Tuesday 11 May 2010

A BLOG POST RECONNECTS


It is all baby Samyukta’s fault.

Cuddling and  cooing with her was my main occupation in the six months I was with her, and I developed an inertia and indifference  towards everything else.  We returned two months ago, leaving her, and I found that the inertia persisted. I looked at my blog post and found my last posting was in October last year.

Not that anyone cares, I think, least of all me. And I had almost decided to stop blogging once and for all, like I did once before.  But something happened which revealed that blogging, apart from a good  exercise on the keyboard for arthritic fingers, and pandering to my own vanity, has a genuine worth.

A couple of weeks ago my chat box on g mail popped out to show a guest on line – the chat box when accessed through the blog does not reveal the identity of the guest, but just cryptically says ‘guest’, with the dire warning “You are talking to an unidentified person, be careful what you say” or some thing very like it.  I almost feel that it is like “Big Brother is watching”. The guest said “I was born in the house you lived in.” And I was nonplussed. To my knowledge the only person who was born in this house in Chennai where I live is my niece Swati, and she and I are well aware of that fact. At a loss, I decided to prod, and got some extremely interesting and satisfying answers.


The guest, Tara, was born when her parents had lived in the same house that we had in Pondicherry. (See above). Her father had been my father’s immediate predecessor in the same government post, and so had lived there. Tara said she had seen my post on Pondicherry and had been quite excited. Though she did not remember much of her Pondicherry days, she said, her older sister Hema did, and her memories were quite like my own, including our school days. She asked for my phone number, and told me that Hema, who lived in the US, would contact me  in ten minutes .

And she did. We spoke for a long while. I could sense the excitement in her as she remembered her time in Pondicherry and I was happy to share the memories of our school and friends there. There is nothing quite like going back to a shared childhood, even if, as in this case, the days did not coincide. We talked about the house, and its live-in ghost, which fortunately  neither of us had seen. And how we found the house and its surroundings so changed from the time we lived there. When I told my mother about this chat, she clearly remembered the family.

And so after fifty years, and thousands of miles apart, a little blog post brought together two total strangers with a bit of common history.

And that makes it all worthwhile.

To quote the Terminator, I will be back!





11 comments:

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Long time no see, nice to see you're still blogging. Loved the write, such a pleasure to read.

Have a lovely day.

Yvonne.

Sunita Mohan said...

And we'll be waiting, Raji :)
Contrary to your expectations, your posts are missed very much. I've been watching the position of your blog on my blogroll very glumly because it has stubbornly remained at the bottom of the list (the ones with the most recent posts find their way to the top automatically). I'm glad that you're at the top of the list again.
That must've been exciting to find a bond where you least expected it. Good for you. Now don't ever think of putting an end to your blogging days. Just think, a few years from now, Samyukta will be reading it too!

Dhivya Dharsanam said...

Nice to see u back Mrs. Raji.

Waiting for more.

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Wonderful to have you back blogging. Thanks for your kind words on my blog. You had taken a long hiatus from this. Also wonderful to hear that through blogging you were able to connect with some nice people who lived in the same house! Interesting to hear about a live-in Ghost that you had never seen but that would have made another interesting story! Looking forward to more posts from you.

Kamini said...

What a terrific story! People like the curse the internet, its all-pervasive intrusiveness, but when things like this happen, you have to admit it can be a great blessing too!
And now you can no longer blame little Samyukta for not writing. Am looking forward to more posts from you!

Alaphia Zoyab said...

Wonderful!! I'm a blog evangelist so I would've been disappointed if you'd stopped blogging.

janani said...

Nice to have you back! :-) I don't comment hear a lot, but I love reading your blogs as they are very different from the ones I usually read. Hope that you now feel more inspired towards blogging!

RAJI MUTHUKRISHNAN said...

Yvonne, thank you so much for the warm words.

Sunita, You made me feel good, and even virtuous, that I had finally posted something.And Samyukta reading my posts is something to look forward to.

Thank you , Saravanan.

Captain, so kind of you. It is true that sometimes strange things have happened most unexpectedly

RAJI MUTHUKRISHNAN said...

Kamini, I agree. The internet is wonderful for communication - and even for some unlikely tales like this!

Alaphia :)

Janani I felt nice after reading your comment - thanks

Kamini said...

That was really fun to read! I am addicted to blogging.....my problem is I cannot stop!

kallu said...

Good!