Had some free time because of some classes getting cancelled and all that. So took to reading everyone's blogs and ended up reading ALL the posts on each one's blogs. While reading, I was absolutely amazed at some of the stuff I read and many posts reminded me of stuff that I'd want to write about someday. So, this is to all those blogs and the people behind them... You guys are some of the best amateur writers I've come across!! What follows is a sort of acknowledgement/congratulation/am at a loss of words to describe it, to you guys and your blogs...
@ Tara/ Solacingrambles: I'm constantly amazed at the candid way you write. Loved the fact that after reading some of your posts, I felt normal once again and realised that many of my mood swings or weird quirks and insecurities etc were not mine alone! :) And some of your later posts where you come out in the open and talk on love, loss and life as it were, made me want to at least attempt to be more open myself via my posts! :)
@Parvathi/ Whatmeworries: I must admit that I've been secretly reading your blog for a while now and each time I'm completely blown apart by the poignancy and complexity hidden beneath the seeming simplicity of your writing. Hope you keep writing and I keep reading! :) Oh and I absolutelvLOVE the attitude and the way you went about your introduction! Also, your's is one of the most "technologically updated" blogs I'm yet to come across... I guess that's the Google effect eh? ;P
@ Krithika/Wittwit: This was the first time I read your blog and I couldn't stop myself from reading it all at one go and no, it took me more than 80 seconds! Loved your blog because it was so you! It was almost like I could hear you saying what you wrote on your posts! My favourite was "Welcome to Chennai where the cows eat hay and drive autorickshawa yevery deiiiiii !!!!!!"... I just loved the idea! Oh that's another thing, I love your titles and where did that vocabulary come from? Jesus woman, you seem to be on a roll with this stuff!!
@ Divs/ Placid Safari/ Rhapsody: You're definitely on my "regularly read blog" lists! I am just dying to plagiarise the way you make normal, ordinary incidents seem monumental and make them such an interesting read! Even if these incidents have nothing to do with me or anyone else who reads it, it just feels nice (I have run out of words to explain why I find this so nice!)... And I love your "Yours -----ly Signing Off". This remains my eternal favourite among what I thought were brilliant ideas you used in your blog! Oh and once I write this post and send a mail to you guys, you'll know where the inspiration to that "You find mention on my blog" mail is from! Divs, I have no idea how you do it, but you do a swell job of being regular with your blogging and replying to comments! Hats off to you for that! :)
@Tanvi/ Crisis Central: I enjoyed reading your blog because it kept reminding me of me! :) Finally, there's another person who's been irregular with their blogging!! Thank you for that and making me feel okay and normal about having urges to write mostly when I'm depressed or irritated. :)
@Arati/Namesake blog (:P): I'm quite intrigued by the way you roll in your "Dear Diary"-like posts with your short stories into one blog! And it all seems so natural. When I was reading the first few ( or should I say the last few given that those were written more recently), I could so imagine you chuckling in that characteristic way of yours. Am constantly surprised at how you always have this knack of finding subtle traces of humor in things most ordinary and daily life-like. I'm still sore about the fact that you managed to find a nice template while all I managed was some shady "Night Talks" like thing which kept making me feel like I was indulging in phone sex or something! *grimace*
@Priyanka/Iamsaul/ Content Warning: That idea of yours of putting a 'Content Warning' message is so brilliant and so typically and terribly you in so many ways that I can't even begin to describe! Woman... Stop trying to lose your "writing affinities"... Start writing!!! Even if it's only about Ms. Bernie and her labour of love- you! *cheeky grin*
Monday, November 3, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
'Fate' Reaffirmed
Had gone home (the Chennai one, that is) the past week for Diwali. The day I reached it was pouring. As usual, the city that would get flooded even if a frog were to cry was flooded with storming rivulets of sewage water (this I do not exaggerate, there WAS actually brown, muddy water gushing out onto the road, at several places ) and the annoying "work in progress" (for eons) flyover outside the airport was doing what it seems to have been constructed to do- holding up traffic. Anyway, as I mentioned, it was pouring in Chennai and continued to do so for a few days. And then miraculously, as Diwali day came along (both the South Indian/Tamilian one and the Rest of the country one), it just became sunny. This may seem an inane thing to write a post on but I just kept thinking just what a coincidence it was that everytime a festival or important function comes along, the weather just clears on it's own and it's perfect weather. Is it possible that everyone's collective prayers can change the tide? Maybe, maybe not. I'd like to believe it's an affirmation of the saying "Everything works out well in the end." To adapt a quote borrowed from the Alchemist, I'd like to believe that when (many people) want something bad enough, the whole universe conspires to let (them) achieve it. So here's one more for c0llective will! :)
P.S. Yes, I shall use that as an excuse to further my fatalist attitude toward all things 'important' in life!
P.S. Yes, I shall use that as an excuse to further my fatalist attitude toward all things 'important' in life!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Complicating Simplicity...
Often when people seem to land up in what seems to be a mess, they try and brush off explaining how they landed up ending in that mess in the first place. Their excuse- "It's too complicated... You won't understand."
