Lair of a Wordsmith ©

Eid-ul-Fitr 2018; Day 1

Hey,

I am Hina Tabassum.

Since I was baby, words held a special place in my life. They attracted me to them like nothing else. I could still remember all my relatives reading me stories and teaching me to read.

I still think of those days when I won’t eat unless someone read a story to me. One thing that astonishes me, though, is I don’t recall ever hearing Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty or Rapunzel from anyone. The one that is the most vivid in my mind is Hansel and Gratel. That was my favourite and I have heard it so many times, I could have read it to someone in my sleep even when I was a kid!

Gradually, I progressed and not only started reading for myself, but also started experimenting with all the words I was learning everyday. Those words and all those swirls in my mind that were taking shape, for me it was like my very own canvas being painted on (by the way I paint as well).

These were the days when I was in grade three and for me Enid Blyton, R. L. Stine along with Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys reigned supreme. I had a mind to become a detective myself (I still want to).

Me becoming a Potterhead is another story altogether because I had no idea that there was this author who has written this amazing book that’s just going to burst open the universe of imagination for me. It was back in grade 5 when my English teacher decided that she would buy us all books that will be suitable for the cadre we have reached in the language. Of course we had to pay but that is besides the point. Luckily, I got Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and fell in love with it! Since then there has been no looking back.

While I’m talking about Harry Potter, let me also mention that I started a fan fiction on my blog. I had wanted to write about my favourite characters but I couldn’t bring myself to change the story line the queen had come up with. Therefore, my fan fiction started where Rowling ended the story back then.

I still remember that I was the only one in school to be allowed to borrow two books when everyone else was allowed only one. That accorded me celebrity status.

Now, all this time, I was experimenting with words as well. I participated in short story competitions and had a ball working around scenarios in my mind. At any given point in time, all of my notebooks would have some little scene scribbled on it. Usually it was the backside of my schoolbooks and the entirety of my personal notebooks.

Pride and Prejudice introduced me to the Romance genre in grade 6. That book has never ever faced being removed from my all time favourites.

I always believed that the only thing I can write is prose but since the last couple of years poetry has come to me, too. I write poetry when I’m feeling very emotional; be that any emotion.

Time passed and I grew up. Took up more hobbies, had more responsibilities but words remained an integral part of my life. I continued reading and I continued writing. And I started a blog which at times goes very inactive but then there are times I can’t help but post because it gives me immense pleasure to know that people out there are reading what I have put together.

I continued reading and I continued writing. Thus, I call myself not an author but a wordsmith.