Writer's block huh?

I happened to discuss about writer's block with a friend the other day. She is a novelist and has been facing the problem of writer's block. She tries to write, but somehow ends up staring at the screen, the story is not developing the way it should and such other excuses. I would call them excuses as I have never really given a serious thought to "writing" and thus I never faced such a problem. Even on blogs, I write whatever is there on my mind; but for her, it is a serious business.

Still, my mind was not ready to accept the fact that someone could face something like a writer's block. I mean, if you want to write, you write. You do not as such require any particular topic and/or reason to write about. Come on, write about writer's block! Can it get any simpler?

And then I was thinking about those who make their living out of writing. Journalists, columnists, script writers, play writers, stand up comedians - writing is their bread and butter. They cannot afford to have such silly things as a block to come their way of business.

Anyway it would have been useless to argue with that friend as maybe she would have thought that novel writing wasn't really same as writing blogs or short articles or gigs. It may require intense thinking. Yes, maybe. I do not know. I have never been a novelist. But again, if you make your living out of writing novels, you work on tight deadlines, will you still let such blocks come in your way of earning or survival? Again, I wouldn't know.

Forget a storyteller, I have read about writer's block on blogs too. And it's surprising. How long does it take to a blogger to write 300 words? How difficult it is to write about one topic or combining two-three topics in one post when you can't write more than one paragraph about that particular topic? So many things keep happening around us - politics, bollywood, controversies, calamities, social issues, funny incidences. If nothing is there to write about and still you want to update the blog, post pictures. One or two pictures with their story is sufficient too!

Thus I call writer's block an excuse. Excuse not to write something at that time, excuse for laziness to think about something creative, or just a plain excuse. When the deadline is hovering over your head like a sword, you automatically churn out content. When the deadline is months away, the so called block takes over.

And we are quite used to blame everything on our emotional state. Fight with husband/boyfriend/mother/friend and whoever, and your mind gets blocked on its own. I have seen people write sad and depressing posts, dark poetry and even suicide notes during such times. And all these things fall within the brackets of the block.

I guess the whole block business is beyond me. I have never faced it and I don't think I will ever face it so far as I continue writing, if nothing then about rants. And rants never get over. You have at least 20 things to rant about every day. All you need to do is to pick up the interesting ones and write. This ensures audience too.

Now if you still say that you face writer's block, then I shall disown you!

Confusions and Decisions

Yet another post will not start with yet another definition of life. This has been a kind of common trend for me these days. I keep writing about how good/bad/boring/easy/sad/difficult/weird life is. And even while writing, I talk! Yes I write as if I am talking to you. This is how I converse. And it's all the more weird. Who talks on blogs? We write. But I talk!

Let me talk about the header. At time I really surprise myself. Being a girl, this should have been one of the first ten posts I wrote. But it's never too late. Even if I am late by 200+ posts. Really? Have I written more than two hundred posts in three years? Have I been so jobless, way too talkative, without people around me to listen to my rants or just addicted to blogging - but yes, I have written way too many posts. And I remember most of them. Anyway most of them are on similar lines. I have spoken about the same topic in different manner - yeah I can be super genius at times when I really want to.

And I digress again. I should stop writing headers for my posts. And just number them. Rather I should stop bothering about the connection between the header and the content. Anyway, coming back to the topic - I am a very confused person when it comes to simplest things of life. I create it for me in my head. The most difficult decisions come by easily. There is no confusion in there.

I know the reason too. Easy things in life don't require too many factors to consider, and they don't have too many people involved. This I can take my own time to analyze all the factors around them. Doing or not doing them doesn't really matter in the short run. But it may matter in the long run. This creates confusion. Difficult decisions are usually about people and us because of people who matter to us. If we matter to them equally, then there comes no question of the decisions. But when we realize that we do not matter to them, it's time we realize that we have to take a stand. It may hurt, make you miserable; but it will help you at the later stage.

At the end of the day, it's not only about who matter to us, but how much we matter to them too. You will find many people who will listen to what you have got to say, to give you advice, but to be with you forever - not even closest of friends stay around. And that brings us to decisions again. Should we become close to them? Or just be friends, meet them, spend quality time and get busy in our respective lives?

Confusion. Decision. Happiness. Sadness. Selfishness. And a few more topics to rant about. If only life was as simple as its spelling.

I breathe sports

When I was around two years old and didn't understand much about tv, I used to cry whenever family switched it on. I would rather call it howling. And it was weird, for the moment the channel played commercials during the break, I used to become quiet and watch the ads with a lot of interest and concentration. The moment any serial/movie/match started, howling started too.

As a great relief to my family, this phase didn't last long. I started ignoring television like every other thing one dislikes. I never watched any cartoon or a serial. Grandparents always forced me and my brother to watch Ramayana and Mahabharata. At times I watch Mogli and Potli baba ki as brother used to watch those series, but that's about it. I never developed any interest in the television programmes.

The first complete series I ever was I dream of Jeannie. And after that - bewitched. There was a reason for that - to avoid tuitions. I hated studying. Well, who doesn't. But I was way too lazy to study anything. And for that purpose, I used to pay attention in the class so that I wouldn't have to read the same thing again at the time of exams. Studying one thing and studying the same thing again in tuition was an absurd idea. And doing homework was never ever an option - forget compulsion. I was always punished for not doing homework in school.

Thus I had practically nothing to do the whole day especially during vacations. Somewhere in late 80s, one of those summer vacations when I was in my home town and didn't go to visit my maternal grandmother, I happened to watch a tennis match. I asked my neighbour about the rules and how it was played. I found it interesting as well as confusing. But it was any day better than those headless serials and cartoons. This is how my tennis following started.

