Why blogging?

A blog was always on the writing – but when did I first hear about a thing called blog? I can’t recall. Probably at IIT? Or probably later. Can’t be sure.

I always had interest in writing, but reading (read English reading) predates it. It began in school with the Famous Five and Secret Seven (none of which I liked, but read nonetheless) series. Then abridged versions of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde¸ The Invisible Man, and a few more followed. I read a few short stories of Sherlock Holmes in between and then one The Hound of Baskervilles. I still remember it sending shivers down my spine as Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about howling of the hound in British moors. Wow. I still remember that it gave me the same thrill as I felt while reading the abridged version of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde.

When in class 9th, I got hold of City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, and I devoured it. I could breathe and smell Anand Nagar as if I had lived my whole life there. I felt sweat running down my back as I pedalled on streets of Calcutta with Hasari Pal. I didn’t know at that time that a Hollywood movie starring our own Om Puri also existed. We’ll talk about movies some other time, and a lot on books too, but to complete the point and the sentence - I haven’t watched that movie ever. Again, not sure, why.

But blogs first, for this is a blog, and raison d'etre or the origin story has to be clear. More than the readers – to me.

I could always write a bit, the first demonstrable act of it being (again) in class 9th where we were given a class assignment to write about something (the usual people, place or thing sorts), in a roundabout way so that the reader would’ve to guess who that thing was. Aishwarya Rai had just won Miss World, I had read about her, and hence I wrote a small piece around her without disclosing her identity. Everybody loved that one pager. I could fathom from the reaction of my English teacher and later my Class Teacher that I had written something which was way better than the next best submission. That’s my first memory of my writing getting appreciated. But of course, that’s still beyond the point. I’m coming to the point in a bit.

I wrote a tad during my IIT days as part of a requirement of few of my courses, and particularly as part of an English literature elective that I took in 3rd year. One of my friend - with whom I am not in talking terms now, read it and felt that some professional writer had written it. A few friends even commented that I should write more often. But I didn’t.

Time moved on - jobs, IIM, jobs in that order and life happened. By this time, blogs had become something of a rage. A lot of people ranging from dud wannabes to proficient writers, and people ranging from nobody to my childhood hero - Amitabh Bachchan had gotten into it. But I didn’t.

Few of my old friends and few new ones kept on coaxing me, but I didn’t budge. And my obduracy swung from feeling of what-would-I-write during college days to oh-it’s-so-late as late as into my 30’s. I kept on believing that people should write only when they know how to write or when they’ve something to write about. And I wasn’t sure of either. With naivete abound, I had missed out on one crucial link between writer and his/her writing.

People can also write when they need or want to, and not only when they are good at it or have something specific to say. And with that in mind, finally, I’ve decided to write a bit. Hopefully a trickle transforms into a downpour, my readers relate to it, and who knows, might also gain from it/me.

For it has been late, this has been more than 20 years in making (or could be considered as 20 years of lost opportunity), but then my family always tells me – I was born 7 days late, and the butterfly effect has compounded the delays in all my endeavours thereon.

As I oscillate in between the oddities of following two statements, let’s begin…

I was a man born too late in a world too old. - Olivier Martinez Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. - Arthur Ashe

PS: The highlighted (bold) words in the blog are for a reason. And I would talk about them in my next blog.