The topic, doubtless, is of absorbing interest, and has cent percent authenticity (=reliability). Keeping a diary is, indeed, a pleasurable exercise and pleasure is its only inducement. Its functions may be multiple: many authors maintain their day’s impressions, or record funny, humorous or sensational events; others register their reactions and responses to their quotidian experiences and even other, a shade sentimental, love to scribble on its pages their fond desires, expectations and disappointments. But the motive impulse is always the pleasure in writing of it. It can never be a command performance.
But pleasure of the diary-writer can never be its be-all- and-end-all or sumum bonum (=the ultimate or best thing). We know the importance of diaries in researches and investigations. During the British rule the raids were, not infrequently, conducted -procuring diaries being one of their purpose. In the 18th century England the diary of Samuel Peppys is regarded as a precious documents.
The diarist enjoys an enviable autonomy-each one has his independent format and style. Rabindranath Tagore’s Europer Diary’ is a departure from the conventional style, and so is the daily account of the voyage rendered by the noted linguist Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee in his ‘Rabindranather Sangey Dipamoy Bharat O Shyamdesh’ (The Indian Archipelago and Siam in, the company of Rabindranath). They combine the author’s personal reactions with impersonal and interesting details. Some authors fill the up pages of their diary with anecdotes, stimulating details or dialogues, which supply them with plethora (=mucl.) of details and situations on which to build their stories. To some person his diary is like an instrument of joy, a ploy (=an engagement) to come to terms with his feelings. Its objective is pleasure.
But diary-keeping is sometimes a necessary adjunct (=a connecting link) of his service. Men in responsible offices often maintain diaries of cases or incidents. These pages help them in investigation or inquests later on.
The great novelist Henry James wrote ‘Italian Hours’ in the pattern of a diary – a diary account of his days in Italy. It is purely reflective – each page introduces the reader to a new aspect of the writer’s mind. In the process we learn of the locale, its climate and other things.
The diary is always a private and personal commodity of the writer. Normally it comes to light only after his death. In case of great persons there is a general hankering after their diary materials after their deaths. It is believed that they let us into the inner recesses of the person’s inner self. In this sense, a diary is more valuable than a personal letter; for in the latter it becomes obligatory to observe discretion (=judgment), howsoever intimate the addressee. But in diary writing it is not so.
