What Did I Do?

Ten on Tuesdays

It has struck again!

But did it ever go?

The thoughts, words, fingers are all in freeze mode.  The blank page continues to stare nonchalantly. I have lost the count of ideas and drafts that have been killed in my head and on the laptop screen. Hectic work schedule, Aaryan’s holidays and the desire to spend as much time as possible with him and then the mad rush of shopping and packing bags as he had to leave for his boarding school were some of the reasons I gave to myself for this so called writer’s block, till a few days ago.

But now that the work is happening at a relaxed pace and Aaryan is back at his school and KG being busy with his work, I have all the time in the world to catch up on blogging. But did that happen? Well, NO!! The more I tried, the more I failed to write.

So, what did I do these past few days, that is apart from fretting, fuming, pulling my hair and staring blankly at the blank screen… Well…

  1. Read almost all my old blog posts. I read all the personal posts and did a time travel and smiled and shed a tear or two on the memories that surfaced from the dark recesses of the mind. I read all the 55 Fiction and Drabbles and I have written 200 of them. I had once written a 55 fiction in 10 minutes, so I thought that I might be inspired to give a repeat performance but nothing of that sort happened. And reading all the old posts filled me with self doubt and wondered how have I written 1100+ posts till now! *SIGH*
  2. Read books. Yesterday was a good day as I read 3.5 books.  I finished reading Rogue23492688 Lawyer by John Grisham, started and finished reading Short Stories with a Twist by Destination Infinity, fellow blogger and friend.  And then spent the whole afternoon smiling and laughing out loud with Varun Agarwal as he shared ‘How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded a Million Dollar Company’.  Later in the evening, Kunal Nayyar regaled me with his stories in Yes, My Accent is Real. I am happy to say that I am on target of reading 150 books this year… so far! Touch wood!
  3. Washed. Yes, I washed every piece of clothing in sight, so much so that for three days our home looked like a Dhobhi Ghaat. There were clothes all around in various stages of drying. I know, I am clearly unstable and this OCD for washing and cleanliness is growing unabated. KG wanted to give me exasperated looks but chose to calmly say, “Go slow, Shilpa, you will tire yourself”.  Aah, nearly two decades of marriage (we completed of 19 years of marital bliss tolerance, last week!) brings all this wisdom, I guess.
  4. Slept! I usually sleep for 15-20 minutes in the afternoons, but last week, I surprised myself and slept for long hours. My body needed the rest, I reasoned with myself. And then I read somewhere that people who sleep for long hours are sad. Sad?! Me?! I didn’t believe that. But then that was based on research, so I pondered over it and realized that I was/am sad! Sad since Aaryan is not around and sad/anxious that I am struggling to write… 
  5. Took silly quizzes on Facebook and got to know that I am 60% Left brain inclined and 40% right brained or that my personality type is Quirky Free-Spirit! *Rolls Eyes*
  6. Listened to songs and watched TV. I don’t (almost never) watch TV alone. bbtBut I did it last week and I realized that watching The Impractical Jokers, F.R.I.E.N.D.S and The Big Bang Theory without Aaryan is no fun. I missed our laughter together. And somehow Food and Travel Shows don’t look so interesting without KG.
  7. Tried to make sense of the political scenario in the country. Politics does not interest me at all. I made an attempt to read about the JNU row, Jat agitation etc and just gave up. Does that make me anti-national?
  8. Playing Word Games and solving puzzles on phone. I am getting nearly addicted to Lexiquo, a word puzzle and another game Blocked In is keeping me busy too.
  9. Chatted with a few friends. If I don’t see some friends around Facebook, Whatsapp for a while, I get these mild anxiety attacks. I don’t know what this is with me. I have to get in touch with them and check if all’s ok with them.
  10. Just lazed around and did nothing for long hours. And I quite liked doing that!!

This is what I did last week while struggling with writer’s block. Actually, there is no such thing as writer’s block. More about it, some other time. What did you do last week?