It took a junta...
It's not like I had stopped blogging altogether but life intervened and there was nothing I could do about it. Priorities came in different shapes and sizes and lay claim on my time and made urgent demands. And on top of that, some major life changes had a somewhat seismic effect forcing me to go blog-less for more than two months.
It wasn't a conscious decision to disappear altogether from the blog scene because during this period I must have scored quite a record in coming up with nmerous 'unfinished posts.' I would start on a topic, stop for a while, and then forget all about it. Well, almost and not completely. The ideas would still hover like some uncontrollable itch and I'd ponder long and hard over all the underlying issues and sub-issues. So much for ideas. So much for the love of writing. So much for... well, the urge to speak out, as I keep telling people all the time whenever they ask me about the raison d'etre of blogging.
But then as it so happens, life (in the bigger sense of the word) has a way of pshing away even this convenient lethargy, and I found myself back to the drawing board and back to blog land. I guess sometimes one has to understand that there are bigger concerns out there in the world, and there are issues that are much bigger than the oyster we call 'our' life.
And yes it took a bunch of stupid, arrogant and obstinate military officials in Burma to make me realise that 'silence' is not, necessarily, the best option at all times. Sometimes we need to use the power of our words to express not only our resentment but also our opposition to their despotic rule. As a pacifist, I strongly believe that words have power and possess a degree of purity that guns and bombs do not, and hence writers and bloggers must use this alphabetic weapon to bring about change where it's required.
It's heartening to see that not just bloggers but activists and politicians world wide have finally woken up to the situation in Burma. Let's hope that this is not just another 'trend' that will die out till the next big politically cataclysmic event makes a huge splash. The Burmese people have suffered long enough and do not deserve to be treated as a trend. They need to experience freedom like everyone else. They need to go through the democratic circus like all other countries. They just need to live lives like everyone else because... well, why not?
It wasn't a conscious decision to disappear altogether from the blog scene because during this period I must have scored quite a record in coming up with nmerous 'unfinished posts.' I would start on a topic, stop for a while, and then forget all about it. Well, almost and not completely. The ideas would still hover like some uncontrollable itch and I'd ponder long and hard over all the underlying issues and sub-issues. So much for ideas. So much for the love of writing. So much for... well, the urge to speak out, as I keep telling people all the time whenever they ask me about the raison d'etre of blogging.
But then as it so happens, life (in the bigger sense of the word) has a way of pshing away even this convenient lethargy, and I found myself back to the drawing board and back to blog land. I guess sometimes one has to understand that there are bigger concerns out there in the world, and there are issues that are much bigger than the oyster we call 'our' life.
And yes it took a bunch of stupid, arrogant and obstinate military officials in Burma to make me realise that 'silence' is not, necessarily, the best option at all times. Sometimes we need to use the power of our words to express not only our resentment but also our opposition to their despotic rule. As a pacifist, I strongly believe that words have power and possess a degree of purity that guns and bombs do not, and hence writers and bloggers must use this alphabetic weapon to bring about change where it's required.
It's heartening to see that not just bloggers but activists and politicians world wide have finally woken up to the situation in Burma. Let's hope that this is not just another 'trend' that will die out till the next big politically cataclysmic event makes a huge splash. The Burmese people have suffered long enough and do not deserve to be treated as a trend. They need to experience freedom like everyone else. They need to go through the democratic circus like all other countries. They just need to live lives like everyone else because... well, why not?
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Manju