Saturday 26 November 2016

NaBloPoMo Day 26: You Know You're Being Seen as a Writer When....

......at family gatherings, you notice a subtle yet significant shift in the dynamics of interactions with your relatives…
  • Noticing me taking pictures of things that no one else was bothered about, I got asked, “Oh, is this for your blog post?”

  • After the customary “how are you,” some people brought up something on which I wrote and the conversation turned into a mini-discussion on that topic.
  • Someone asked, “So, what will you be writing on today? Will it be about this function?”
  • Whenever he was in the vicinity, my son butted into the conversation, warning the other person, “Hey, be careful what you say…Amma is going to make a blog post out of it.”
  • A relative said he’s sorry he hasn’t been able to keep up with the latest articles that I wrote, but that he would read all of them in a few days time.
  • An elderly aunt, while leaving, told me, “Do keep sending links to your articles. I like reading what you write.”
  • A relative who’s closer to my son’s age than mine said he’d just been telling my son that he likes my articles and talks because they are inspiring.
  • Someone offered that I should come and stay in her house for a few days of undisturbed writing. She'd give me food and leave me alone the rest of the time to gaze out of the balcony or sit in the park, thinking and writing in peace.
  • While introducing me to someone I was meeting for the first time, after establishing my main identity as “Ranga Mama maatponnu,” the next piece of information passed on was “She’s a lecturer, and writer too.”
  • A cousin commented, “You must have got material worth 3 or 4 blog posts in this function, right?”
Ever since I began writing, on my blog and elsewhere, I’ve been putting out the links to my pieces through WhatsApp and Facebook. Not because I want recognition or praise as a writer, but with the hope that something I write may prove useful to someone, somewhere, at some time. Which is why ever since I started writing, I had never attached too much importance to whether people respond through comments, likes, shares etc. 


Quite often, it has even happened that my closest family and friends have not read some pieces that other readers have appreciated and found useful. Sometimes, there have been no comments from anyone, and judging from that, it looked like no one had read it. But now, I know better.

And seeing the enthusiasm and encouragement for my writing, all I can do is bow my head with humility and thank God and members of the Thatiampatty and Kashi families for standing by me as I cross the boundary of “Ramanna’s daughter and Rangamaama’s daughter-in-law” to try to don the mantle of “Writer.”


NaBloPoMo November 2016

6 comments:

  1. That's fabulous! :) Way to go. It's always encouraging to know that you have helped someone without even being conscious about it!

    I also get a lot of that "watch what you tell her, she will blog it!"

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  2. Ha ha! And I get those comments too. Aren't they all lovely? Feeding in to our passion of writing?
    Grateful for a family that reads. Good one!

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    Replies
    1. Feels real good ..as do comments like these from people we only meet through blogging! Thank you, Parul!

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