Blogging ?? Me ?? How ?? Why ??

Looking at the comments I received for my previous post, my instant feeling was one of delight, and later, as I was walking up the stairs to the terrace ( I turn a solitary thinker at the terrace and this is where the preliminary thoughts for my blog to follow sprout ), I started wondering, ' Blogging ?? Me ?? How ?? Why ?? '. If one's acquaintanceship with me been for many years and had they lost touch in the last few months, I'm sure, they would be baffled to know that I'm a decent writer today - reasons aplenty. Looking back, I see myself a lethargic guy when it comes to English reading or writing. My aversion for the subject and poor marks in exams went hand-in-hand, but I still have no clue as to which followed what. Reading novels or any kind of books ( including comics) for that matter never enthused me. If I still press hard to say that I did cultivate a reading habit, Vijay Lokapally's columns on The Hindu and Sportstar, which kept me glued, rightly justifies. Even today, my eye nerves get restless and I can't read a book for more than half-hour non-stop. It's irresistible, but the same doesn't seem to apply to reading my friends' blogs ( Do my fellow bloggers' write-up interest me better ??? Definitely yes :) ).

Coming back, my parents' sincere advice to inculcate in me, the reading habit, went into deaf ears and to me, reading looked an infection, my mind had quarantined. In one of my previous articles, I had mentioned ' People are more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than those found by others ' and that very much applied to me and still does. Only after entering The Blogosphere have I realized, how better a writer I could have been today had I read more books in my childhood. Though the urge to improve my English vocabulary was always at the back of my mind, the surge for more reading was missing. I never attempted to read books / newspaper columns and the saddest thing was, I was unaware that I had still been incorrigible, until very recently, when Shreya Ghoshal pushed me in reincarnating http://justrajesh.blogspot.com . On March 22, 2008 when I logged in to www.blogger.com to post the write-up ' Fallen in Love...', Mr. Blogspot failed to identify me and the account had to be re-created . I gave my blog a complete makeover - provided a refreshing title 'As I Introspect' with an optimistic description footing it, thereby replacing the awful 'Blogging - Not Boring'. I emphasize, my posting that article on Shreya, which had a laminar flow of words while penning down, was intuitive and not one to revive my relationship with the blogging world. Even after posting ' Fallen in....', I never looked forward as it was penned down only to express my admiration for that Nightingale, rather, my love for her music forced me to do so.The inception of my blog was done out of my curiosity to know what exactly a blog was ( I preferred writing over reading as the latter had always taken a backseat ) and I seldom expected myself to hone the writing skill in me. Never have I dreamed of being passionate about blogging but it turned a reality in the days that followed.

( I had an aversion for English when I looked as cute as him )

A topic I had posted in Shreya Ghoshal's mammoth 26866 member Orkut community ( as on March 22, 2008 ) informing members about this post had my blog pouring in with her fans. They, apart from deepening their love for her, appreciated my writing skills. This dumbstruck me as I had expected people, only to read about a child prodigy called Shreya Ghoshal and definitely not to appreciate or take notice of my writing skills. I was on cloud nine while cherishing those comments her fans had posted, and pondered ' Why not harness something, people feel, I'm good at ?? Why not post simple articles, improvise by empathizing such situations and narrate in a manner everyone could relate to ??'. I was convinced and exclaimed to myself ' Ya...of course...why not ?? ' and there began the series of blogs I started posting. I made it a point to read daily newspaper editorials and was determined to produce better articles in my blog. Santosh Desai's write-ups in The Times Of India ( His latest, dated 14.07.2008 on the Aarushi murder case, presented a realistic portrayal of the goofy media trying to make a news out of nothing...do read if you had missed it ) inspired me to a very good extent. Later, one fine morning, I happened to read about the Chennai bloggers meet on newspaper and hence registered myself at www.indiblogger.in, got in touch with fellow bloggers ( first being Anila, she had registered the previous day and hers was the first blog I read ) and I'm sure, my flair for writing got better and better as days passed, drawing inspiration from fellow bloggers' exemplary writings.

1545 hrs on a sunny Monday evening at Chennai in October 1998 - A dejected 10 yr old boy was walking his way home from school with a second thought pulling him back, not allowing him to proceed home fearing his mom's rebuke, but, when a third questioned the former's validity, he seemed more convinced and continued with his walk. Later, when a malicious fourth, bullied for being very honest to his parents back home, he shut the doors for further thoughts just before the fifth could coerce and entrench, and thus proceeded home straight. On entering, already shuddering, he was shocked at seeing the hall flooded with guests, subsequently turned quandary, flipped his lid and opened doors for the fifth thought to intimidate him, to not let out his compunction right away. Sixth, seventh, eighth etc....followed and the remorse was kept at bay from expression. As the clock kept ticking, ticking and ticking, the angst disturbed him more and more...an hour passed, the guests had left and it was around 5 in the evening when he made up his mind to face the heat and decided to show his mom those sheets of paper which exemplified only disgust and haphazard writing. All the thoughts that had cobbled together to prevent him from doing so, were shunned, and their efforts eventually, went in vain. Pulse rates soared as he neared his mom and one look at his paper, she scowled at him for having managed just 42 percent in his Quarterly English exams, flung it on his face, lambasted him verbally and never spoke to him for the next 2 hrs. That 10 yr old boy, who was struck with terror, who looked horrified en route to his house, whose mind was permeated with a vicious circle of thoughts and whose heart was pervaded with guilt, was none other, but the 20 yr old Rajesh of today, posting this article on yet another sunny Monday evening in Chennai.