“Congratulations!” Lulu, my parrot, ‘tweeted’ from my
window. “You won the Indiblogger Award 2013, that’s great.”
“Oh, thanks, thanks!” I said. “You know I have been
recording some of our conversations as blog. So in that sense, you too share
the credit.” I responded reminding him what he already knew.
“Unfortunately Parrots can’t charge royalty otherwise
you would have had to put good funds in my bank account.” Lulu said, and
continued, “I know the reason why your blogs may have become popular.”
“What’s that?”
“Everybody likes to eavesdrop on others! People enjoy
listening to others’ conversations. Ha, ha, ha!!” Trust Lulu for such
insightful theories. Always a different perspective. Funny surely, yet with a
grain of truth!
“Oh no, Lulu! People like to listen to
conversations and not read about them. Moreover, the Indibloggers’ Award
was not decided by the alleged popularity of my blog.”
“Ok,ok. I understand. Don’t you think it is time for
you to think what blogging has done to you? I wanted to ask what you have done
to blogging, but then I did not want to ask embarrassing questions.” Chillies
have some effect on personality. Parrots eat a lot of them and acquire so acidic
tongue.
“Will you please stop making such comments? But let me
think about ‘what blogging has done to me.’ That is more interesting. Hmmm….,
well…. I did not know this aspect, but now I can tell you that it is absolutely
true. I can swear an affidavit about it if you wish!”
“Now, now… what’s that?”
“You can’t, just cannot, write two pages without being
reflective, without reliving some emotions or without re-evaluating your past actions.
Try writing two pages and see.”
“I take your point. So you mean to say that writing is
like looking in the mirror.”
“Yes, rear view mirror.”
“That’s interesting! Give me an example.”
“Take the blog about my mother’s illness. She was
being fed through ryle tube insertion. It is a tube which is inserted through
nose. I decided on not to insert the tube, an action I knew would lead to her
death. I cried as I wrote about this experience. I consoled myself, a futile
exercise.” [Link to this blog post]
“Oh, okay. I understand. There were quite a few
reactions to that blog, I remember. Tell me more.”
“I wrote a blog post on Beer. I wrote ‘The first taste of beer is
something you don’t like. It is bitter. I think when you are able to swallow a
bit of bitterness, you show signs of growing up – beer tells you this message
clearly.’ Many
of my students told me that this is how they too felt! Ha, ha!!” [Link here]
“So
your blogs helped you revisit some experiences. That must have made you feel
very happy.”
“Except
when you asked that difficult question and my darling wife read it! It made her
revisit my past experience!”
“You
asked me ‘Would you not like to talk about the first film you took “her” to
watch?’ [Link] Oh, why did you ask such a question, it created a storm?”
“Ha,
ha, ha! Didn’t Shakespeare say ‘What is past is prologue.’?”