent), but college is an important step in your life where this feeling re-establishes itself. You can call it peer pressure if you want. I certainly felt so during my first year. After the Club Orientation session conducted by the club heads of the college, I realised I had practically no unique talent to get into any of the clubs. There was the Finance and Investment Cell but I had no knowledge of anything that was remotely related to finance. The cultural clubs: the dance club but I had (still have!) immense stage fright, Falak the music club but I could barely identify any instruments, the DYO Art Club didn’t seem to be particularly attractive for some reason and then there was the Theatre Club but I had no prior experience of playing any substantial role in any school performances (I assume becoming a cow in your 1st grade annual gathering or playing the part of a God where you only had to smile and shower blessings for 20 mins of your stage time for three consecutive years or similar such roles don’t count:)). UTBT and the newly formed Philosophy club seemed like a community where people of certain higher intellectual capacity were allowed to enter and I certainly didn’t fit the criteria. Joining any of the Sports teams was out of the question. What remained was this club with an unusually fancy name, ‘The 8:10 Newsletter’ ! Applying for this club seemed least harmful as I had to do nothing that invoked my stage fear or required special knowledge.
I remember attaching a note in the recruitment form that the only write up I did was answering a few interview questions for the school magazine. The editors, being kind enough, reached out to me for a writing sample and that’s how I got into writing! They say one must be an avid reader in order to write well but I had never even picked up the newspaper let alone a novel. What inspired me to write was this feeling of trying out something new that I had never ever explored. Somewhere it was also about proving myself yet again amongst a bunch of new people who had already achieved a lot. In the process, I developed inquisitiveness for all things important for society as well as those that tickled my creative instincts. From writing about the history of chandeliers to analysing the impact of remittances, from learning about the age-old martial art of Kalaripayattu to discovering the philosophical trolley dilemma, a newfound love for research and reading flourished. The Newsletter has brought some sort of discipline into my life when it comes to adhering to quality standards and stringent deadlines. I guess the pressure to excel at something shaped me for the better!