As their plan unfolded, I understood that they had actively dreamed up this challenge for some time- to drag me in to the “net”.
An e-mail landed in my in-box, announcing the date they have chosen for launching the “site” They nicely dressed up the hook & bait – as a birth day gift. They tempted me to write.
Gifting part I did not mind but the tempting part hit the bull’s eye – my ego! They must have judged my dynamism to perfection – I move when my ego is moved.
To make sure, that I will bite the bait, they had heaped praise on my writing style, ability to look at things from different perspectives and PCing (writing using computer) in the draft.
To me, it read like an economic assessment of our country’s financial state. Even now I could recollect the sales pitch I had used with them to please go through the odes and short episodes drafted by me, before this advent.
May be the times have changed and now the very same people have opened a blog site, confident that my ego will do the rest!
It took my conscious & sub-conscious minds, to paint alternating pictures of glory and dread. Finally I received the green signal to sit in front of the PC. I did not want to let go the once-in-a life-time-offer.
Their original offer and DinLaw’s promise to extend editing support, if required, did tilt the scales, in my wavering mind, a little more.
They had some other devious plans but I had only one – to involve my DinLaw and Son in editing and managing the “site”.
Even before commencing my writing, I mentally tabulated (name, cell phone no & .com details of) my probable readership roster of long time friends, close family members, relatives and whoever can suggest to somebody my blog address.
Then I started to recollect old sparks that could be turned in to short episodes for posting in the blog.
Here with a little raking up of the brown matter (mine only), staring intently at the roof (Robert Bruce and the spider web) I narrowed down about twelve plots.
You may wonder how I got these many on a trot. Let us call it a beginner’s pangs and leave it at that. So armed, I geared up myself to become a “net author” to paint the “net” and fire the imagination of my hoped-for-readers.
My DinLaw was forced to brush up her editing skills. That was my first test to see whether the promised support will be forthcoming or not. She was one-up, promptly editing, adding crisp comments and mailing them for a relook.
That was an ego boost. If you go through the following passages, you will see what I meant:
“This is what I love about your writing, its witty, gives food for thought, and I can go on. Somehow your work reminds me of PG Wodehouse”
“Hi Pa - Tempting the cat is inviting disaster..,”
“Nice read, there was very minimal editing. Wonderful draft. This takes one down the memory lane”.
“This is a break from your other work. More of observing mundane things and making the reader realize the actual importance of the object. Genius / Geniuses would be shedding happy tears, wherever they are after reading your work. Have done some changes (computer terms).
“The read was funny, my god, what an imaginative child. You both are lucky to have found each other’s company. Tell me, can anyone else cane you? “
“I can see the effort in this document .None would come over, with a stick... max a user can do is comment on our blog”
“I was glued till the end, to find out what happened. You did have your editor glued to the system, in this narrative.”
“This is a beautiful narrative, once the post is published, why not send the link? I am sure she would cherish it.”
“Nice write-up, I really enjoyed reading this. Poor man, you must have scared the lights out of him :)”
“All three works convey unique incidents and are beautiful in their own essence. Let’s not merge them and disrupt the flow :)”
Who will not be moved with such encouraging editor’s comments and that made me to write an ode (if it is not one, pardon the misnomer & enthusiasm)
Ode on Editor:
“Rough drafts are pruned
Scissors & wit in hand
Mammoths became hippos
Whales give way to Eels
Poor Giraffe shrunk to be
A striped horse
Camels might take to water
As drakes and Ducks
I shudder when you will
Turn me into a Gnome.”
:) Haha, sounds like I have magical abilities! This response, from my editor, turned out to be the beginning of our woes. If I had access to net, my editor’s was down. If both had access, no write up was available for transmission.
Yet we managed to post the blog regularly. In the deep recess of my mind, a lurking doubt was always present - how long and when? I dreaded the day when my editor would call in and ask me to throw down the towel.
Since my ego was involved, literally more and more ideas poured out from within. Keeping pace with them was difficult, as I was a “pecker” on the key board.
Long hand drafts and revision helped to organize thoughts to some extent – any how it had to be converted in to soft copy, a daunting task.
Now I feel, after a few months, that they could have simply bought a gift and wished me “happy birth day” and all of us could have forgotten the occasion.
At the end of 999 postings, I took stock of my gains & losses. The summary findings pointed this way:
Telephone, cell phone & internet charges climbed up the chart.
Friends, who were talkative , suddenly started observing maun vrat.
Those who promised regular reading became amnesiacs.
Associates read little but gave voluble advice, free of cost, on how to position the “site”!
Son, is a reader but not a reacher with comments all the while managing to stay away from the flood of words.
Daughter, a reader in spite of her busy schedules has promised to visit the blog on priority. Once in awhile posted comments and appreciations on the “blog”
Son’s friends are lukewarm as they did not know much about me in the first place.
Close relatives, some are in foreign soil, have tight work culture & less free time - understandable.
DinLaw and Muser – the two worried souls about the Law of diminishing returns catching up with their JV-the blog.
My “net” draggers might have realized by this time that when there were easier ways of wishing one on a birthday, they should have chosen one of them.
Why stocktaking at “999” and not at “1000”
I chose 999 as my bench mark and being worried about a landmark at 1000.
I am happy that I will have one dedicated reader, till I reached my bench mark. Wonder who? Who else can it be other than my blog editor!
I hope by this time my DinLaw and son would have realized that there are other ways of expressing birth day wishes. I believe they would have resolved to do so.
My inner voice wanted a hearing on this whole la affair “bogged blog” and it somehow had becoming poetical:
Aghar mey ekku shayarho tho
Ekku shayarie banoom istharaa
Toondnay mey faidhaa kya
Chippihain kaghin konaymay
Lagthahai aagayaa kuch mehamaan
Beemaari “net” aur cellphonon roopmay
Aatha hai roz teekusay phir
Jaathaahai dhin raathukay saath
Chalthaahai baathu aur kuch
Lekhin humbhi chadnaahai
Chalaaunga ekku gaadi par
Ab koyi rokkay aur na chadday
Ekdhum safed kagaz jodkay khaali.
Challa jaathahumn issikay dhun may
Dhadakthayy dil ke tharaanayliye!
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