Well, that may be a fair accusation to make, but recently, something prompted me to wonder if things always had to take on these mammoth, 'complicated' forms? The irony of it is that the 'thing' in question that actually prompted me to start wondering was in itself, quite trivial. After days of being swamped with work, I actually had a relatively free-er (if that's a word) day today. So decided to do some of the small things that I usually don't get around to doing when I'm 'busy'. One of them was to read a friend's blog (must admit, that I had received a subtle hint to do so a few days back). This was something that was long-due and this I realised by the number of new posts on his blog. While reading, I got so engrossed in the whole thing that I went to the extent of leaving comments on 3 of the 4 posts I read! Yes, I did not make them all nice and sugary... there was some "pixie-ishness" involved, but well... what would I be without these moments of mine?. Just as I was done writing one of the comments, this person came online and in my excitement of a job well done, I pinged him to let him know that I had read his blog and left a comment on it. And what followed is best explained through the reproduction of our conversation:
"Me: Reading your blog now. You've added quite a bit from the last time I read it...
Siddhant: wow, really?
me: Quite impressive, I say
Siddhant: yup... i feel so nice.."
This pretty much is the essence or the basis of what I wanted to write in this post. Most of us, me included, find it very easy to label a thing as being too complicated to explain, but in reality, we don't really want to try. We tend to forget that the beauty of life isn't in it's complications but in it's simplicities!
It's funny how something as innocuous as reading what someone wrote and writing a comment or making a 5 minute call or simply saying a "Hi!" to an old friend can make some one's day suddenly seem nicer (even though, only the fag end of the day is left). That's the irony of it! Something so simple and yet so... rarely done (if I may state it that way).
It's very much like what a prof. once described an "insight" to be. Obvious once pointed out of but barely realised when not. Well then if it's so simple to make someone feel nice, why do we not do it more often. Maybe, it's because we take so many things for granted. We're so caught up in the web of going the 'extra mile' and doing something special or extraordinary for the people we're fond of that we fail to do the small things. The trouble then is that without the small things in place, the 'big' things can't really fall in. This can best be described by the book's title "Small is beautiful," and beautiful it is indeed.
This may seem unconnected, but it's a thought that came into my mind while writing the last paragraph. Maybe, we like keeping things complicated. That probably explains why I turned a trivial, innocuous little statement ("You made my day") into such a philosophical (and at times, repetitive and redundant) spiel. Maybe... the true simplicity of a thing lies in how complicated it can be construed to be!
Well, that may be a fair accusation to make, but recently, something prompted me to wonder if things always had to take on these mammoth, 'complicated' forms? The irony of it is that the 'thing' in question that actually prompted me to start wondering was in itself, quite trivial. After days of being swamped with work, I actually had a relatively free-er (if that's a word) day today. So decided to do some of the small things that I usually don't get around to doing when I'm 'busy'. One of them was to read a friend's blog (must admit, that I had received a subtle hint to do so a few days back). This was something that was long-due and this I realised by the number of new posts on his blog. While reading, I got so engrossed in the whole thing that I went to the extent of leaving comments on 3 of the 4 posts I read! Yes, I did not make them all nice and sugary... there was some "pixie-ishness" involved, but well... what would I be without these moments of mine?. Just as I was done writing one of the comments, this person came online and in my excitement of a job well done, I pinged him to let him know that I had read his blog and left a comment on it. And what followed is best explained through the reproduction of our conversation:
"Me: Reading your blog now. You've added quite a bit from the last time I read it...
Siddhant: wow, really?
me: Quite impressive, I say
Siddhant: yup... i feel so nice.."
This pretty much is the essence or the basis of what I wanted to write in this post. Most of us, me included, find it very easy to label a thing as being too complicated to explain, but in reality, we don't really want to try. We tend to forget that the beauty of life isn't in it's complications but in it's simplicities!
It's funny how something as innocuous as reading what someone wrote and writing a comment or making a 5 minute call or simply saying a "Hi!" to an old friend can make some one's day suddenly seem nicer (even though, only the fag end of the day is left). That's the irony of it! Something so simple and yet so... rarely done (if I may state it that way).
It's very much like what a prof. once described an "insight" to be. Obvious once pointed out of but barely realised when not. Well then if it's so simple to make someone feel nice, why do we not do it more often. Maybe, it's because we take so many things for granted. We're so caught up in the web of going the 'extra mile' and doing something special or extraordinary for the people we're fond of that we fail to do the small things. The trouble then is that without the small things in place, the 'big' things can't really fall in. This can best be described by the book's title "Small is beautiful," and beautiful it is indeed.
This may seem unconnected, but it's a thought that came into my mind while writing the last paragraph. Maybe, we like keeping things complicated. That probably explains why I turned a trivial, innocuous little statement ("You made my day") into such a philosophical (and at times, repetitive and redundant) spiel. Maybe... the true simplicity of a thing lies in how complicated it can be construed to be!
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