Writing an essay at the crack of dawn was never my cup of tea. I’m more of a coffee person. When the need to start putting together the various influencing thoughts, synthesize and form a coherent idea became unputdownable I had no choice. So I began this writing therapy.
A simple example of an overflowing cup became a vivid metaphor for the knowledge acquisition phase of my life. The idea was that until the cup was overflowing the cup will be needy and when it’s full it starts sharing. This suited my acquisition phase- I devoured books without any sense of preference. It was just a function of availability. First it was the classics- an abridged 80 page Pre-digested version of 19th century English literature classics that I found in my school library that nobody pulled out. From the Robinson Crusoe to the Three Musketeers it was the fast clip that I loved. Fiction was equally fascinating as were the oped pieces in The Hindu and the direct report on the Falkland war as it rolled out in the early 80s.
The lack of any form of global knowledge base made this an exciting pursuit and soon words became the money of my childhood. I read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica one summer. Around this time a ‘General ‘knowledge’ exam galvanised my acquisition spree and soon capitals, currencies and historic dates were all on my fingertips- leading to a silver medal at the national level. Imagine being told what you love is the best thing to do. An alignment of desire and universal acceptance- the foundation of every nerd. I was Raj in the Big Bang Theory.
The cup tipped over when the hormones hit. Suddenly I was taller than my father, constantly knocking down things around the house not knowing most things were very much in my reach now. The cup was empty once again as the doors of adulthood opened just a sliver. I wanted to know what was on the other side and a new kind of books and magazines became my new pursuit. Life -an users manual should’ve been the only book I was looking for. But from philosophers to gurus to pulp fiction everything was telling the same story from different angles and I wanted to try every angle. The more I dug the deeper I got. But as schooled transitioned to college the events in real life soon overtook what any writer could picture for me. Slowly but surely the pursuit changed course.
And then the internet happened. I was now a working class hero doing the 9 to 9 clocking away time for money when the early internet disciplines started emerging. From web designer to information architect to usability engineer all kinds of exciting things were appearing over the horizon and suddenly the cup sat in front of me empty like it was when I first saw it. It was now one website to another, article hopping across cyberspace as it was called in the early days. The eCup as it should’ve been called was quite different- it came with cookies and browser plug-ins and seemingly bottomless. And this time my knowledge acquisition was directly related to monetary growth. The more I read and bookmarked the faster I was advancing in my career as I arbitrated the knowledge gap. Every presentation I made included nuggets that everybody should’ve known given it was free and available but invariably nobody in the room knew.
It was around this time the cup should’ve started spilling over. It didn’t. As social media and mobile apps proliferated I was going niche like everybody else. But the pressure started mounting slowly inside. Seeing the ubiquitous sharing (including a Salem to Himachal road trip vlog by a …truck driver) I withdrew. But David Perell wouldn’t let me be. He kept the mind voice engaged and pushed me to write something. Not for others but for my own clarity. And that was a clincher.
If I kept writing and editing-which I finally understood is the only way writing or for that matter any real work gets done (first time right is a dangerous myth but that’s for another day)- I would be able to organise my thoughts and start to articulate better. Like my slowly improving running practice- I do 9km/hour currently- I’m gonna be writing everyday and watch it improve.
That’s the intent. The topics will be random, the articles spontaneous but I hope to become relevant soon enough to start sharing. Good luck to me.
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