Thursday 17 April 2014

Revelling in micro-stories

Facebook has many treats to offer and off late, it gives me immense pleasure to read the micro stories that are posted by my friends. The stories have diverse hues and moods depending on the emotional state of the writer; But whatever the frame of mind, these vignettes of life are presented in lucid prose which is a reader's delight.

Stories have always fascinated me and I believe that all of us irrespective of our age, status, social standing have a repertoire of stories that are waiting to be read and listened to. Some stories are forgotten, some escape the hearer and some are safely kept in the vault of memory. But stories that are shared are the ones that make life vibrant and help us revel in the collective conscious.

My friend Bhavana Nissima and Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury were the ones who captivated me with vignettes from their daily life; And, I was impressed how these vignettes shared as status messages on Facebook were an excellent archive of storing ordinary happenings with profound commentries. The instances shared by them were not once-in-a-blue-moon experience which had to recorded as milestones in history. Far from that, the incidents were insignificant happenings which happen to most of us on a regular basis but failed to be seen with awareness and insight.

After reading these micro stories, I have often felt that simple everyday occurances are indeed profound and perhaps will never happen again. For example, a butterfly caught inside the home and trying to somehow find its way out or a mosquitoe that repeatedly escapes the Chinese bat or a creeper that somehow finds a tree to climb on and so on. Even blogs are all about stories - stories of courage, passion, pain, love, hunger, smiles and other similar topics. But writing a post takes time and needs some comfort unlike typing a quick status message wihich shares our stories to everyone who knows and likes us. I call these status messages "micro stories," which make me either smile, ponder, or wonder.

I have stopped seeing Sociology, Psychology and Political Science as mere academic disciplines restricted to the portals of Universities and Colleges. In fact, I see Bhavana's and Maitreyee's micro stories as reflections of the time and state of the society and the individual. I learn much from their updates than I might from a textbook.

Dear reader, care for a story - an everyday one that.




Saturday 12 April 2014

Reflections on being away from the blog

There were days when the thought of staying away from the blog gave me a slight panic attack. I was like a new parent who would not want the baby out of the sight but like everything else, one outgrows the 'new parent' phase. Yes, the child's antics and movement is interesting nevertheless it does cause a certain monotony. Well, now I leave my blog unattended never even stopping to just view the blog, old posts and statistics which I did so religiously in the past. Thoughts spring up, incidents beg to be posted, opinions wait to be shared but the non-availability of a computer stops the instant gush of wanting to post. Sometimes, the topics grow stale and anachronic with the passage of time. I have thus changed my flow and rhythms. I am no longer a hard-core blogger who posts once in two days or once a week. I post when time, computer, thoughts are in tandem and that seldom happens. All said and done, I would like to keep writing. It has begun to look like my baby days in blogging when I used to post when I really wanted to, of course thoughts-time-computer in tandem!

If you have been here for some time, you will relate to my thoughts.

Thanks for stopping by, dear reader.

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