Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Guest post for Alka Narula

When I joined Indiblogger about four months back, I had been blogging extremely desultorily for a year and a half. I hardly ever read any other blog and the whole exercise was one of maintaining a sort of personal record of my treks for my own reference, which others were welcome to see or avoid as the mood took them.

Reading other blogs on Indiblogger has been both a great pleasure and a pain. Reading good to great posts is wonderful as anyone who reads for pleasure can readily understand. The problem, however, was that, whenever I attempted to write humour, I realized I was ruing the fact that I could never attain the style of a Purba, Debajyoti, Cybernag or many such others who could make you laugh out aloud about the most mundane of things while you despaired of wringing a reluctant smile from your readers. When I started describing treks and travels, I became aware that I got nowhere close to the evocative prose of Bhavana nor can I describe people in the way Umashankar describes them, which makes them come alive to the reader.

When I started attempting fiction, I found that I could not approach the zany creativity of the misnamed 'The Fool' nor the detailing of moods achieved by young Kirti. I have not even come close to detailing the stand-out features of all the bloggers that I have read. I could probably write a book about the bloggers whose various capabilities I am only capable of envying and I am aware that the sampling of blogs that I have read is a minuscule proportion of what is available.


Poetry is the one form of writing that I do not even delude myself into attempting. Nor, indeed, do I have the ability to enjoy it. There are some extremely good poets in blogosphere and if I have mentioned none of them it is only because of my incapability to appreciate their output. I am, probably, missing out on a whole world of wonderful art from the minds of Saru, Leo, Alka, Amit and other such poets.

I am sure these bloggers will forgive me for saying that I come out of their blogs with my ego badly bruised. My own posts read so insipid, so pedestrian after reading theirs that I wonder about why I continue writing at all. Of course, most of them have been offering complimentary comments on my own posts but it seems to me to be more out of kindness than anything else. Yet, I continue writing because I love doing it and because I cannot entirely lose the illusion that I am capable of it.

When the-NRI accepts a couple of posts from me and when veteran bloggers like Pramod Lohia accept my guest posts, it gives me a boost. Now, one of the most popular poets - Alka Narula - has been kind enough to accept a guest post from me! Not for her poetry blog, obviously! Kindness can only extend so far! When something like this happens it makes me feel that maybe I am doing something right in blogosphere, after all.

This is one of my 'serious' posts.


27 comments:

  1. Hi Suresh

    You do have a style of your own which voluntarily or involuntarily gets reflected in your posts...I do agree that those you have mentioned are extraordinary writers in the blogosphere but you do have a great deal of creativity...So keep writing and entertaining us :D

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    1. Hi Jaish! Thanks for those kind words. As long as I am entertaining someone, it is fun to be writing:)

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  2. wow!! what a post!! i am not the right person to comment on that post but i did like the reasoning.

    coming to your writing, you are a versatile writer and your humor posts make us laugh unlike the forced ones which i write, and i seriously doubt whether my name deserves to be there on your list, but thanks for the mention :)

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    1. Hi Debajyoti! Thanks for those kind words. As for whether you belong in that list or not, you must let us be the judge of that:)

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  3. I am too exhausted to read or comment on a post but made it a point to read yours and I must inform you that you are a wonderful writer ,though i have poor sense of humor but i love reading your posts and would love to have you on my blog again ...cheers,keep it up !

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    1. Thanks a lot Alka! That means a lot to me!

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    2. can you believe it i came back to read your post and laughed my heart out :)

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    3. Great to hear that you felt like coming back!

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  4. Sir, first of all let me tell you.. I'm following your posts. And secondly that i follow your writings must be a sign that there is something interesting to read. :)

    And also I am just 8 months to blogging. So i guess you are better place than me!

    Keep expressing!!

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    1. Hi Rohan! Thanks for that. And, btw, if you count only the time I hv been blogging seriously, you are 4 months older at blogging than me:):)

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  5. Hey Suresh the comeliness of your wit and indomitable style reflects even in this otherwise 'serious' post..but never mind this is exactly what we love you for:):)

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    1. Hi Amit! I must indeed be doing something right!! Else I could not have won love like this:)

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  6. Suresh, I'll remain indebted by your kind remembrance.

    Your post there is fatalistic, I'd dare say. Yet, that seems to be the only way to justify the fortitude of the humble and the pure. Also, to redeem that thing called God.

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  7. Hi USP! When you change the definition of the fruits of your actions to what happens to your soul rather than what happens materially, you will find that the ideas are not fatalistic at all. Your thoughts and actions are directly responsible for what happens to your soul and it is not fate that determines it. Also, what is fated for you in this life is supposed to be the direct consequence of your actions in your previous life if you believe in 'Prarabda karma'. Of course, you may choose not to believe in either a soul or in multiple lives or both:)

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  8. Very impressed with the versatility of the blog, Suresh.

    With tongue in cheek humor and a clever poke at genre poetry... this blog deserves smart praises..:D
    Very entertaing blog!:)

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  9. Thanks Panchali! However, I certainly did not intend that as a poke at genre poetry - I genuinely meant to express my inability to appreciate poetry.

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  10. "Yet, I continue writing because I love doing it" This is the most important thing sir.

    I suffer from a huge dose of inferiority complex when I notice that my posts often pale in comparison with the rest. But I'm still in it because I've loved writing ever since I learned to use a pen.

    And, your style of writing is definitely something to be really proud of! :)

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  11. I read somewhere that Japanese try to compete in humility. If one bows lower the other will try to bow even lower etc. Not sure if that is true. Did not see anything of that sort during my visit to Japan. But I am seeing the trend in some of the bloggers nowadays.

    Of course we still have a majority of "I have written a great post, read my post" types

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  12. Hi TF! I do not know if I entered any such competition:):) I genuinely feel a bit of a lack in my own output on those specific attributes that I mentioned compared to the bloggers I mentioned.

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  13. A simple fiasco put together brilliantly :) 'Eggs'... Fun stuff :)

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  14. Hi Suresh, first time here and see which post I read...:) Every blogger has their own talent and could be special in their own. I will read the other posts too slowly.

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  15. Let me know if you find something special in mine. Been looking for it for quite some time:):)

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