Simbly Bored

So, I’ve added a couple of new widgets on my sidebar. I have random song addictions that last a week or two. So I decided to add a video gadget to the sidebar. I also changed my category listing from a dropdown to a cloud. The cloud just about conclusively proves that this blog is highly random and all about me. I considered adding delicious links to interesting articles I read and Twitter updates too but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. I’m not too sure how long the other changes will last either. But I thought it might be a good thing to have a song play in the background as you read

My short lived love affair with Twitter has come to an end at last and my marriage has emerged unscathed. The affair last approximately as long as my collaborative technologies and social media class. Actually, less. I find that I don’t want the whole world to know what music I’m listening to, what news I’m reading and whether I had my lunch. As of now, that’s approximately what these gadgets are worth to me.

With time perhaps, I will be better networked, more popular and worth stalking. I have claimed my simblybored space on all these sites and when the time comes, I shall make it simple for you all to cyber stalk me. For now, I am content with the randomness that has dominated this space.

I toyed with the idea of applying some techniques of effective social media utilization to this blog. I wanted to make this an interactive and engaging space. Elevate it from being a mere blog to being a site you visit everyday. Then I realized that I am not in the portal design business. This blog always has and always been about chronicling things little and big in my life that I think are universal enough to share with you all. It’s not about getting more hits, generating ad revenue (WordPress doesn’t allow ads anyway) or about any of that stuff. It’s a blog that will always focus on text. Play on words, conjure images and recount scenes.

I think the only change I am capable of accepting is changes in template. But do leave a comment if you have any ideas for changes to this space!

For the longest time, I imagined that I would be married to someone like Amit Chatterjee (from my favourite novel – The Suitable Boy). Intellectual, moody, selective, attracting a lot of admirers. A social snob, unexpectedly profound and unconventionally romantic.

As the years went by, this notion of mine was reinforced. I was convinced that I would never be able to connect with anyone simpler than this favourite character of mine.

Time went by, I was courted and wooed, displayed and evaluated.

And then, I suddenly found myself “The One”. Someone completely different from the ideal I so carefully cherished. Intelligent but not intellectual. Well read but not a snob. Capable of moodiness but rarely succumbing to it, blissfully oblivious to the world around. Profound when the need arises and romantic always.

Over the last year and a half as I have known this person and loved him, I have realized how foolish I was to want for myself, someone like me. How foolish it is to be a snob. To judge and evaluate. To battle with questions that have no answers, to strive to be someone I am not.

Years later, as I read the book again, I see how I might have imagined a person of this sort to be the right one for me. But now, as I revisit the character and then look at the person I am with, I feel proud of myself for not letting the shallowness of a Convent School education sway me against my better judgement.

Sometimes, in life, it’s not complexity that matters as much as depth. It’s not the approval of those you know that matters as much as you yourself.

Dedicated to the conversation this evening.