Back after a long gap
waiting for sunrise: serenity beach PuducherryI know I have written so few blog posts in the last three years. My last post was way back in August 2023. It is not that I have not been writing. But the things I have written, mostly official things, though in volumes, are destined to gather dust. Since these days even files and folders are maintained in digital format, it would be better to say that the volumes I have written will continue to struggle for recognition among billions of gigabytes stored in an oceanic server somewhere.
It is not that events haven’t happened worth writing about. Maybe, the mood was missing. Maybe I will briefly touch upon what has happened. That will also give a glimpse about what I am likely to write in coming days, provided my mood permits to blog regularly, henceforth for some time at least. Should I assign my serious hobbies to my mood swings so much? That could be material for some serious ruminations another day.
In between I left Bengaluru to live in a small town – Kalaburagi to be precise- for about two years. What a contrast to the life in Bengaluru. From spending three hours everyday on commutation to office to having the office in the same premises as your residence – the contrast was at the opposite end of the spectrum. It was like being partly back to my life in Indian Air Force where having the residence in the vicinity of the office was the norm.
Kalaburagi is located in the north western part of Karnataka. In this town one can find confluence of cultures of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. During that two years we did a lot of road trips to Maharashtra and also to my home town in Odisha via Andhra Pradesh. We covered a lot of interesting non-touristy places in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
Also a couple of months back we got our first opportunity to travel abroad, courtesy our daughter who lives in Switzerland. Back from Europe tour I wrote a short poem dedicated Uetliberg – a mountain near Zurich where we went for a short trek one day. It was after a long time that the poem happened.
Recently I have taken a fancy to stage performances – mostly to dish out some free and elderly wisdom in community gatherings, or recite a poem or try stand up comedy at any of the numerous open mics happening in Bengaluru.
What else?
Then there is this recently concluded short tour of Puducherry. I was revisiting this place after 32 years. Yes, the last time I visited this place was way back in 1992. So the recent visit was like visiting the place for the first time.
This blog post is a short recap of what has happened since I last blogged regularly till mid 2021. Will my muse be pleased now to bless me with regular creative activity?
At least I may start elaborating on some of the events mentioned here. Unlike in real life, blogging is a saving grace when you start narrating your travel stories. Why do I say this? Let me explain.
Soon after you return from a trip, many friends who know that you have been on a trip usually would ask how the tour was. Some just ask for formality sake. But there are some who evince keen interest by the way they ask. And when you are back from a tour beyond the seven seas, their interest seem all the more real and serious.
So you think, finally you have got a listener who would take interest in your experience. But you are mistaken. You are into your third sentence of your narration, the listener suddenly remembers he has to make a phone call, or else someone’s life would be in danger. Your story telling session has ended before it has even begun.
But with a blog post there is no such danger. Here you are talking to a computer screen, with the hope of someone reading it in future. There is no expectation of instant gratification. At least you can finish what you have started.
What else?
The poetic muse has suddenly been favorable and I have been able to write a dozen more poems and have done extensive revision of some of my earlier written poems. Hope to bring in a compilation soon in the form of a book.
