Here is another quotation in the same spirit as in last week’s blog post from an inspiring little book, ‘What is history’ by E. H. Carr:
‘…as soon as I have got going on a few of what I take to be the capital sources, the itch becomes too strong and I begin to write –– not necessarily at the beginning, but somewhere, anywhere. Thereafter, reading and writing go on simultaneoulsy. The writing is added to, substracted from, re-shaped, cancelled, as I go on erading. The reading is guided and directed and made fruitful by the writing: the more I write, the more I know what I am looking for, the better I understand the significance and relevance of what I find.’
Bell cord in a French courtyard
The journey is the destination, –– if we have the luxury of that freedom. We choose a subject and then the subject takes us by the hand.
Looking back on the trodden path as I’m doing these days by going through my Living Iron journal, I marvel at the variety of unplanned ‘side tracks’ I’ve been led to take and how they have fed my research.
Chai glasses in Rajasthan