East West

On creative writing and self-treatment

Dr..

Kamal Abdul Malik

July 08, 2022

Academic life is very austere;

Years of academic research and writing with rigorous objectivity is enough to make you yearn to try writing something else, something less objective and more subjective, something that comes not from brain cells but from the folds of a tampon after life's painful punches.

I have no doubt that the value of this creative writing lies in the fact that it is a cure for the pain of the soul and the burning of longing.

Allow me to review what happened with a friend of mine, who enjoyed the delicacies of flowers in the garden of life and was not spared the prickles of their thorns and the prickles of their thorns.

He came to complain to me of his pain and told me that after 10 years of separating the one he loved, he texted her and she replied with kind words saying that she had recently married.

The joy of communication was mixed with the burning feeling of the impossibility of meeting, as he had lived alone for 10 years, imagining her passing by him in the Dubai Mall or on the beaches of Fujairah, but he realized that hope had become a mirage, and the meeting had become an impossible dream.

He asked me: “Do you, my friend, have a cure for my pain?” I told him: “You have to write creatively to express your joy at meeting her and your pain for her separation. Write about your happy memories with her, about your travels and outings with her in these beautiful Emirates.”

His eyes sparkled when I added that the life of research and teaching appealed to me, but I always find myself eager for the hour of being alone with creative writing, spreading within it what is in the soul and what has settled in the conscience.

I was pleasantly surprised when he sent me some of what he wrote.

I allowed him to quote here lines from what he wrote:

I was sitting in the car that was moving fast from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, and I contemplated this fragile thread through which we cling to life, and I thought of what I would like to leave to those I love.

Not only the material things but the knowledge of the beautiful in life, the love of my friends, and the hope that they will remember me in my happy years of laughter and noise of chatter, and not of my years when I was half-ill suffering from the pain of the body and the exhaustion of the soul and the bad mood of both.

I remember the happy places that came to my mind as I drove my car.

Once she surprised me by saying, “Get ready tomorrow morning, my sweet!

“I will kidnap you” and take you with me to beautiful places, do not ask me where..maybe to Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi or Ajman Corniche and perhaps to the beaches of Khorfakkan or the eyes of Fujairah..

I remember the road ascending to Jebel Hafeet, and our circumnavigation at sunset through quiet streets whose names we do not know, while we inhaled the fresh air of Al Ain that gives you inner peace.

As soon as we return from Al Ain, we start our journeys by car to Ras Al Khaimah, where the cold wind is on the top of Jebel Jais, then to Fujairah and the sudden brightness of the sun, and a chance meeting with divers from Eastern Europe and our swimming towards the rock opposite the Sandy Beach Hotel to the other beach whose name I forgot, Our outings on the road between Ajman, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain on beaches covered with clean sand as far as the eye can see, our view of the helicopter, which they turned into a café, walking along the sandy path, and her question to me with a cunning smile on her sunny face: “Tell me: What did the wind breeze say to bribery?” And I replied with an evasive smile: “Exactly what the sea said to the palm tree.”

Thank you my friend, the storms of my soul calmed down after recounting these beautiful memories, and I found me sincerely wishing her all the best and happiness in her new life. 

Visiting Scholar at Harvard University 

To read the previous articles of the writer please click on its name.