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Dr. Pratibha Ray, citing her own example in her into different shapes and forms. Literature needs
speech, asked everybody to be a fighter in life three roots to flourish.
to achieve goals by challenging the status quo,
normally accepted beliefs and norms. That is • First, if it stands rooted in the writers’s own
why she titled her speech as “Sky is not the Limit” culture, own language and own land, it will
instead of the common idiom sky is the limit. She provide a heightened level of understanding.
became a famous writer despite all the challenges • Second, is the inner self where it will try to
and hurdles she faced in her life. Her father wanted recognize self and will provide a platform
her to be a doctor but she was determined to be to establish identity. Inner eyes need to be
a writer. Hailing from a small city, while studying opened to observe inner self.
in Ravenshaw College, she felt depressed and • Third, it needs to encompass the entire
belittled after seeing girls from the bigger city. universe.
However, she never gave up pursuing her dream.
A writer is believed to be successful if the reader Literature needs to embrace three eras – the
thinks that the story is the story of the writer past, the present and the future. Past will give
himself or herself. Literature is objective and is encapsulated experiences, good and bad; some
understood to be good if imagined deeply and to be kept, some discarded. Present touches upon
written with feeling. If something is written just the current work that is being done for future
generations or society or the universe. Future
by seeing, then it is reporting, not literature.
would be based on knowledge. Past is “Bhakti”,
Quoting Rousseau’s saying, “ Man is born free, but present is “Karma” and future is “Gyana”.
everywhere he is in chains”, she said man is born
with shackles of language, community, caste,
creed, culture, political boundary, religious faith
and genes of ancestors carrying wisdom, talent,
disease, colour and traits from time unknown.
Literature is a way to free oneself from self and
other shackles. Literature is as mysterious as a
seed. A seed gives birth to a full grown big tree.
Similarly, literature is a creative idea that blooms