I was too young then to even know that one has to have favourites to enjoy the game even more. When I learnt that, it was Samprass Era. He was on top then, winning everything that came his way - except the French Open title. I was never a fan of world best people. I always preferred dark horses, for I considered myself to be one too. Thus I started following Agassi. I will cut the crap short about my followings after that in men's and women's tennis, but my current favourite is Nadal. No, not because he wins, but I fell in love with his game when I saw him play in 2003 or 04.

Being an Indian, your love for cricket is as natural as taking first step or saying those first words. I don't remember which sport I started watching first - Tennis or Cricket; but the order really doesn't matter. I love both equally. My love for cricket was so much back then that Dad and I used to watch even the test matches between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. And that annoyed mom a lot. We even used to watch the repeat telecast of the matches India won!

In late 90s, I started following football. It started with watching English Premier League. It started with Manchester United. They taught me football. I learnt each and every move, rule, foul watching them play. That made me support England too in the world cup. It was for players and not for the country that I started supporting England. I swore by Beckham, more for his game.

And today I see so many people follow and support these games. And they call it men's forte. I just smile at them, for I know how much I have seen and known about these games. Each and every technical detail to players' bios - everything. But that's fine. I laugh at their assumptions secretly, I don't fight. It's useless to. But when a discussion happens about a game or a player, after knowing about what I know about the same, they do get that I know more than they had assumed I'd known.

These days I can't watch each and every game, or follow the seasons, but I try to watch as much as I can. I try not to miss the crucial games. Online streaming has made life much easier. I can switch the tabs while working, and my uninterested family doesn't have to bear with Euro 2012 matches too. Sports are the only thing I love to watch and follow. I can watch matches all day if given a choice.

Such a long post. Ignore it, it's going to be boring for you anyway! But it has to be here for my love for sports; for I breathe sports.

Posts I am proud of

It's been months, or probably years since I took up a tag. But when I read this particular tag on Destiny's Child's blog, I couldn't resist it. It was so wonderful just to remember the posts that would fit under each head. Even though I was not tagged there, I randomly picked it up just to go back in the memory lane yet again to pick up the posts. So here is my list of the posts closest to my heart. Though all the posts are, but some become extra special.

1) Your most beautiful post:

It has to be Beauty of thoughts. After writing this post, I had felt so good about it. I had written about words in this post - what they mean to me and how I live them.

2) Your most popular post: 

I would mention the first fiction story that I wrote - The Ultimate Painting. It came at the time when I had fabulous fiction writers like Guria, ZB, Karthik and a few more all around me. They appreciated this story which was a bonus for me. Even today people remember this post. Thus it for sure qualifies as THE most popular post.

3) Your most controversial post: 

Let's Communicate wins this award hands down. This post created so much of controversy. Unnecessary one. People missed out on my point completely and started their own fight in the comment box. This post happens to have received maximum number of comments too. But it's still not the most popular one.

4) Your most helpful post:

I have written plenty of posts on legal topics. And at some point in time, they may have been useful to people. But I would include my post on Domestic Violence here as the most useful post, for it has been used at many places to spread awareness. Part 1 and Part 2 - both the parts have been proven equally helpful.

5) A post whose success surprised you:

Again, one post wins hands down and that is Hidden Identity. Even today people read this post and I get comments on it. It even happens to be the post that has got most number of indi votes among all my posts. It was one of those random observational posts that I had written and it became so popular that if it was not for this category, I would have included it in the most popular post category. But I wanted to include 7 different posts for this tag, thus it gets a place here.

6) A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved:

I believe Herd Mentality is one of the posts which I would have liked if it was read by many. But I had lost my popularity by the time I had written it. No complains, for it was about my personal opinion on popular issues.

7) The post you’re most proud of:

The post I am most proud of is a post called Hidden. I had written it for Guria's blog, and later on published it on my blog. This reflects me, you and every single lady. We have played at least one role mentioned here. And I could bring out all the sides of a lady in one post - I am so proud of myself for that.

I feel that all the blog owners must take up this tag. It's just amazing to write about your favourite posts. Do take it up. And I specifically tag Guria, Insignia, Shilpa, Saroj and whoever leaves a comment on this post.

Life is weird

Life is weird. Things you are sad about right now will make you laugh at them tomorrow. Things you are happy about will soon seem as if they never existed. And we move on. At times slowly, at times pretty fast. At times pretending to be strong, at times faking the weakness. At times feeling bad about something we ought to do, at times taking others on a guilt trip just for the sake of proving oneself right.

And then we write about it. With bitterness, or sadness, or even with a relief - but we write. For the record. For laughing at us tomorrow or for smiling. Or maybe just to live the emptiness all over again.

Just the other day I was discussing about mood swings with a friend. I asked him how it worked with guys. Girls behave as if they have a birth right on mood swings. And how easily we blame it on PMS. It's at times the easiest and safest excuse, for many people do not understand that mood swings can be without any reasons. And my friend admitted of having those too. But he said that he could control his mood most of the times. Especially at work place. At home, his moods were more than visible - especially the irritated ones. Ah well!

All of us have different ways to handle a situation. Some people prefer to talk it out and reach a solution, some disconnect completely just to get the hold of the situation, some show anger, some cry. But that's about us. In the process of making ourselves stable, we forget that the opposite person may not be able to take your action in the right manner. You have to disconnect to make things normal, while he has to talk it out to keep things moving in the right direction. Even while doing good to others, we tend to become selfish. We assume so many things about so many things including what gives happiness to people who matter to us. And we lose it all in the bargain. Who is wrong here? Or who suffers in the end?

But again, it's life. And it goes on. Today we are crying about something, tomorrow we may not even remember it, for it may not really matter to us then. Or maybe we find better things. Or maybe we just remain stuck there in the same emotions even tomorrow.

Ah, life is weird!