Part – 01
While writing an article we all try to make it innovative and find out a most effective way to present it smartly. Hopefully, this whole thing will be clear to you by reading this article which actually based on my own life story.
Back in Eighth grade, my greatest challenge was producing a legitimate essay, especially because they had to be different; something outside the ordinary sample essay books given to us, because the teachers obviously already knew them all. My classmates could memorize long sample essays from these books and even mix the passages around to suit whatever topic was given. I, on the other hand, couldn’t. Producing a decent essay to impress the teacher was a very daunting task, especially at that age. There was this one time when my teacher asked me to write an essay about ‘The Fish Market’. Struggling, I started to stifle through sample books, one after another, with no clue of what I was actually looking for.
Fortunately, my Mama (which translated to ‘uncle’ from the maternal side in Bengali), who was one of the top lawyers of the city, decides to pay a visit at our home just as I was giving up on writing this essay. So given that he is a lawyer, I approach him for a solution. “Accha Mama, how am I supposed to write a 4 to 5-page essay on ‘The Fish Market’? I am stressed out!”. He grins, sits beside me and says “Begin by simply writing the topic at the center of your page. Go on”. So, I do. Now, he says, “draw a box around it”. I stare at him completely dumbfounded for a couple of seconds, but then think “he’s a lawyer, he knows what he is talking about” and so as instructed, I draw a box around the topic. “Okay good. Now what you’re going to do, is around the box, you are going to write things that you can think of that may relate to ‘The Fish Market’”. Annoyed and agitated, I ask “Mama, how is this supposed to help? For all I know, I can write ‘football’ on the page, and then somehow link it with the topic. This doesn’t help Mama!”. He laughed so loud that he started coughing; partly because apparently my annoyance was amusing to him, and partly because he is a chain smoker. Seeing my stressed face, he put an arm around my shoulder and says “my son, you need to be creative! Question yourself ‘what can be found at a fish market? Who can be seen?’ Use your imaginations, put yourself in the fish market, and jot down any ideas you may think of related to this. Some of these can be linked, and some cannot. But you will see your paper will be full of so many ideas, 4-5 pages won’t be enough to cover these topics!”.
He looks at my exhausted face apologetically and says “Alright, how about we try it together? Hm?”. Hearing this, I pick up my pencil again, and look at him, ready to note down. “Okay let’s see, what is good about a fish market? The fish swims around gracefully in the water until you put it in a confined box where it lays still and moves around its tail. The entire fish market reeks of that raw salt-water fish smell which goes straight to our guts. But then people buy them, bring them home, wash, cut, cook, and prepare a delicious meal which then gets served on the table. There! Have you gotten those down?”.
To Be Continued…
Part 02 will be published very soon. Stay Tuned.
About The Author
Mohammed Shamsul Alam
General Manager
Summit LNG Terminal Co.(Pvt.) Ltd
Special Thanks for the assistance of
