The past five years or so have been a whirlwind of change for me. A change in residence (albeit not very far from where I was previously living), change in career direction (quit my full-time job to start freelancing), helping my wife raise a growing kid, managing previously unknown health issues, and the nitty-gritties of mundane routine occupied most of my time during this period.
And when such pressing priorities take centerstage in your life, reading and writing tend to be among the first few things that get pushed to the backburner. And that's my explanation for my long absence from Blogosphere.
Time has been a very rare luxury for many of us since 2020. I won't go into details here, but when 40-plussers in nuclear families in urban settings say they are always busy these days, they aren't lying.
Technology is one of the biggest stealers of time in the world we currently live in. We are all part of an intricate digital web, where you simply cannot leave technology out of your routine. Apart from the fact that you are frequently making or receiving calls from family and friends through the course of the day, you are also constantly wading through a far bigger deluge of unknown or unsolicited calls. You also have to keep track of, retrieve, review, and pay bills over the phone or over web-connected devices. And sometimes (not very rare these days), you find yourself grappling with strange surprises and rude shocks, including online fraud attempts. Here again, you have no option but to use devices to look for solutions and go through time-consuming and really painful processes to get your problems resolved or for the sake of convincing reassurances.
Navigating through this digital labyrinth leaves you with very limited time, energy and patience for creativity and recreation. And that's why, you tend to look for frequent and short moments of fun and "time-pass" (as we Desis colloquially say) during sporadic moments of calm that we manage to find during the course of the day.
For me, personally, YouTube and Instagram served as my frequent "Adda". My safe refuge where I could watch a wide array of content, not always of my own choice, but that helped me expand my perspectives. The content that I found was sometimes funny, sometimes banal, very often silly, and on certain occasions freaky and bizarre. But irrespective of the content, they always seemed to offer a much needed distraction and a channel to stoke and nurture my creative streak.
After a five-year hiatus, I have decided to make a comeback to blogging. I was waiting for the right moment and occasion, or perhaps the right event, that would make such a comeback worthwhile and durable...at least for a month.
And the event that I have chosen to ride on to make a comeback is Blogchatter's A to Z Blogging Challenge 2025, which will run through the entirety of April 2025.
For the uninitiated, the A to Z Blogging Challenge is a month-long blogging marathon, wherein writers, poets, and content creators from around the world, create and upload posts on their blogs on a daily basis. They are supposed to post content which bear a title that begins with/is associated with each letter of the English alphabet. For instance, I might choose to write something on the 'Abuse of AI' on April 1 because it starts with the letter A, and then write something on the 'Banality of Digital Content' on April 2 because it coincides with the letter B, and so on. While this exercise can be mentally exhausting and emotionally draining (absolutely not exaggerating here), the Challenge is creatively stimulating and offers a great sense of accomplishment. It also serves as a wonderful platform to meet and engage with other talented writers and content creators.
Given my fascination for social media and the content creators forming part of this universe, my theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2025 is "A Poetic Celebration of My Favorite Instagram Pages”. I will be writing 26 poems through April 2025, each dedicated to a distinct Instagram page or personality.
Needless to say, I'm thrilled to share these poems and Instagram pages through my blog, and I hope my Instagram-meets-poetry adventure resonates with many of you.
Cheers then! And see you in April.
I'm participating in the #BlogchatterA2Z Challenge!
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