Curd Rice Daily: Blog

I can’t believe I’m very close to actually posting 365 daily things on the blog this year. I’ve run out of juice in terms of stories to tell, and that makes me feel like Haroun’s father from Haroun and the Sea of Stories. If you haven’t read the book, it’s a book I wholeheartedly recommend you to try reading. The journey is worth it.

One of the things I’m going to miss about being at home with my parents is the freedom they’ve given me to be “at home”. I’ve actually just spent the last two months relaxing in a way I don’t think I ever had in the last four years, and I’m incredibly grateful to them for not populating this trip with scores of adventures outside. Living close to a mall and a supermarket, while being in a community with lots of walking space has meant that excursions, where felt like/needed took place with a lot of ease, and not too much thinking. It’s odd, but I think that after my first semester at University, this is going to be the semester in which I miss home to some extent. It’s given me everything I needed, even the things I thought I would not need.

Today’s been a day of organization and reflection. We’re pretty much into the final week of 2019, and all I want to be doing is setting up for the things I have planned ahead, or actually working on the things I had planned. I read a piece yesterday that was about actionables and how much productivity got curbed or sidelined by overplanning, and I think I’ve definitely been a victim of that system – rather, I’ve been gamed into thinking (sometimes with active consent) that planning things out will definitely yield better results. With creative things especially, I think I’d prefer spending time actually doing these things – for that’s where I get the most joy. Some things are best changed sooner than later. This feels like one of them.

https://genius.com/Sujata-bhatt-search-for-my-tongue-annotated

I think one of the delights of sharing content you find interesting, or discussing things you find interesting with other individuals is the amount of learning that gets done in the process. Today, someone I shared something with last week sent me a “related” article – because they remembered our discussion, which sparked joy.

Recently I’ve been wondering whether the purpose of this daily blog satisfied its intent. I started it with the notion that I’d be able to type out thoughts and share them into the void on a daily basis, but very often I found myself not being in a mood to write – or putting off uploading. More recently when I was figuring things out for myself and I wasn’t in a position to share anything, I moved along to sharing clips or media from the internet. Ultimately I realized that I wanted to keep content-sharing separate from the blog, which led to the creation of the newsletter. But in any case, the redundant posting continued. Like the 353 and 354 posts. They’re basically just twitter threads. I don’t think, looking back, that they’re “worthy” of blogpost material. Nonetheless, they are a creation I’ve typed out on a given day – an exact account of my thoughts at a particular moment in time. To that end, I think it’s fair to draw a conclusion that the blog became a log – a record of things I felt deserved to be said and memorialized on this digital platform. It stopped, however, being an expression of the craft of writing, something I was desirous and serious about pursuing. It’s probably high time it goes back to that.

Today’s a good highlight day because I’ve gotten back to things I’ve wanted to do for a week now, but refused to get around to. There’s really not much else to report.

I’ve spent the day today with my childhood best friend. I think there’s a lot of joy in our friendship – because a lot goes unsaid, but recognized, a feeling I don’t get with several people. The fact that we’ve kept in touch is a credit to both of us, and the fact that we’ve kept in touch despite diverging interests is perhaps testament to how early childhood memories are those you latch onto the most, and how much of a role they play in shaping identity.