The Blogger's Dilemma

Right. You haven't blogged in ages, you wonder why the little ideas for posts which once ran in your head simply refuse to take root. Probably just another case of writer's block, you think, only to remember you've been writing on cricket fairly regularly. Is this finally it, a state of semi-retirement in which you stick to writing about the stuff you know best?

But. A part of you wants to feel otherwise, to keep it going if only for the reassurance that you are indeed, still, a "Blogger". So you rummage through your head for possible topics, and lazily scan through the list of unfinished posts in the hope of seeing your link rise to the top of all those blogrolls by the end of the day. (Aside: "Blogroll" is "bogroll" with an added "L". I vote for a change in terminology.)

You straightaway zero in on a number of things you could pour derision on - religion, the city, the uncoordinated moves of IPL cheerleaders - and then decide that ranting is the last refuge of the frustrated. You're above all that now.

You come up with a general updates type post, detailing which book you started on the way to office, which friends you caught up with after X years, and how comfortably boring life is. You then realise that these updates are already plastered, in more concise form, all over Facebook and Twitter. You then remember you still haven't actually joined Twitter, and make a mental note to do so.

You start on this wacky story that's been brewing in your mind for a while now, in which you've casted your friends as these bizarre characters based on their individual quirks. It suddenly strikes you that the only people who'll get your story, don't read your blog.

You think perhaps you should try your hand at poetry, after all everybody seems to be dabbling in rubbish verse these days. This idea is aborted after five minutes when you've managed to come up with "'Twas a warm and sunny afternoon".

You excitedly start on a review-type post which describes how crazily addictive Peep Show is, or how Mark Knopfler's lyrics once made this deep impact on you, and then decide you're in no mood to "put shag" (as any IIT-M bloke would likely say).

So you finally settle for this vaguely existentialist post about your latest attempts at putting keys to editor, and predictably end up writing it in second person.