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+