4

At times I feel there is nothing to write about. But the next moment there are a lot many things to dwell upon. I’ll try to grab one of these fleeting subjects and try to elaborate on it.
Before that let me tell you one (more) difference between ‘diarying’ and ‘blogging’ – or should I say ‘writing using a computer’? In the case of the diary; before you put pen to paper you have to be very clear about what you are going to write. Not just the idea – but how you want to present it. The words. Where to begin. What are the details to be included. Once you start a sentence you have to finish it. You can’t go about writing and rewriting and correcting it. You have to be very careful – because in a diary there is no back space key or delete key. And a page which resembles a draft or a scribble pad does not look good in a diary. But a blog is different. The computer screen and keyboard gives you the freedom to play around with language before deciding on the final outcome.
Is this good or bad? In earlier times – read the pre-book era – literary works were ‘stored in memory’. Homer composed the great epics Iliad and Odyssey in his mind and handed them down to generations through ‘word of mouth’. When the practice of writing them down and storing them as documents was introduced many scholars of that period lamented about human race losing their capacity to memorize. They feared that the faculty to memorize would become defunct.
When you write with the help of a computer you tend to be a little more relaxed because you can always ‘back space’ or ‘delete’. You become a little lazy and stop ‘thinking tight’. You stop ‘subbing’ in mind. You lose a little of your sharpness. Correct me if I am wrong.
Ooops… again I ended up comparing blog and diary instead of writing about what I actually planned to write about – about driving. I’ll do that in my next post.

3

The transition from pen to keyboard and diary to blog is not as easy as I had imagined – but I enjoy it. One thing about keeping a diary is that you would always be looking at almost everything from a ‘diarist angle’. If you are very particular about making regular entries in your diary or journal – whatever you call it – you tend to observe and form clear ideas about and make ‘wordly pictures’ of everything that is happening within and without so that at the time of actually making the entry in the diary you don’t have to ‘worry’ much about ‘what to write today’. In the beginning it won’t be easy. Slowly but steadily you would master it and soon become a keen observer. One good thing about developing this ability is that you would be able to see things from a ‘detached point of view’ and at times you would be able to look at even yourself as an outsider! I am telling this from my experience. And I am finding it the same with blogs. But unlike ‘diarying’, one has to be a little more careful while ‘blogging’ since this is a public domain. There is a chance that other people read it.
Hmm… Again… Just like the previous post I am ‘blogging about blog’. This won’t do. I’ll stop here and come back later with ‘real post’.

2

What purpose does a blog serve? I am not initiating a discussion (after all a blog is not the place for discussions – or is it?). Any way I am asking this myself. And I am trying to find some answers. From what ever I have seen and read about; blogs are online diaries or journals. But many– should I say most of the – blogs are much more than online personal dairies. And unlike the conventional diary, blogs can be interactive. Some bloggers use it as an avenue to ‘think aloud’ on various subjects – from personal to international and from serious ones to trivial ones.
According to an article appeared in the May 26 issue of Scientific American (Blogging -It's Good for You by Jessica Wapner http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-healthy-type&sc=rss) "Scientists have long known the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences. Blogs provide another convenient avenue for writing about personal experiences. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery".
Hmm… this reads like an essay on Blogs. I am not here for that. But I am some one new here. I think it will take a little while to get a grip on this.

1

Being an old fashioned diarist, who has been keeping diaries for the last two decades (err… nearly), I never took blogs seriously. The idea of ‘posting’ one's personal diary in the Internet for everyone to see and make comments upon never appealed to me. But now I know blogs can be much more than ‘online diaries’. A couple of articles that appeared in newspapers and magazines, especially after the ‘tsunami disaster’ (on different parts of Asia in 2004), brought to the limelight the possibilities of ‘blogs’ as a new and effective form of journalism. A few months back The Mathrubhumi Weekly came out with a cover story on ‘Malayalam Blogs’ and that rekindled my interest on the blogs and its possibilities. I think blogs are one way to keep the creative writing skills sharp and shining. But the real reason why I am here is - I want to be part of it. Believe it or not, it has a certain snob value too! So ladies and gentlemen, here I am, with my blog. I owe the title of my blog to a book in Malayalam – which can be translated ‘Notes Sans Titles’- by M N Vijayan one of the original intellectuals ("after Sree Narayana Guru"according to Joby) from Kerala.