Well, calling it a break would be misleading because it has been more than 15 months since I have posted anything on the blog. Almost a year and a half. It was more of a stop than a break.
Calling it “coming back” now is also misleading as it can’t be called that until I become regular at posting here, which I intend to do. I am not sure if I had many regular readers, but if there were any, and you are one of them, I would like to apologise for making you wait so long for the “coming back”.
In my defence, I would like to say that it was not that I did not want to write. I kept telling myself that I would start soon, but, like most soons, the soon kept travelling in time to the future. And it took a world changing event like the Corona Virus to shake me out of my limbo, and get me back to writing.
I am sure, as we are living through this pandemic, many of our long held beliefs are being tested and challenged. We are witnessing things that most of us could never even have imagined. For example, the lock downs that have become a common phenomenon across countries are the biggest infringements on the principle of personal liberty that this generation has seen, and yet people all across the globe have surrendered to it without as much as a whimper. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that the lock downs are unnecessary or extreme. I am just saying that things that we could have never imagined are coming to pass.
But, I digress.
In this post I do not intend to talk about anything in particular. I will do that in the posts that I hope to write in the days to come. More than anything, what I mean to do with today’s post is to make a start, and get the excuses out of the way.
One thing is certain. You will never have time do something tomorrow if you can’t find the time to do it today, especially if that thing is important to you. In fact, with the passage of time there are new and exciting things that crop up and stake a claim on your time.
I am no different. Over the past few years a lot has happened with me, and the most significant event has been becoming a father. Most of my friends had become parents before me, and they all told me how their life had changed once they became parents. So, when my time came I was ready for my world to be rocked, and, for a while, it was anticlimactic. It was on a sunny afternoon, while I was watching something on the news, that the true meaning of becoming a parent hit me with the force of a tsunami. I think it is hard to express it in words, and maybe I will try to do that someday. For now, suffice it to say, when you become a parent you begin to be more empathetic to the suffering of others. I think you truly understand the difference between sympathy and empathy. You want to make a better world, more than you have ever wanted in your life.
That said, I would have been happy to tell you that I have been reading a lot during this time, but that would be a lie. I have been aiming to read a hundred books a year for the last couple of years, and have been failing miserably in meeting this target, but I am not one to give up easily, and once again I have set myself a target of reading 100 books in 2020. Going by the progress I have made till now, it looks like I am going to fail again, but I hope to fail better.
One thing I have been doing more than reading (and I am not proud of it) is watch TV. Like many out there, I have made the jump from traditional TV to OTT TV. Now I can watch what I want, rather than what is running on TV. The idiot box isn’t that idiotic anymore, and more often than not, it wins the fight against books. In its fight against books, the TV has found a very strong ally – Social Media. From the time when there were only a couple of sites, which were more down than up, social media has come a long way. Today, it won’t leave you alone even for a minute unless you make a conscious effort to stay away from it.
Anyway, I won’t make this long. They tell me 500 words is how long a post is supposed to be, if it has to keep the reader (that is you, my dear friend) interested. I have crossed that milestone a while back, but I hope you have had a good time nevertheless.
Leave a line in the comments to let me know you were here.
(Image by braetschit from Pixabay)
Welcome back. Congratulations on becoming a father! Becoming a parent is an experience that, as I’m sure you’ve learned already, changes you fundamentally. Let’s hope we get to see you post a little more often this time.
Happy parenting!