Introspection and a Guest post

A few fellow bloggers seemed to be having an illness which affects most of us at some time or the other - writer's block. Like all of them, I too know the feeling, having experienced it probably once every three months since the start of this blog.
But as I looked back over the posts, I realized something weird - my own posts this year lacked that old personal touch and openness that I used to enjoy before. There are descriptions of events and contest posts but that's it. The closest I've gotten to being personal were the memories of my past that I've jotted down for my monthly column in Tamarind Rice.



There are many reasons behind that frankly, none of which I can legitimately offer as an excuse.

• I stopped writing heartfelt outrages against corruption and obvious injustice. An old friend whom I met at a wedding recently told me that he read all my blog posts but stopped commenting on the more serious topic-related ones because he was scared after the Palghar arrest incident of last year. He warned me not to try to be too much of a voice against injustice in today's India or else I may find myself targeted by these same people. A very up, close-and-personal look at the law system in our country has convinced me that my friend was right. In the end, money talks. A change of government won't change that. The rot has set in at the grass root level itself in every city and state. Corruption is now a self-sustaining entity in India, irrespective of the political party, country club or religion you stand for. 
• I hardly ever write on my personal life. I have always stuck to that ill-advised policy of sharing my smiles and hiding my insecurities. It's too late to teach this old dog new tricks, I imagine. But I will try.
• Stories? Well, rest assured I have been writing a lot of fictional stories. Unfortunately, unlike before, the past few months have been about sending them for contests across the country and beyond rather than posting them on the blog for everyone to read. I apologize for that. Were any selected? Well, as I said - my smiles I share with you... the rejection letters are mine alone.
• Contest after contest has been taking up my attention too, I admit. There have been some wonderful contests with great prizes at stake. For the record, I finally did win at least something in an Indiblogger contest ! 
• Both entries for the 'WeChat' contest - The League of Extraordinary Athletes and Choose your chat buddies wisely  - won me Rs1000/- gift vouchers from Flipkart. Another line thus added to my Accolades and Moments page.

But I do need to change a few things here, I guess. I would like to go back to a more free-spirited style of writing. One where I look to do what I do best - make people laugh from the heart or make them introspect from the head. Hopefully, in the coming days, I will do both and you will get a better picture of the man behind the blog.

For now, let me start with a guest post I have done for the wonderful Sukupedia, a very popular blogger (who scratches her screen every time she comes by my blog to see if the Premium Blogger sticker will peel off and she can stick it on her own blog!) with a great sense of humour and a treasure trove of awesome posts in her blog. 

My guest post however is on something personal that scared me a lot this last month. 

P.S. I also realise the irony of what I'm going to say next, given what I've just been talking about but the next few posts I have lined up on Godyears are, in most likelihood, going to be contest posts again. But it is personal to me in many ways. So bear with me.