Reasons I Shouldn't be Writing My Life Story

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While reading stories about great men, the awe that fills us makes even the ordinary incidents of their lives significant. I have no such advantage. Some stories are read as they make interesting travelogues or historical reports. I was never so vexed with my surroundings that I had to go visiting nor have I taken the onus of providing future generations with the excitement of historical research. 

I am afraid of losing the measure of frankness to be displayed in writing my story. If I mention all that passes through my mind, my story would find an honoured place among books written by hardcore moral wrecks. I would spell doom for others who would be exposed besides me. There would also be a few good thoughts but mostly borrowed. Why shun originality and be accused of plagiarism? 

Biographies inspire us to emulate the lives of great men. This tendency to seek inspiration destroys the spontaneity in our lives. Let's not upset our beautiful life living someone else's. There are people who wish to write a 'success story' out of their lives. God forbid such frenzy come upon me. Success, they say, goes into the head and there is no peace after that. I may be held morally responsible for inciting a rebellion in society rather than being reckoned as a protagonist of free-thinking and harmless indolence. When society doesn't care to respect these lofty principles, I care little to provide this thanklessness society a charter of my vision. 

And, I fail to understand why directors have a penchant for historical figures. In their movies, they mar the integrity of an individual - portraying Alexander as homosexual, Ashoka as a frantic lover. My times are stricken with thousand vices. What if I am become a scapegoat of the director's fancy to boost the box office sales! I think it's wise to allow one's name to die with oneself instead of being vilified by generations that would reckon only one's undoing. Poor Gandhiji suffers the same fate and so do many others who made a mistake of bequeathing to posterity their wisdom. Wisdom escaped notice and their foolhardiness caught public attention. Now, they pay the price of self-indulgence. 

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