When there is so much to be learnt from the lives of ordinary people, why are biographies and autobiographies written only of great people.

Some friend on www.authorsden.com said that everybody has a story to tell. This is largely true . We all have our experiences from which we learn. I wrote in the review that one wonders why publishers run after biographies and autobiographies when there is so much to be learnt from the lives of ordinary people. The fact also is that people would tend more to empathize with other ordinary people than great people.

On authorsden many have written what they have learnt from life in conceptual form. The main lesion that I learnt from my life are presented in my other articles “Shaping your child’s future-potting v/s gardening”, “Is meditation really required”, “Isn’t this a mockery of education”, “Know thyself-more in letter than in spirt”

However I feel that it would have been infinitely more interesting had the whole issue been presented in story form. It is intriguing how a simple thing like “Know thyself” can be so tedious and taxing and take years and years to discover. It is the story of how two schoolfriends part in school and meet much later in coporate life in drastically different conditions because one is able to follow his vocation correctly and the other is not. There is a filmmaker in India who has made a success of making autobiographical films. In any case, you can make a success only of what is there in your consciousness.

Some of the other things I have learnt about contradictions, paradoxes and the importance of concentration are presented in other articles.

Following the principles of lateral thinking or “thinking out of the box”, I feel that some enterprising publisher should take this challenge and produce a book called “ What life taught me- some life stories” . For doubting thomases, it would be better to remind oneself that some of the greatest successes in writing have come from totally unconventional ideas- When Harry potter or “Chicken soup for the soul” first came, nobody gave them a chance and viewed them with skepticism.

Po Bronson has written a book called “What should I do with my life” . Similarly there could be another book called “ What have I done with my life? Or “What have I learnt from my life” in story form. Suitable flexibility can be adopted for people who want to remain anonymous.

Since authorsden is full of writers, they are bound to write their own stories far better than other people. Then it all depends upon an enterprising publisher. They say everything begins with an idea. This is just an idea. Any takers?