This and that....

As I start this blog, I have to admit that I am not new to blogging. I tried to blog earlier and all of them were unequivocally failed start-ups.I started blogging when blogging was a craze. Some of my friends were very good in blogging - humorous and analytical , and drew a good number of readers. Inspired by them, I too dreamed of flying in the clouds with accolades pouring in. There were indeed some accolades that read as - Hey nice blog; Good template; Interesting, keep posting. But then, these are not enough to get you going. Within a couple of posts, I hit writers block.. Lol. Still I managed to write few more crazy posts. And by the end of seven or eight (unpopular) posts, I was no more interested to write.

I then googled - how to write good blogs and came across lot of tips - be regular, post on current happenings,  keep it short, add some pictures, tag or labels, SEO, blah blah blah.... All these were good, except for one - content. Unless you have good content the tips are just tips. And all these tips were geared towards one goal - increased readership which in turn helps to monetize your blog. Even if you don't monetize, the feeling of being noticed should definitely flatter you.

When you talk of content, unless you have a talent for reading, cooking or a specialized knowledge in areas such as science, technology, art, history etc., politics is a easy one. Anyone can talk of politics. So I ranted few posts on politics. But that was after a long gap and it was the boom time of Facebook. But then it is hard to keep up with Politics after some time. The nuances of Politics are next to understanding a woman. You would get lost soon :D .

As everyone hopped into the FB wagon, I too did. My favorite google search term during those days was Facebook vs Orkut vs Twitter. While I understood what FB and Orkut were, Twitter was a puzzle. Except for a couple of my friends who tweeted about their daily sandwiches and lovely sunsets (!) rest of them were just re-tweeting. Some how I managed to understand that news broke first on twitter. So followed all the news and tech-gadgets sites and tried hard to read every news item that appeared on my timeline. Very tiring and I soon resigned. Did not log into twitter for a long time fearing my overwhelming time line !!

I then started seeing FB as a blogging platform. It was in-fact better than the regular blogging platforms with respect to readership. You would definitely get a few likes and if lucky few comments that would stimulate a discussion. However it was limited in terms of formatting and media content. Nevertheless it was good enough to post three or four lengthy paragraphs with guaranteed readership. The share feature made it very attractive and served as a good measure of the post's popularity. However, as the likes and shares dwindle so do your spirits. And hitting writer's block was a natural follow on !! Thus ended my blogging aspirations in FB. In the mean time, I had created another blog in blogger and a new one in WordPress. After creating the accounts, applying a satisfactory template and layout, spending hours together going through the options tweaking the settings, I did nothing. Yes nothing, not even log back and create drafts. I did not understand what prevented me. The company I work for, has an internal blogging platform too. Created a blog and posted a couple of technical articles. The comments were more encouraging than the external blogs, but then for some strange reason I couldn't continue. The content was never a problem here. Still !!

I was not interested in putting personal posts in FB. Though my interests in posting blog like post in FB dwindled, I still used it dish out my own philosophical wisdom :D. My colleague and FB friend who was watching these, introduced me to a political group decorated with some leading journalists and activists. Looking back I should say it was a turning point. For the first four to six months I was not interested. I guess it was my habit and later found out why. At a certain point, a few discussions started interesting me, especially the ones concerning Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory, Dravidian-Aryan divide, Marxian (myopic) analysis of the Hindu society, its history and cultural traits etc. It was easy to relate to such discussions as I have been hearing about them for quite some time. As I started engaging with discussions my familiarity with other aspects of the political landscape widened. The discussions were also addictive with everyone trying to score brownie points and outwit others. The discussions were also filled with lot of facts, interpretations and rebuttals. It was quite a learning experience.

But then the inevitable happened again. I started losing interest. There were multiple reasons for it. Many of those in the group were long time members. With each one knowing other's stance, the discussions were getting limited to jibes and taunts. And not all issues that were posted and discussed required a scholarly analysis. It was fun to participate in such - pulling each others legs. With photo comments, it became even more lively and addicting. But then a prolonged indulgence in such discussions has its side effects - it blunts your thought process, attention span and comprehension skills. You are always on the lookout to show yourself smart and witty, trying to garner attention. I guess some of the senior members too felt the same. They were found nowhere near such discussions. I could not understand it then, until I came across Jeyamohan's blog posts.

எழுத்தாளனுக்கு பேஸ்புக் தேவையா? 

இணையமும் வாழ்க்கையில் வெற்றியும்

The above two articles left a deep impression on me. I could relate easily with my current position. Of course Jeyamohan puts his thoughts from the perspective of a writer. Though I am not one, I could definitely see the point he was making. FB discussions demanded a quick and witty response to garner more likes. And with many discussions happening simultaneously your concentration is scattered. You would be unable to organize your thoughts. Yes, you could choose to limit your discussions to a specific topic and ignore the rest; you could set boundaries and respond only to those criticisms that are worthy. However, once you start doing that, it is imminent you have to start blogging. You do not want your valuable thoughts to be lost in the FB timelines or buried in the forums. You may miss those likes and immediate responses, but then those should no longer be important than the satisfaction of seeing your thought processes getting verbal form, having their unique place on the internet and surving the onslaught of time (better than FB).  Jeyamohan's articles also made my understand why my earlier blogging attempts failed - I was unable to organize my thought process; I was more of a attention seeker; I was an impatient guy and excess FB usage had blunted my attention span and scattered it. I was shuttling between 'This and that' !!

Surviving without encouragement

Once you start publishing your thoughts it is natural to expect some encouraging responses or criticisms. Continuing to write without them could at best be like playing in the dark. This thought kept me away from writing for a long time, until I started reading the Bhagavad Gita. Currently I am reading the BG as viewed by Swami Vivekananda. I haven't even finished the second chapter, but I found the answer to the question -

May you not be motivated by the fruits of action; not let your attachment be towards inaction.

There were many in this world who did not live to see the outcome of their work, but still they worked. Though whatever they did was lofty and great, it is an inspiration to me to write and keep writing without any expectations. It is of least importance to me if my posts would ever be  read, discussed or commented. The satisfaction of having written something is good enough for me.

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Having written so much it is possible for the inevitable to happen again :D . However something tells me, this time I would keep going far more than all the previous attempts put together. One of the reasons I made my template minimalist avoiding all the regular gadgets that a blog should have - calendar, archive, label store, number of visitors, blog roll etc., is to keep the focus on writing than on the bells and whistles. Will add necessary gadgets as I see it fit.