Everybody needs inspiration- the story of a muse

I am reading a book, and the book is about me.

In reality it’s the first draft of a book titled “Once I met a girl” and it’s written by a girl by the name Seemee. Seemee and I have never met, we haven’t ever spoken on the phone, we haven’t even exchanged long messages where we exchanged secrets to each other, and yet today Seemee has written a book with over 25000 words about a girl she knows only through a facebook page!

Wow!! I know a lot of you reading this must be amazed, well, so was I.

Seemee was a friends request I had accepted because she was a girl and we had a common friend. My facebook friend request acceptance criteria was quiet simple, if it’s a guy with no common friends, he will be blocked, if it’s a girl with few common friends, she gets accepted. I can truthfully say that a do not know half my fb friends personally, they are my college juniors, or friends of friends, and frankly I do not mind, most of my FB page is family viewer friendly and it’s not like I share my innermost thoughts, and every Blah moment on the internet.

A few months later my mother told me that a sweet little girl had written a ‘very nice post’ about my blogs and that’s when I came to know of Seemee. Today as I read her book on me, I realise that I am her muse, and to be frank I don’t know what a muse does, or must do.

“Most people assume that a muse is a creature of perfect beauty, poise and grace. Like the creatures from Greek mythology. They're wrong. In fact, there should be a marked absence of perfection in a muse--a gaping hole between what she is and what she might be. The ideal muse is a woman whose rough edges and contradictions drive you to fill in the blanks of her character. She is the irritant to your creativity. A remarkable possibility, waiting to be formed.” 

― Kathleen Tessaro, The Perfume Collector

This definition at least put my mind at rest, “I wasn’t required to be perfect, infact it’s in my imperfections that the inspiration lies.”

Having said that, I must say that I have no part to play in the hard work that Seemee has put in.

 It’s her joy, her labour of love, her credit that she has created a girl who according to her has been inspired by me.

 As I read few excerpts from the book, I realised this girl called ‘Kuheli ‘ in Seemee’s book is nothing like me, and yet I discovered many little things about the author. Like the meaning of her name. I must say I was never curious about her name, I always thought it was a novel way of spelling Simi, and I know of 3 other girls called Simi, not to mention Simi Garewal. But it seems Seemee means ‘shimmery like silver’.

On a scale of 1 to 10 on what kind of Muse I am, I would say I am a 2 at best. I haven’t shared any secrets with Seemee which the world already doesn’t know. I agree with the quote:

 “Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus. Muses are too unreliable to keep on the payroll.” 
― Helen Hanson

This is Seemee’s story to tell.

 Does the girl in her story resemble me? No. But in all honesty she has been formed from a facebook page and we all know that our facebook life is much like the pictures we put in it, cropped and edited , photoshopped even. I do not share my sad days, my horrid moments, my self doubts or my failures on a public forum, and truth be told it is these moments that truly form a person.

Am I proud that somebody has found my life interesting enough to write a book? Umm, not really. As previously stated a muse need not be perfect to be a muse, I do not have any false sense of pride in being one. Mind you, it left me a little spooked. Lucky for Seemee she is a girl, because I do not  take kindly to male admirers.

Do I lead an interesting life? Hardly! I work a 9 to 8 job, no public holidays, I have a non-fashionable job of a doctor, I don’t party all night , neither do I have friends in high places. But, yes I do find happiness in the little things, a beautiful sunset, a pretty flower growing by the road, the first rains, a great meal, the perfectly baked cake, and yes I do chronicle these little joys of life either in my writings or as pictures, some of which are on Facebook. I am touched that Seemee has noticed these small details. Touched that she has noticed my love for sunsets; the changing colours of the sky.

So if this story is not about me, and in a title which reads ‘once I met a girl’ , the girl has never been met, what is my role, you ask?

 Well I asked myself that, and I found the answer in Miley Cyrus, yup the same twerking country singer gone bad. It’s in her lyrics

Everybody needs inspiration
Everybody needs a song
A beautiful melody
When the nights are long