BETA

Hello all, Thanks again for taking time to read this section of the paper. I have just realised that I have been writing for our paper for a year and a half. For those loyal readers who have read more or less most of these know that I have covered Tamil history, day to day problems, social problems and have cavorted with controversial issues (who can forget the debate about virginity that ensued!). I have even had the pleasure of people writing whole articles agreeing with what I have written about and sharing their personal experiences. More recently, I have been approached by email and social networking sites by various people from Austria to Australia and from Italy to India. It is always a pleasure to receive compliments and encouragement from people who enjoy what I write. I am also quietly overjoyed that so many people read what I write (not blowing my own trumpet…as maybe they have no choice other than to read it!).

However there are always certain downfalls that come with every profession (or in my case hobby) and that for a writer is criticism. Criticism is defined as ‘reasoned judgement or analysis, value judgement, interpretation, or observation. The term can be used to describe an adherent of a position disagreeing with or opposing the object of criticism’. So far, I have not been on the receiving end of such criticism. However, that has all changed this week. This week I have experienced my first bout of criticism in my journalistic endeavour and I am not going to lie to you, it hurts. It is not the criticism that hurts the questioning of my ability to write a publishable article. While life or indeed writing devoid of criticism would be ideal, it is not realistic. In addition, it would not give me an insight into what others think and have to say about what I write. There is always ‘constructive criticism’ to be had in almost everything that is written about. But there is a fine line between constructive criticism and just downright criticism.

‘Criticism should be like gentle rain, enough to nourish a man's growth,
without destroying his roots’

What people often don’t understand is that writers all believe passionately in what they have written and therefore criticism of their beloved work is equivalent to telling a new mother that their baby is ugly! Furthermore, there are always the few in any race or country that place themselves in their self-made moral high grounds, which are unattainable to us mere mortals. It is these people who criticise and do not understand the hurt or harm they do when dishing out their opinions. After all, we live in a country where freedom of speech and freedom of thought are encouraged to flourish and thus inevitably there will always be things that we do not agree with or indeed like. However, that does not mean that those things cannot exist or should not be allowed to exist.

Another thing that has become blaringly obvious to me is that some people in our community are eternally dissatisfied. So, no matter what a person writes they will always think the contrary. This problem is especially prevalent when us ‘teen’ Oruwriters (some of which are past the teen stage) write about anything to do with Tamils. It stems from the belief that young (therefore inexperienced) and second generation (therefore culturally clueless) Tamil children know not of what we write and everything we write is influenced (usually by a movie) in some way, shape or form and ultimately is devoid of any real knowledge about the Tamil race. This is an age-old problem where elders think that possessing more life experience makes a person's opinions more credible. In some cases, this opinion is right, when say talking about a war and hearing it from those who have experienced it than say from someone who has read about it in a book. Then again, how do we know the person who experienced it will tell us the true reality minus their version of events and free from bias? This is where a young fresh mind can offer an opinion into the subject even though they have not experienced it first hand. Instead of thinking about it this way, people do the opposite and see being a second generation Tamil as a disadvantage when commenting on matter relating to the Island of Sri Lanka. What gives one person more or less right to comment on something? Birthright? I for one do not want such prejudice cast on me, nor do I want sympathy for being born out of Sri Lanka. In fact my first article embraced the delights of having a dual culture and acknowledged that Tamil youth Diaspora have the best of both worlds.

I may look back on this article in years to come and wonder ‘what was I thinking’, but, for now I can be proud to say that I am what I am, and have written what I believe and stand by it. It was once said that to avoid criticism one should do nothing, say nothing and be nothing…I for one refuse to be nothing and instead choose to believe that ‘criticism is simply prejudice made plausible’.