My First Blog Post

 Hey.

I am Dr. Rekha Datta, an Associate Professor, a compulsive reader, and a novice blogger. This is my first adventure, my journey with omniscient reader/s. Lots of butterflies in the stomach. Karma catching up, I suppose. Some two and a half decades ago, I started my career in my alma mater, Maharani’s Arts College for Women, Mysore. On the very first day, I spent an extremely uncomfortable morning in the Department of English with my teachers who affectionately welcomed me as a colleague. They tried their best to make me feel comfortable sitting with them. I spent a miserable morning, took my first class in the afternoon and I reached home in the evening. I had just about entered the home, and my mother popped the question “Were you not afraid in the class, teaching?” Cockishly, I had said ‘No!! Why should I be?” Now, even as I am trying to write my first blog post, I know what my mother was trying to ask and I had thought I would never go through this thing of self-doubt!! I have this axiom which I always flaunt ‘Some fear is good for you to perform well!!’ Well, I am all sympathy for my learners who were going through this, and now, for myself, as I publish this post.

                    My tryst with writing is no less chequered. As a researcher, writing my thesis was traumatic for me (it must have been so my research guide as well, I’m sure). My research supervisor, with immense affectionate patience, told me ‘Be careful of those long winding sentences, Rekha.’ But little did I understand that my writing was of the most informal type for the dissertation. I did realize just that when I was proofreading it to be sent to the printer. I hurriedly called my supervisor and rattled ‘Ma’am, my writing!!  It’s un-understandable!! It’s in a conversational style!!’ ‘Don’t touch it!’ hissed my Ma’am, ‘that’s your strength’. Well, she is the master and I was like okay. Then came the time for research publications and Ma’am said in her bass tone, ‘Rekha, you have to learn to write formally. Publications demand that’. I tried to change my style; tried to get into the highly stylized, recommended Western style of writing. It was like getting the well-rounded South Indian woman into the hourglass short skirt-impossible. The result of the endeavour was highly dissatisfactory--I had so many things to say about so many things in the world, All that could not be fitted into academic writing. However, I tried sometimes I managed, but mostly managed to fail miserably. By now, I saw that many of my esteemed colleagues and friends were writing in Newspapers, getting scholarly publications done and of course, some are writing books. I realized- proud as I am about being well-rounded, this formal writing setup had its cutting edges. Now, why don’t I find a fabric that will suit me and which will allow me to shape it!! And then, blogging appeared to be my saviour, my salvation fabric that is to flow with me, shape me up and be shaped by me. I could see immense opportunities for me to write, to express what I want to say and share. That was an exciting, liberating thought. No formats, no style guides, no plagiarism checks (not that I require it, but then . . .) and of course, no restless waiting, no acceptance-rejection letters.  

I jumped up and said ‘Eureka’, start it!! Google solved my first problem- it suggested several hosts that would give me free access to publish my blog. Then I found myself stumbling at the old threshold of what to write and how to write. My nemesis-there are formats prescribed by well-known bloggers here too! It said, first introduce yourself, who are you as a person, as a professional, as a blogger? What is the objective of your blog? Have a friendly write-up if you want people to connect with you on a deep level and the most hated part, your readers do not like to read from an incognito writer-put your photograph!! By god, this wasn’t what I was prepared for or what I wanted!!  That’s unfair!! But, we all are used to it—we settle down to that which we protest the most against.  And then, I understood that I had to go through this test by fire. In that case, I said, now isn’t it better that I narrate rather than describe myself. That’s something I love to do-narrate a story. And, thus the writing of the first blog post-in its idiosyncrasy, happened. 

                Now, there is only one thing I need to share with my readers, what would they get from my posts? What am I sharing with my readers? My perception of stories, Film reviews, translations, experiences, poems, songs, responses . . . like Tom Hanks in the role of Richards says ‘. . . and anything human is mentionable, anything mentionable is manageable’.

                 But, in all the confused excitement, the title had to happen--yet to happen. The academician-writer in me prompted exotic names-creaturbanability.com!! Pleisurely.com!! citibytes.com!!! I was putting all kinds of nouns, adjectives and verbs in quirky combinations, enjoying the theoretical conceptual framework reflected in the blog's name. My children, my first critics, LOLed. They told me "Amma, think inside of the box' if this is how you are going wild!" Talk of Karma catching up again!! Wasn't this exactly what I was trying to get away from?! But exploring the inner box turned out to be interesting. I realized I was looking back instead of looking ahead!! and thus 'talespin' happened. But, the blogger said, not available. But then, the bee had begun to buzz and I turned to talespindle.com. And that is me--a tale Spindler, believing in indigenous epistemology and cultural memory. Talespindle was all this put together in an 'easy on the tongue' name. 

Dear Reader, I have tried to narrate myself and what my Blogspot endeavours to do. I hope I haven't made an entirely poor attempt at it. . . and I do sincerely hope to share some interesting posts that are of interest to both of us . . . 

Do send in your comments/responses/criticisms. . . 

 Please share your comments directly with me at rekhadatta02@gmail.com or message me @rekhadatta1 on Instagram. I shall send the links to you personally. Thanks for your patience.