I thought I would write about parents and children, and people would read what I wrote, and I would thus contribute in a small measure to making India a better place for children. I would write about common mental illnesses, so lay people could recognise the symptoms and seek treatment early.
Naïve? Sure, yes.
A young patient started this blog for me five years ago, in March 2012. It was meant primarily for writing about child-raising and mental health. But I was scared to write. I busied myself putting up photographs and other less-threatening things on it. It was nearly one year later that I dared to take the plunge. A very simple topic: Being parents. Something I had experience with. After that it got easier.
I had written a series of articles on mental illness for a local newspaper a couple of years before. Someone suggested I list their links on this blog. So I did. Someone else suggested I write a short gist for each article as well. I did that too.
As many people are afraid to take psychiatric medicines, I wrote a series of short blog posts about psychiatric medicines and sometimes referred patients to them.
Over time, I started liking my blog. It became a place I could visit, a place where I could express myself. Here, I was obliged to clarify things in my mind before I wrote, unlike a diary where I might allow sloppy thinking, half-baked ideas and excessive emotion.
I try to be precise as it is very easy to be misunderstood, which takes away from the spontaneity and raw quality of writing that bloggers appreciate. Sharing unexamined thoughts is just not me. Frankly, everyone – from ordinary people like me to important people like the president of the United States – shouldn’t be putting unprocessed thoughts on public display. People might act on them, like the recent incident of Adam Purinton of Kansas who shouted “Go back to your country” as he shot two men.
Though I think I’m aware of things happening around the world, I’m hesitant to comment on them here, especially after I came to know that ‘fake news’ exists and is not just something Trump rants about. A lot of stuff floats around like space junk in my head, but can’t be neutralised because of missing bits of information. Random example: Colombia – Juan Manuel Santos – Nobel peace prize – FARC – José Luis Mendieta – forgiveness/punishment … After some time I just let it go.
I didn’t write for nearly two years as I didn’t feel the need to. In November 2016 I wrote ‘Change’ because I needed to sort out my thoughts about this phase of my life. Writing helped.
Of late, I’ve been in a nostalgic mood. Things are too quiet around the house with the kids having flown the nest. That’s why I’ve been writing almost exclusively about the time I lived on different ships over a six-year period. Those days now seem like a wonderful lifetime lived centuries ago. I’ve been sharing the links to these posts with everyone: cousins, my high school whatsapp group, and friends made over the years in different places.
The upshot of all this is that I’ve connected again with some nice people I had lost touch with, because they’ve called up or messaged to tell me how much they enjoyed the posts. Then, there’s my 13-year-old niece who said, “Aunty, I didn’t know all this had happened to you!” It was a revelation to her that I had been living for a long time doing other things, before she met me thirteen years ago!
This month I complete five years of blogging, irregular though it has been. I really need to thank wordpress for giving me this space. Blogging has given me a lot of relief, and pleasure too. There are so many bloggers whose posts I’ve enjoyed reading too.
My technophobia is starting to feel like ingratitude. I guess it’s time I re-examined my attitude towards technology. Ah, I can almost hear my children’s sighs of relief!
drshyamalavatsa 