Take Interest!

I know the title of this post sounds preachy. In fact, the fear that I may sound sermonic is the reason why I haven’t written one of those old ‘real’ B+ posts since a long time. I guess I started B+ on a strong footing but somewhere along the way, I lost the plot. B+ began with this simple post, “Doing something is always better than doing nothing.” I went on to write more positive stuff (if you may call it that). It was all going really well till one day, I took interest in something else and B+ lost its character.

Yeah, I finally reached the subject of today’s post – “Take Interest”. Writing on politics is what I had started getting interest in and what better place to experiment than my own blog? The only problem was that when you get interested in something new, it all seems too good. Like a dream. The same happened with my political writings on B+. So, lesson no.1 in taking interest in anything is this: “The starting is always too good to be true.” (Don’t try to apply this lesson while reading this post. In short, continue reading. )

 But (there is always a but in everything, right? It bugs me to an extent you can’t imagine) the thing to note is that once you get past the initial “dreamy” phase, you realize that all is not what you imagine. This might be both good and bad. In my case, it turned out to be …. Well I haven’t yet figured it out. Actually, that is the reason that I am writing this post. Writing all of this helps me talk to myself. That is one of the reasons I had started this blog. So that if I wrote positive stuff I would somehow become positive. I know you are confused right now. Good. Purpose served.

Coming back to my ‘initiation’ into the world of political commentary, as I said, the beginning was kind of great. The middle was amazing. A lot of my friends started reading my articles and commenting on it. A classmate whom I had never known came up to me and complimented me on an article of mine. Okay, don’t blame me for bloating over this small thing. A little context might help here. I studied in the morning department of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, where people are hardly awake. So it was a big thing. Yeah, yeah, I just bragged about being a Xaverian there. Sorry. It just becomes natural for you to mention the name of your college in India if you are doing a plain, simple, B.Com. Before you think this is about my college life, let me get back to the topic. Oh god, when will I learn to stick to the topic? When? When?

So, we were at the point where a classmate complimented me about an article of mine. After that I kept on writing weekly posts on political stuff. (Yeah, stuff is pretty much my ‘go-to’ word whenever my brain is unable to reach my otherwise fabulous vocabulary) The weeks went by and then I noticed something. People used to read my stuff (here I go again) but then the feedback had stopped. I guess the novelty wears off and that brings us to the second lesson regarding taking interest in anything: “The novelty wears off.” See, it is not just me babbling about my tryst with writing, I am giving you lessons too. So, you better continue reading.

Once you realize that the sheen of novelty is lost, your actual test starts. It is the time you have the ‘Eureka’ moment. You get to decide, whether the thing that you thought you were interested in was actually the thing that you were interested in. Moreover, if you are actually interested in that thing, then the next question is whether you are good enough for it? Let’s come back to my case. What happened after the novelty wore off? I also stopped writing on my blog. It was not that I didn’t write on politics anymore. I just thought that I was not getting the readership on my blog and started focusing on other well-known forums. In a way, it was good because while writing for them I realized how much more I need to know, read and learn. But (like I said, there is always a but) the downside was that while taking interest in political writing, I had ignored my basic interest, writing, which brings us to the third lesson in taking interest in anything: “Explore new interests, but stay true to your basic instinct.” This is because it is the basic instinct or interest, call it whatever you want, which led you to the other, secondary interest. If you don’t lose focus of the basic interest, there is a very good chance that you won’t deviate from the interests branching out from it too. If I had continued writing positive articles on B+, the purpose for which it was created, I think I wouldn’t have fatigued myself.

This brings us to the present. This is why I wrote this positive article again. Or is it not? What is the real reason behind my writing this positive stuff again, you ask? Okay, I know you might not ask but you better ask, because that will give you the fourth and the final lesson in taking interest! I wrote this post because a friend took interest. It is as simple as that. A friend took interest and asked me questions. Questions that made me think whether I wanted to leave it all and run away or I wanted to be back. And I chose to be back. Back with a bang (or so I hope, do tell me if I am wrong and this was the worst that you have read from me. I would love that. I am mad)

Oh, you are wondering, where is the final lesson? I knew I had all of you hooked onto this post. I just knew. So, here is the fourth and the final lesson: “Take interest in football, take interest in academics, and take interest in politics. It’s all good. But, most of all, take interest in people. That interest can be a life-changer for some.” B+