Activity of Blogging, Feeling of Embarrassment and Football Worldcup in Qatar
It has been eight months since I relocated to U.S. This time as I can see can be divided into two parts - the first six months and the next two months as far as the blog posts are concerned. In this single blog (not the second one), I posted 18 posts in the first 6 months. In the second one- A summary and lessons from Ramayana, I posted an equal 18 posts as well. In total, it has been 36 posts in the six months from the two blogs. In the last two months, it is limited to just 6 posts from the two blogs. As you can see here, my weekends are mostly restricted to my attempts of getting back to posting some stuff. It has been smooth in the first six months and a bit restraining in the recent couple of months. An average of 6 fell down to 3 per month. I would like to know if it takes a lot to post on something. I know I had to overcome a lot of odds sometimes to put something online. But left in this struggle, I don’t want to waste my time without doing anything else either. There are three main reasons for the poor volume in the last two months. 1. Expectations 2. Fixed time. 3. Not hungry enough. There can be many other reasons as well but these are more important.
The first one is living up to the expectations of the weekly frequency. People (if at all anyone reads) do tend to expect more after a successful six-month stint. Then raises the bar and the feeling that there are promises to keep and expectations to reach every week. This can be a good goal to aim for and achieve but I failed on multiple occasions. It would be great if we can work out and pull it off somehow by stitching everything together. My limitations are the ones to blame here and nothing else. The second reason applies a bit since I think people have programmed me to be in U.S. for six months. Well, the six months are great. Once the time is up, the struggles have started. I had to overcome this drag force, be myself and post something sane. Honestly, it is not just six months and I would like to stay as long as it is meaningful for me to stay. So, an extension is required, a restart is required which can mimic the first six months to bring back those days. The third reason has to do with the size of my empty stomach. A hungry man will be prompt in doing all that is required to put in a great work. After the initial success, the hunger is no longer the same and there is a reason to slack a bit.
As mentioned, there can be many other reasons at play as I can think about but these are top most. I am particular about this blogging, since this is the only thing I am good at. And this is the partial reason why I am in U.S. I am less than ordinary person when everything else is considered and require a lot of help to get through the other tasks.
Initially I started posting once in a month few years back when this activity is started. During the covid pandemic, I challenged myself and took the virus head on every week. It is more of a tracker to get a gauge on the prevailing pandemic. Except some tidbits, most of it is a template which needs to be filled every week. Hence, it can be predictable and easily sourced with moderate difficulty. I had written nearly 50 posts on covid pandemic in the last two and half years. But as I said, the subject is one and the same.
Let us come to the present-day state of affairs, go back a bit and comment on how things went in the first six months. Really speaking, it is completely a new territory for me as far as blogging is concerned. I had never written as well as those articles any time before. Even if the second blog is bit easier to compile, the first one which I am trying to update weekly has different topics in every post. It is a new challenge which I took up and hope something relevant has come out of this exercise. This has to be noted particularly since we can see few persons who posted on topics of interest online had lost their jobs. Job cuts due to writing articles has been happening around. The blogging activity is something which needs to be taken informatively and easily in the stride by the readers without putting too much of weightage. Incidentally or coincidentally, by the end of six months I lost my job as well.
As a writer with minimum skills, I think about how should I tackle my own case and improve myself. One way to improve and contribute in the best possible way is to write more frequently and consistently. This will roll the giant wheels of progress – both self and society, into a better territory.
While I really wished everything good and positive about this activity, there is a possibility of opening the pandora box as well. This activity is uncovering different realities – while job loss is one thing which is discussed, the other is people getting embarrassed by my writing spree and the work being done thereof. I noticed it as a reality during covid pandemic time as well.
But since we touch upon this topic, let us know what makes someone embarrassed in the current context. When a specially-abled person achieves so much in life by stretching his very limited means to infinity, it causes a lot of embarrassment to every other onlooker who is gifted much better by nature. Embarrassment can sometimes become a good motivation to get something higher and better. Let us look at somethings which causes it in first place and which needs to be harnessed for right reasons.
I would like to stick to some facts which embarrasses me in similar perspective since very young age. Let us look from a nation’s perspective how this holds up.
2. When a country like U.S. can win over 1000 summer Olympic gold medals, why does India have a mere 10 golds in the last century.
3. When a country like U.S. can invent more than 87% of modern-day tools and technologies that changed the landscape of world, why does the modern-day Indian contribution to the same almost minute.
4. When a country like U.S. can create software, medical, manufacturing industries across the world by giving the required tools and dictating the lives, livelihoods of billions in the most positive way; why is India content by being a ‘utilizing end user’ and being in a state of slumber when it comes to striving for and becoming a responsible, dictating leader.
5. Why is the economy of U.S. at over 19 trillion and India at just 3 trillion, even after being the second most populated nation.
These are just some areas where I feel embarrassed right from my childhood. I can come up with more of these examples at individual and national measure in another post. We can give reasons for the gap, we can take consolation from miniscule achievements and celebrate petty wins – like winning a single Olympic bronze, but cannot overlook the facts and a huge, glaring difference. The first step is to recognize the bitter facts and aim for the moon to end up among stars. Else, we will be embarrassing ourselves and our kids who feel the same about their irresponsible ancestors.
This should be just like a motivation factor and a direction– if a person or country like U.S. can achieve so much in so little time, why are we paling horribly in relative comparison. Thinking along these lines will give direction to us by adding fuel to the fire. This fire should propel the Indian rocket into the space and beyond. The nation is at the cusp of staring a huge fire within ourselves burning like a volcano. It is important to direct this combustion energy to propel the vehicle to a correct and great destination.
It is always a question of individual progress and achievements which adds up to give the outlook of the nation. While it should never be the endeavor of anyone to embarrass another person, it would be useful if we look at the right perspective and work in the right direction to earn individual and collective respect. Leading a life with respect is one of the most difficult struggles. Respect cannot be demanded but it has to be earned. In this light, may everyone live with respect and not embarrass ourselves or anyone else.
Switching to another topic of interest, the football world cup is currently going on. I am a huge fan of football world cups since very young. I used to watch the EPL, other European leagues and used to find them interesting. One particular memory is the 2002 world cup in Japan, South Korea when I followed most of the matches on television. There are many great matches I saw of the beautiful game. Life as a child has more room for many other things. Even in the recent times, I followed most of the world cups occasionally. This year, the world cup is very different. It is taking place with all the crowd after a highly transmissive pandemic. It is taking place in an Arab nation for the first time and in particular, Qatar is proudly hosting the mega event. It is particularly pleasing to see the lesser-known countries in football world like Japan, Korea, South Africa, Qatar given an opportunity of hosting the world cup events. Despite the pandemic time, it is held smoothly by Qatar and thanks to my work routines, I couldn’t catch even a single match live. Nothing to miss, the spotlight should be on Qatar for competing with the world and hosting a world class event in a conservative Arab world. This can be a great moment for the Muslims who silently work their way through even when the surrounding is all ruckus.
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