The Past is Prologue!
“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 herrevisit 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.’?”
Vivek
Congratulations Lulu in getting Vivek to provide us with such interesting posts to read. You sure deserve half the credit!
Congratulations Vivek for the award. A very well deserved one, I must say! 😀 Thanks for sharing those links to the earlier posts which I am on my way to read now.
Thanks Satchitananda for your encouraging words. Coming from you makes me very happy.
Vivek