What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
Legacy, a term which has many associated emotions, dreams, hopes, ambitions and even selfishness associated with itself.
In a way I feel that the thought of legacy is a little inclined towards a certain luxury for many people out there who are struggling to hold their lives together and the struggle is real unlike what many would like to believe. Nonetheless, the wish of a legacy silent or loud is present in the hearts and minds of many. Some people pursue it very strongly aiming to leave their impact in the world for the longest time, for the good or for the worst.
There are legacies of various nature which people willingly or unwillingly create. There is professional legacy for one’s achievements and contributions in their respective field of profession, then there is materialistic legacy in form of possessions mainly in form of property and other valuable assets which are prominently passed down into a family, further there is cultural legacy which involves the impact of a person in shaping a certain culture or a certain segment of the society or the society as a whole and finally the most common type of legacy personal legacy wherein people just want to be remembered by those close to them such as friends and family. There could be more, but this is all that there is to my knowledge.
It’s quite a given for most of us writers. We want our legacy to form through our writings, we want our words to remain for the longest time after us. In a way through the words of a writer a lot remains in this world, be it a person, an animal, a tree, the beauty of a place, the taste of a food, the Sun, the Moon, the list can be endless. But most importantly in those writings remains a part of the writer himself/herself and also the experiences he/she has experienced and also the people he/she had come around to love, understand and value.
Although my work is not just limited to writing, there is also a bit of photography and videography along with some voiceovers as well, but if there is a legacy which has a chance of remaining, then I would certainly bet it on the words that I have written and will write in the future.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 
4 responses to “What Might Remain”
Although I am an author, I am not interested that something of me being left behind. When I am dead, I am dead. It doesn’t matter to me whether I am remembered or not. I am not narcissistic beyond my death.
Well, it would be nice if my library of nearly 16.000 books would survive me.
Klausbernd 🙂
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I completely understand. 😊 For me, I feel privileged to have met some wonderful people in my life and to have shared a few memories with them, many of them are no longer present in the world. So the initial idea with which I began to write was to somehow maybe allow a part of them to remain even if through words. But of course I agree as one continues to write and also grows along with it, the understanding of things begins to broaden.
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Anuran, this was a beautifully articulated post on legacy. Your insight that the idea of legacy can, at times, be associated with a hint of selfishness really struck me—it’s a perspective I hadn’t considered before. It adds a new layer to how we view our desire to be remembered. Thank you for giving me something so meaningful to reflect upon.
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Thank you so much sir
Such comments coming from you is really honourable.
Thank you so much again
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