Random Thoughts

I have been into blogging for almost two weeks now. I had discovered it while looking through a friend’s profile and decided to give it a try. I had always wanted a chronicle to keep a record of events. I am a big collector and a “Holding on to memories” kind of a person. In my house, a sizeable locked drawer of my dresser is full of souvenirs ranging from greeting cards given by my friends in school to the sonograms of my baby. I normally do not have much time to sit down and cherish every memorable thing but once in while when organizing my stuff; i make it a point to look through that drawer. I sit down on the floor and spread every precious thing in front of me. Bitter sweet memories come flooding in as i carefully caress every little piece with nostalgic strokes. Looking at those, it seems to me as if my whole life is sketched out in front of me. Everything has a fond memory associated with it. There, I spot a dried up rose kept in a diary. This was the first anonymous rose that i had received in my college carnival. Our All-Girls college used to host one of the biggest carnivals in the city once a year, with hundreds of boys thronging the college considering it a much priced opportunity to meet cute girls. The tradition was that if a guy liked a girl, he would send her a rose. So i was thrilled to imagine that someone out there really admired me *Chuckles* I held that rose close to my heart all day and i intended to save it as a souvenir. Later in the day it dawned on me to my disappointment and amusement that my friends had played a prank on me. They were the ones who had sent me the rose. I did save that rose dearly and have treasured it since then. It brings a broad smile on my face every time I see it. So things like that make my treasure. I know when i die, someone would throw away these things but until then i can keep them safe.

For a long time my cell phone fulfilled that need where in the “Organizer” section, I would mark every date with some significant or insignificant details of happenings in my life. I did not have a laptop at my disposal back then. My cell phone served as a diary and a notebook. I had some “highly” memorable messages and pictures stored in it. Life was pretty simple and i was happy the way things were until one day i lost my cell phone. I was devastated. With the phone, I permanently lost my contacts list. It was a colossal loss!!

It occurred to me then that i needed a space where I could organize and preserve my stuff without the fear of losing it. Then came the laptop and shortly after I stumbled upon blogging. I loved the idea from the get-go. Being one of those whose utility of internet was confined to checking emails or surfing internet, now i was faced with an entirely new phenomenon (at least for me) on web. I have had my share of travails of exploring it. To start with, i had a little idea about the blogging jargon, HTML and coding but thankfully i am a “Keera” who does not stop until it discovers the ins & outs of something that intrigues it. Subsequently I’ve had many late night sessions exploring blogging and bloggers. Thinking that i would faithfully write down every detail every day, i posted a few of the write-ups on my website that I had composed as a mean to vent my feelings. This was a pretty spontaneous act. While browsing, one day i came across a nice dark colored blog. The author was a freelance writer and sounded like a decent guy. (Most of the bloggers are freelance writers or aspiring journalists) Out of naivity, i coerced him into adding me in his blogroll. The poor thing added me knowing that i had little to offer in return. He even left an encouraging comment on one of my posts.

Since then i have gone through hundreds of blogs and have peeked into many a lives. If not all, each blog i believe gives away many of an individual’s distinctive traits and reflection of one's thoughts. A majority of the bloggers, in my view, opts for narrating their lives simply and straightly, which is very tempting. Although i am not against the idea but why bore your readers with banalities of your life. I do not know if i end up following the same suit. Had I not read so many blogs for last fourteen days i might have been penning down something about how lovely my neighbor’s cat is or that weather was cloudy yesterday so we had pakoras. Who does not love to hear his own voice? But now I am quite sure that this stuff is excruciatingly boring and self absorbent. This stuff bores me and it should bore others. Life is increasingly getting busier by the day and if you have nothing substantial to offer, no one would care to give a second look at your stuff. Another sizeable lot of bloggers resorts to cofessing the most "darkest" secrets of their lives. Their blogs would mostly look like "Cofesstions from the closet" or "Dark secrets" or juggest something covert and under the cover. Guilt or self pity ensues and subsequently their lives are everybody'd business. Sometimes i have come across some really interesting and vibrant blogs with the author having a tangy tone, lambasting the politicians or narrating a learning experience for others to learn, some philosophical blogs, some obnoxious and defamatory blogs and some really “bitter” blogs where the author seems to be at the dagger's end, fuming fire at everything inequtable. Sometimes the bloggers tend to be highly interactive and have a considerable entourage. Bottomline is that bloggers want themselves to be noticed, read & appreciated on a daily basis and for that they have to be proactive, informative, witty & logical. Being able to write well is a gift. Few have it and others can master it through practice. Happy blogging!!