Who Am I (Not)?

In one writing exercise we were given 10 minutes to write on the topic "Who am I?". We were strictly prohibited to write our resume i.e. name, designations, academic qualification, in short any of those things that we (and all others) use to identify us. We were also told to be honest. I was in a fix. How do I define myself (honestly)?. After pondering for some time, I ended up writing about "Who I am Not" instead of "Who I am".

Here is what I wrote:

Often when I am asked who I am, I respond with a mechanical answer consisting of my name, qualification, designation, and such things. But then, I wonder, had my name been something different, would my identity have completely changed?


My earliest memories of my childhood are of different places. As my father hopped from place to place for his job, I found myself amidst different surroundings - from dusty lanes of the villages to the concrete jungles of cities. Somewhere during those journeys, I lost my regional identity and although I learned the language, custom and traditions of all places, I cannot identify myself from just one of them. No, my identity is not confined to one region or one state.


School and colleges bear the responsibility of shaping a person. It is there that one finds one's identity and yet, I would not say that doing an engineering course has made engineering my complete identity. My job takes up 8 hours of my day, sometimes more, but it is after that, that I search for myself in something different, in a book, in a poem, in a new language to learn, in a new idea that will complete the missing part of me.

My identity is still in the making and as it spreads, I find myself renewed everyday.


It so happened that my 'non-identity' turned out to be a good piece of writing.