The Blogger in You

This has been a blog left quite in the dark. And now that I return to it, that is also what is lending to the charm of writing here again. It's like writing to myself, and yet, what if some lonely lost blogger comes upon it? What if she gets lost in her thought camp and lands on mine? And that's what brings us to the fundamental question - why do people blog?

My profession is such that it makes me question things. Attitudes, emotions, motivations and behaviour. Sounds fantastic doesn't it? Well let me not burst that bubble but instead reconfirm that it's quite an interesting place to be actually. It provides perspectives and always sets the lens right. But now I'm just rambling. The sole intention of telling you what the nature of my job is to technically justify why I would be thinking of such a fundamental question in an article with so emotional a title, in the first place.

So getting back to that. Why do people blog? Think about it. And if you don't blog. Why not? Is it too painstaking? Are you secretive? See all your actions would have an attitude fundamentally driving it. What drives YOU to behave the way you do?

See, from where I come from, people love talking. There are sessions for daily banter as I would call it, which locally is referred to as adda. They love talking about everything on earth - from the weather to the changing political weather and more. It is what keeps them breathing and refreshes them even after a long hard days work - shei parar adda.

But it was only at the end of an interview in Kolkata that I realised this, when my new acquaintance told me:

"It was so great talking to you... after a long while I really enjoyed talking to someone"

What did we talk about may you ask? Well it was a 2 hour interview in which I got a sneak peek into what he stood for, what his values in life were and what had gone into making him - the individual. Our conversation spanned years - from his childhood days to his college days to his boring work life. He expressed his frustrations and motivations and what kept him going. He spoke with pride about his son and the family he had made. In all, it was 2 hours of him telling me, about himself. And all I had to do, was listen.

And even though this man lives in a city where everyone loves to talk, where everyone has an opinion and a thought, and everyone listens... but seldom is it, just about them. People feel the need to be heard. They feel the need to express and to tell their story as after all, life is on  a fast track rail road with no halt button! So when does one stop and take a breather and reflect? Apparently this 2 hour interview let the man vent and reflect and for a second step back, and think about how things had unfolded in his life.

And it is this need, of wanting to be heard, of getting our opinions out there that makes us blog, and that makes us put this information out there, whether someone chances upon it or not.

May be this is obvious.