Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Blog Dreams (translation)

(This is a translation of my malayalam blog post. It got published in the leading malayalam weekly Mathrubhumi)

It was with a lot of hope I started writing at a young age.


Fame was prime. Enough if my stories appear in a weekly or some magazine. And best if it is a special edition. And as time progresses, there would be a collection of short stories; a novel; a published book.

Revenue was seldom a motivation. I never wrote for monetory needs.

Editors of magazines nevertheless were in no maya. Either they did not understand my stories. Or their standards were a tad too much. Either way, the stories I sent them remained in hybernation and readers were deprived of pleasures reading them. We all live in bad times!

So though I continued to jot at rare occasions, they were never exposed; at least till I heard of blogs.

Now, blogging seems a real boon to inspiring authors-to-be like me, who often are left out for want of an understanding editor. The promised land.

The technicalities involved in blogging are really simple. We compose a story and publish it in our blog. Others read them and comment on it. Each blogger is claiming a reasonable number of readers. Many readers are fighting over posts to add their comments! Discussions happen between those who commented, often resulting in minor fights or mood-offs. Nevertheless, the blogger gets fame! Many send the links over e-mails to others. And finally some of the blogs are indeed getting published as books! What else needed to attain bliss?!

I slowly started posting the old stories I had written. The first one was a satire written years back when Government steeply increased the fuel price. One which I felt is relevant even today. Expecting a flow of congratulatory messages from all corners, I used to check my blog post every hour. No one seemed to have even glanced!

Each passing day increased my despair. And then I tried to think that since it was a first post, people should need to know more to visit my pages frequently. Which would probably result in better coverage. Thus I decided to put a story for which I had received a lot of on-the-spot appreciation, as my next post.

My friend Pramod had to see off his cousin at the railway station. For the sake of a company, he asked me to join. That day, my story to just pass the time evoked so much laughter in his cousin Ramya that she travelled the entire distance between Thrissur and Aluva unable to control herself. Several co-passengers were found keenly watching her, unable to fathom if she had forgotten her medicines or if the heat outside had done some tricks. Ramya starts laughing even today when she sees me. That was the power of my story!!

That story became my second post.

For this post, I got 2-3 comments. But they were all from my friends and relatives. Though I felt a little happy, the bliss I seeked still seemed far away.

Subsequently, I checked the pragmatic side of blogging. I soon discovered that most of the popular bloggers are from Gulf. To get their attention, I started posting my stories on their holidays, at around the time they wake up!

By this time, I had started checking others' blogs as well and I was furiously adding my comments to all the posts which I felt even a feeble attraction. I was sure that at least a sub-section of the bloggers would wonder "who could be this guy?" and would come checking my profile. My third story fetched about 10 comments (of course, I had put in my contributions as well). Nevertheless, the comment number touched double figures!

Still, the fame I craved for was still a long distance away. I decided to talk to some stalwarts.

Carpenter Raman is my neighbour in Thrissur. Though he does not blog himself, he is a regular visitor of Vastu blogs and has several bloggers (including I) as his friends. May be he should be approached.

One afternoon, I strolled into his home.

"So, what brings you here?" Raman was polishing a door frame.

"Hey, you know I started blogging. But I hardly get any comments. People don't seem to read my posts. What should I do to get more comments?"

Raman stopped his work and motioned me to come closer. Then he passed on the universal secret.

"Just ensure that your posts have good standard. Comments will automatically come!"

While I silently contemplated selecting between going to jail for attempted murder of a carpenter and a trip to the holy Varanasi wearing saintly robes, Raman went out to get his cycle puncture repaired.

I resolved to befriend my colleagues.

My cubicle mate is a girl from Trivandrum. She works every day for no less than 12 hours. I have heard her lament about her work pressure to many.

I decided to tell her about my blog. I approached her an evening when she was resting in her chair for a few minutes after a hectic day.

"Are you having a lot of work?" were my opening words, followed by a long lecture on how to work. At the end, I introduced my blog.

"You may want to have a look when you are feeling bored working. It might help a little"

Opening her eyes wide, she asked back a question:

"So what if I feel bored after reading your blog?"

Amulya comes with me regularly to have lunch. I approached her next. By that time, I had five posts.

Amulya came laughing after reading my blog.

"Hey, I read all your posts. But what I liked most were the stories given in the two links you had provided in your latest post. They were simply super!"

God, why am I being experimented?

I decided girls cannot be sincere. Caught hold of Panchu. He is straight-forward.

"I will surely read and tell you my opinion"

"Oh no. Put it as comment in the blog itself"

"Hmm.. so you are forcing folks into adding comments to your blog. If you do that, lot of other things are going to appear in the comments. Are you sure you want that?"

"No. This is enough"

Amulya, who was listening to our conversation, pitched in.

"Hey, why don't you create 4-5 ids and add comments yourself?"

As though I took all the pains to write stories to get comments from myself?

I was totally overtaken by grief when a new guy arrived.

He looked straight-forward. The type who cannot understand what lies between lines. He is my new team member. Moreover, a Malayali.

I seized the opportunity and led him to the conference room. Started a friendly discussion with him to cover personal and official aspects. Finally I decided to speak up with my requirements. An opening was needed anyway.

"What do you do during leisure time? Do you check blogs?"

"Sir, I do that regularly!"

I sat straight in my chair. Finally I was about to get a coverage. I was framing the next sentence in my mind when he continued.

"Not just that, sir. I regularly write blogs also. Till now, I have posted about 22 posts and I get 30-35 comments on an average. I have a plan to collate some of the posts and publish as a book, sir! Sir? What are you thinking?"
I motioned him to leave and left my head resting on my hand for a while, while I sat in the conference room alone. Simply. After all, there is nothing left to be done.

12 comments:

Amrutha Dev said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amrutha Dev said...

Malayalam pole thanne Englishum nannayittundu...

Vee said...

Very very interesting :) The narrative is really good. you should write more

kuttipparus world said...

HI! I read this in mathrubhumi.I was not able to stop laughing(in a way its related to me also...as I am a new blogger...Hum(deerkha...niswasam...)...)
X'cuse me...could U pz...have a look at my blog...?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Soba said...

Superb!!! I started laughing from the carpenter entry:)

Thommy said...

Nice story telling...!!!