i keep writing a lot of stuff into my blog last count it was around 600
Though pace is down and as many FB posts arent blogged yet
(torturing many 😁in FB ) .
My published pieces have been intermittent , nothing to set the Ganges on fire !
I mean no one talks in a bus to his next passenger
"havnt we been missing this bloke Hari in the paper these days "
Since the good days of e mail one could send a missive to any rag around the world so that was no excuse .
In the late nineties I was sort of a letter to editor wino ,with more than 300 to my credit ,and when I told my name to the weirdos who read English newspapers ,it would ring a bell and they would say
"oh you are that Harimohan !" and a warm happy fist would press my heart .
I did publish a few travelogues in both Hindu and I Express .
For almost a year i was given a chance to write health articles in Hindu Metro thanks to its Editor Ms Prema Manmadhan and i still remember i was told to stick to a format of getting reactions from public and some qoutes the journalistic corner stones .
I sort of enjoyed that as it was good to tell people i knew that i wanted their inputs for an article in the Hindu and seeing my name in print was always a pleasure .
I would go through it just like a reader would suffuse with pride that thousands nay tens of thousands would be doing it at same time ! Truth was far from that as mostly it would have been missed or cursolrily passed by though some did tell me they read it .
In UAE i wasnt very succesful .
In Brunei the Borneo Bulletin a much read daily was my lucky mascot .
I wrote first on Norwegian travels and sent it forgetting about it .
On sunday morning the local shopwallah a Tamil friend told me Sir your picture in center page of paper .
I was sure it wasnt an obituary was it a look out notice !
It turned out they gave prime space for my article the two center pages of Sunday with lot of photos .
Brunei being a small country with most reading english newspapers in no time i was a local celebrity
Within a couple of months 2 to 3 more were released and there were serious doubts someone up there in BB was my uncle ! And they came in surprising sucessions ,with center page coverage and photos lavishly spread and 100$ vouchers for each too !
So much so that my cautious HOD even mentioned in this country isnt it better not to be known too much !!
It went on for a total of i think ten or more with me giving treats with the vouchers to friends and coleagues many times over .
This was the only time writing got me money ,i wrote for associations for festivals for speeches for school articles for friends whenever anyone asked .
My picture in newspapers were becoming common
I was amused at some coleagues who touched heaven when thier grained snaps attending in a conference appeared in the sixth page when I kept grinning from its main ones .
But later it dwindled .
After returning to Cochin i tried sending middles travelogues leter to editor
I was even part of a WA group of chronic writers to New Indian Express a motley crowd of some who were good ,but rest average johnnies ,but strangely more sucessful in getting thier pieces into it !
Though I wasnt obsessed in seeing my name in a mindspace article or a weekly debate ,neither did i turn green with envy , I cringed at the choices made by the Editor !
Pretty poor mostly !!
And of late I just stopped sending to newspapers since I discovered an obvious bias there specially on political topics .
So I just write spontaneously and post in FB or WA ,occasionaly in my blog and forget about it .
Of course Iam grateful to all my friends who keep giving good comments on my efforts ,and when they see me in person .
Its kind of them to do so after the long verbal tortures of my writings imposed on them .
So slowly newspaper articles and my dream of writing a novel is fading into the horizon ,but thats ok ,the pleasure of writing is still there ,and thanks to you all for that 🤩😘.
