Each story stands on its own

Dear Gentle Reader

These scribblings are for you

Gentle reader, thrills and action, I can’t do

A lot of love always

A gust of tears sometimes

A gush of fantasy maybe

Like a gentle wind making music in a tree

And a hand that slips confidently

A trusted gentle hand, into yours, warmly.

I often wonder if I will ever be able to write a book like ‘One of us is lying’ by Karen M McManus or a ‘Da Vinci Code.’ I love the thriller element in these books and the nail-biting finish. I enjoy looking for series and movies based on books on Netflix.

Like millions of voracious readers around the world, I read ‘The Da Vinci Code’ non-stop from the time I woke up until late at night when I first laid my hands on it. I read it while I walked, sat, or ate, from the moment I woke up until late at night, until I finished it two days later. To use an expression often used by my daughter, some books are simply ‘unputdownable’.

However, as a writer, I prefer to write about soft themes such as mother and child, love and life, food and fun, dancing and friends, and flowers and nature. I specialise in fashionably maudlin prose. These are called mood pieces. This is as much my folly as well as my forte. It’s undeniably simple, easy to read, and at times heart-wrenching, slow-moving, and replete with observations.

The common thread running across these stories is nostalgia and a longing for what we have lost as we have grown up. Although we are all dreamers in some ways, our realities are less rosy, and we lack the strength to reclaim past glories or debate with zeal.

John Lennon’s famous lines from ‘Imagine’ often echo around, “You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one!” In addendum, a dreamer once dreamed about being an author, and she still dreams in words.

My friend’s circle dramatically shifted once my book was released at SIBF last year. I’m surrounded by gentle souls and simple beings. It makes me happy. I now have an audience that looks forward to simple pleasures in life, uncomplicated hobbies, and less challenging relationships.

Manoj, a quiet man, is one of them. He is a writer with fingers made of nostalgia. When Manoj’s magic seeps through his words, even drinking a cup of filter coffee becomes a bittersweet memory. ‘Few People in Many Seasons,’ his best-selling vernacular language novel, is aptly titled.

The autobiographical anecdotes in this book are a nostalgic look back at the people who came and departed in his life, leaving an indelible mark on his impressionable mind. Some people are sentimental to the very last cell of their hearts! They take quite some time to bloom into writers and authors, but their works linger in your heart a little longer than others.

All of us, readers and writers, are connected in a gossamer web of words. We are often stretched out in our living spaces, noses buried in letters, wandering and dreaming with open eyes. The stories we traverse through could have happened at any time, or in any place. They are tied together by the readers in us.

We are the dreamers, the children who never grew up, the old souls, seeking to pacify each other in the great passing. We have all left pieces of ourselves in other people as we read and write back and forth. It’s as if an unknown wheel has been set into action, one word, one story is a muse for the next!

In a world

Stuffed with speed

Bursting at the seams

It’s refreshing to see

Ancient souls

Their hearts are lit

Noble their thoughts

Feby Imthias is a writer based in Abu Dhabi and author of the book, Children of the Sun, Sand and Seas. Twitter: @Feby_Imthias