Member Praises

Blog-sized bakwaas

Gentle Sunshine

This is the story about what made the quiet-quiet-spectator-Me write a blog. As u ALL would know, I am easily the quietest member in Sulekha. Did I say all? Uh..ok..only a handful of you would know me even. But then, wouldn’t that be the greatest proof of how invisibly quiet I can be?

Ahem…Thank you. I know I made a good point.

So..where was I..? Yes, I was talking about what made the quiet-quiet-spectator-Me write a blog.

It was Ananth’s blog about he and a few other Sulekhaites meeting in Banglore. Infact, I even wrote a comment for that blog. A single word “Wow”. I typed the “w”, AND the “o”, AND the other “w”. I even hit the “Post the Comment” button. But the dial-up connection at home was so slow that I didn’t have the patience to wait for the “Thank you. Your comment has been posted” or whatever page.

So....my comment never saw the light of day...............

Anyway.....where was I?

Yes, I was talking about the Ananth, Ardra and Co. meeting.

I did think that an online forum with such (high) standard as Sulekha should be able to give rise to some REAL and genuine friendships. And I was thrilled when I read it had!

There is one more reason why the blogs about the Banglore "meeting" came as a nice surprise.

A few months ago, when I first came across the Comments section, I was pleasantly surprised at the camaraderie I saw. Everyone was in back-slapping terms with each other and I innocently assumed that all these people really knew each other :D. I was mighty impressed! Afterall this is an online forum and its hard to trust people online. Yet so many people had made friends here!

So impressed I was that I enthusiastically extended my hand in friendship to a couple of bloggers whose blogs I had read and liked. I was even willing to be open about my identity. (.....Since I thought the people “bakwaasing” in the comments section really knew each other, I thought that it was Sulekha “culture” to know the other person’s real identity :D ).

Getting back to the point.....

I was talking about my forelimb extended in friendship. Awwww…its so cute when doggies do it! Mine did too. (Yes, so cute.) After he had pounced on an unsuspecting guest who walked past the dining table under which he had left his newest treasure – the half-full tube of tooth-paste that he had "stolen" and chosen as his new chew-toy. Right! COULDN’T BE CUTER.

Anyway....can we please come back to the main story?

I was at the part where my hand is extended in friendship.

OUCH!

A sting!

I drew my hand back in jet-speed to tend to the sting.

A blogger who I was enthusiastically trying to befriend, mistook my enthusiasm and called me a Scam! That’s when it slowly dawned that I had been too naïve to think that the bakwaasing people really knew each other. That I had been too naïve to think that they bakwaased so much BECAUSE they really knew each other :D

After my initial surprise at the aforementioned "sting" had subsided, I gave it a thought. And it made sense that people didn’t disclose their identities even in a “decent forum of educated like-minded individuals” like Sulekha. Afterall, whatever be the standard, Sulekha was still an online forum and certain precautions are a default necessity in any online forum.

But I did think that it was a pity that these extra precautions associated with online interactions will be a hurdle to what had a potential to turn into genuinely enjoyable REAL friendships.

SO......it was pleasant news to read that Ananth, Ardra and Co. had met and taken their friendship beyond the “online” level.

But could this alone be enough motivation for the quiet-quiet-spectator-Me to blog?

Ummm..it still fell short.

So the story isn’t finished yet.

The mystery isn’t solved. So where was I…? Yes, I was talking about the what provided me further motivation to blog.

I am visiting Banglore.

Since I am in Banglore this weekend, I couldn’t help but think how it would be to meet some of the people I have known through written words alone. Infact I would like to. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t work for me. I know everyone through their writing and bakwass, but they do not know the quiet-quiet-spectator-Me. If Ananth had last minute doubts about ARDRA, the author of many blogs, what would he imagine about me! The very thought makes me smile with evil satisfaction. Ah! The power to scare someone without having to lift as much as ur the little finger :D. Without having to hide behind the door and say “BOO!!”. I love wielding that kind of Power!!

Anyway, coming back to the point…I don’t want bloggers fearing for their lives and money while meeting me. I could write a blog to say just that. Or to say that I am visiting Banglore. Or to say that, if we knew each other better, I would have met some fellow-Sulekhaites too. Or to simply share these thoughts. But WOULD I???

NO.

The motivation is good, but still……..not good enough for the quiet-quiet-spectator-Me to blog. What is that word? Inertia? The tendency of a body to continue in its state of rest or motion unless acted upon by an external force to change that state.

Yes, its STATE change that we are talking about. No small thing that! The drive to blog was there, but it wasn’t enough. They call it the “Co-efficient of Static Friction” . Its all science. The force that inspires me to blog has to be greater than the Co-efficient of Static Friction times the weight with which I sit on the firm ground called “I am too uninspired to blog”.

And like I said, that force wasn’t enough. YET...you can see that I have blogged.

So there SHOULD have been that one final push which took me to the threshold of blogging. THAT, my friends…is the punch I have reserved for the end. Why?? Well, they do it in all good movies. They did it in “Unbreakable”. In “The Truman Show”. In “Usual Suspects”.

So....what was that last straw…you wonder..

It was...

It was...

It was...

It was that one passing mention of the word “bike”. Someone said Ananth rides a motorbike and that’s all it took for me to write the biggest blog I have written so far :D

I simply love bikes! I always wanted to own one, ride it, break speed limits with it!! And ever since I came to India, I have been waiting to go pillion riding on a bike. (Yes, I cant ride a bike myself :D ) But nobody around me owns a bike!! And even if they do, no one is the type that they would drive out of the crowded Chennai streets just to get to a place where you can enjoy a ride on your bike.

So this Blog... All for a bike.

And the Sulekha committe and readers go around the world asking "What is this thing they call Love". People should simply have come and asked me...