What’s your muse? By Suhani Dewra

John Keats visited the shrine for inspiration. So did Charles Dickens. Some places kindle an urge to write, while some become the muse. Here are 5 places yours truly found inspirational for writing

It was my first visit to the wonder. The Taj Mahal I mean. At the first sight, it was a regular monument that was kept well. But as I got closer to it and spent time around it, the white construct grew on me. I felt the need to stay there for much longer and absorb its majestic presence. I couldn’t do so then, but I do plan to revisit the wonder on a weekday when the crowd is sparse, sit close by, soak in the monument, and write there. The wonder kindled some spark within. Became the writer’s muse. What would I write? That is uncertain. What is certain is that words that I have never written will flow out as I will sit there absorbing the gigantic white structure.

From Agra, I moved on to Vrindavan. This place of bhakti in its first instance had not much to offer a non-believer like me. But then when I spent a few hours in the Iskcon temple dancing on the beats of ‘hare Krishna, hare Rama’ in its aesthetically designed courtyard, the urge to stay there and write sparked up within once again. Not only the temple and activities there felt like inspiration, but also the little acts of women roaming the town wanting to apply vermillion and decorate me like Radha Rani and folks greeting each other with ‘Radhe Radhe’ made me feel like I was part of another civilization. To add to them was discovering the story of Haridas who was a poet/singer during Krishna’s time. Legend has it that Krishna, in a state of rapture listening to Haridas’ music, wanted to stay with the musician. But where Krishna went, dear Radha went along. It was easy for a poor musician to maintain a young Krishna in merely a piece of cloth. But the young lady? The lovers merged into each other to make things easy for Haridas. The merged idol is what is prayed to in the Banke Bihari temple there.

Another destination that tops the list, moving up the two aforementioned names is Dhamma Khetta Vipassana Mediation Center in Hyderabad. The world in there is isolated from the hustle-bustle that mankind has created for itself. A strict routine and green environment, sans chores of the world is an idle retreat for a writer. But the meditators are not allowed to carry a notepad/laptop and to write. So, how does yours truly manifests her desire? By volunteering there and writing the magnum opus after duty. The quiet room and quieter atmosphere is the idle atmosphere to focus on the details of the story. There’s yet another unheard of village – Love Dale – in Ooty that I found to be a retreat for writers. The name is inspiring enough, and checking into a luxury property there cut off from the world, can give the writer much needed space in the mind.

Moving on from Indian sites, the big destination and the first one that I found an inspiration was Stratford Upon Avon. Here, the greatest writer of English literature was born. No prizes for guessing the name. Shakespeare’s Birthplace has served as an inspiration to many writers, including John Keats and Charles Dickenson. The village has stores and pubs all named after Shakespeare. His house of birth, kept as close to as it was when the Bard was growing up in there, has his quotes marking special spots. On the compound is also a souvenir store and seeing all things Shakespeare can urge one to find refuse in words. Close to his birth house is another house that Shakespeare bought after making some fortune from his theatre company/writing. Almost razed to ground, the site houses a museum which has some broken artefacts of his era and a minting machine that gave me a golden coin with the famous face printed on it. As I soaked in the history there, I made a mental note of spending a long vacation in those pubs writing by the noon and walking around the village soaking in a bit of Shakespeare.