There are currently over 8 billion people on this planet as I write this very sentence. Out of these people, some will proudly call themselves ‘cool’ millennials, others will belong to the middle-aged Generation X, and there are even a few unlucky ones in the iPad generation, also known as “Generation Alpha.” But among all these groups, there’s one that stands out—a generation that’s a little funny, a little reckless, and filled with a whole new wave of ideas. We call them Generation Z, famously or infamously known as Gen Z.
There’s a lot I could say about being Gen Z, but for the sake of both our sanities, let’s focus on one thing: Gen Z’s knack for creating slang out of thin air. It’s almost as if Gen Z pulls these phrases out of a magical hat. I remember, one day in the middle of 2023, I was browsing through Instagram Reels when I suddenly started getting bombarded with all the reels that went “My roman empire is…”, “...is literally my roman empire”. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t confused for a week, trying to understand what new phrase the internet had brought to existence. Being ‘Roman Empire’ means being something that is embedded in someone’s thoughts. Something they can keep on thinking and talking and imagining for hours and not grow out of it. The human brain is a very interesting organ. It houses our mind, which furnishes millions and millions of thoughts. There are only a few things that pass through our brain and stay. Consider it your lucky day, because today– you get to hear about one of mine.
It was a random day in the month of May earlier this year, when I came across this ‘Webtoon’ or ‘Manhwa’, known as ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint’ or simply ORV. I remember reading it religiously on my iPad like a maniac. Since the summer vacations were going on, I had nothing better to do, dawn to dusk. I completed whatever was uploaded in the span of just 3 days. Since it is an ongoing manhwa, the story was far from complete, the characters weren’t fully absorbed in my brain’s threshold and I kept wanting for more and more. Upon going on reddit and quora and god knows what not, I learned that ORV was a completed ‘Light Novel’. So as any sane person would not react, I headed deep into the 551 chapters of ORV. The characters, the storyline, the world building, the dialogues, the themes, everything about it bound me to it. But what really has kept me glued to it, is the idea it is based on. That idea is what I’d call my ‘Roman Empire’. The idea of how stories never die. How stories help you survive. How stories are who you are.
When you think about it, you’ll start seeing a picture that has been photo-framed and nailed into my brain. Words never die. Stories– they never die. I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember. I don’t exactly remember ‘How’ or ‘When’ I started reading. I always liked going to the library as a young girl. My first proper novel was at the age of ten if memory serves me right. It was “Life Is What You Make It” by Preeti Shenoy. An abandoned book in a huge stash pile of my father’s books. Reading has always been relaxing for me. I’ve never really understood how some people find reading boring or annoying. For me, it’s always been my escape, my way of making sense of the world. Reading has a unique magic that brings comfort, even when everything else feels chaotic
In ORV, our story’s protagonist or the ‘reader’ is Kim Dokja (Dokja means reader in Korean). He was an introverted office worker whose hobby was to read. On the day of the final of his favourite web novel “3 Ways To Survive An Apocalypse”, the novel became a reality. And since he was the sole reader of the story… he was the only person who knew how the story went. I deeply resonated with Dokja, you know? Reading made him feel at ease. Helped him survive. Literally. Reading does the same for me. Helps me survive. It makes me feel less alone. Reading makes me feel like my friends are still with me, like I’m never truly alone. It awakens emotions I thought I had long forgotten. It makes me smile. Moreover, it makes me get up each day to start a new story.
But there is one more thing I have. That our dear Kim Dokja doesn’t have. I am a reader, yes. But I am also a writer. I can create characters and stories and personalities and worlds people can only dream of. I can bring your wildest dreams and your silent secrets and your worst nightmares on a silver palate and present it as if it were made of stuff that stars are made of. For some people, a book is just a medium in which pages are fastened together with the alphabet arranged in different combinations on it. For some, it is a hobby, a pastime, a way of entertainment. For the others, it is their livelihood, to read and to write. It is fascinating, isn't it? To be someone’s bread and better and be something people do after earning their bread and butter.
We are all made up of stories—you, me, your mother, my father, the cute girl next door, even the shy boy in your maths class. All of us. Our stories make us who we are. They shape us, break us, mould us, into different forms. They decide the way we look at our surroundings, decide how others perceive us. Some of the tales we are made up of, are short lived but beautiful. Some tales are funny anecdotes you’d have written when you were 16, on a rooftop in the middle of night, talking about nonsensical topics with your group of friends. Some tales are tragic, some hopeful, some embarrassing. But at the end of the day, the stories make us who we are. And that, dear reader, is the thought that stays with me constantly. Or, as we Gen Z like to say, it’s my Roman Empire.
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