You know the feeling when you’ve been gone a long, long time and you suddenly come back into the same company you left behind, waving enthusiastically at people, like you never left them in the first place? That feeling of unsurety, the sense of a chasm of social awkwardness between you and them? Do you know that feeling when a known face looks at you like you’re a stranger?

I feel that way right now – with you, with the blog. I have been so long gone from WP (even when I have briefly poked my head out of my self-made rabbit hole) that I feel like I have forgotten how to be a blogger!

I’ve been struggling since morning on how to write this blogpost, what to include, what not to, when I finally decided – lemme just be honest. Honesty’s the best policy, right? Right!

So, dear readers, I have been gone for some time and I assure you there are good reasons for it – life, writing, life, eyes, home, life…. And I’m sure some of you must think, ‘Where has this girl disappeared to? She isn’t even responding to comments.’ And you wouldn’t be wrong in assuming that I have given up on blogging because… I sort of have!

Over these past few months, I’ve realised that being a commercial blogger is not my thing. Even being a regular, home-based blogger, is not my thing. I’ve been feeling in my bones that I’m lagging behind on the writing that I really wanted to do and have instead poked my fingers into pies that I don’t need to eat.

So, that’s one reason why I’ve cut back on blogging – because I’ve decided now only to blog about things I feel strongly about or else just devote my time to book writing. The idea is – my blog should reflect what I am (since its called The Pradita Chronicles) and not be cluttered by ‘filler’ blogposts. 

Sadly, that means that you’ll see a lot less of my published work on WP from now on, though I won’t pull the shutter down on my blog… never intend to do that anyway. I’m always queasy about leaving this world and the friends I’ve made here behind.

Though happily, that means that whatever I do write, will be something solid. It will either be a story, poetry, writing advice/discussions, personal/political opinion pieces, reviews or zilch. That is there won’t be anything else apart from what really motivates me. It’s either going to be something good or nothing at all that week.

The rest of the time I’ll be away, banging my finger-tips on my laptop keys (or my head) over this project (there will be more on that much later) that I hope, I really, really hope, I shall have finished by the end of this year.

The second reason why I haven’t been blogging is that for the past month or so my eyes have been giving me trouble. After being bogged down by dry, itchy, heavy eyes and a throbbing headache that wouldn’t allow me to read or write in any way, I finally hauled myself to an Ophthalmologist who told me I could have Iron deficiency which could be causing eye-dryness. After running a few tests, it was confirmed that I was anaemic… and how! So not only am I not in the mood for writing something apart from what I want to write about, my eyes won’t let me write anyway. Staring at a screen or looking down at a book for over fifteen minutes gives me a nasty ache behind my eyeballs and if I overdo it, I get a lousy headache to boot. Bottomline, I haven’t been able to write at all for the past one week. And I’m miserable about it!

For the same reasons, though I have been posting off and on, on my Instagram account (if you don’t yet follow TPC’s Instagram account, click here. Content posted there is not always posted here on the blog), my Instagram activity has reduced as well.

At the same time, I do realise that my health is equally important. TBH, this anaemia thing has scared me. I have always been slightly anaemic but never to the extent that it’s caused dizzying spells, like this time. One morning I woke up to the world crazily spinning around me for a good ten minutes and I knew then that I was well and truly f*@#&%! Blame it on no exercise and lots of carbs. Or more like blame it on my love for lazying and munching.

To sum it up, TPC will now be publishing content that truly matters to me and I’m hoping that you will like the content that I publish hereafter. I realise that it may mean a lesser number of visitors and followers, but I’m willing to make that sacrifice in the name of quality writing.

To stick to my resolve, I am setting up a schedule of sorts for myself –

Friday Evenings!

That’s right, every Friday evening TPC will publish a post, at seven or thereabouts.

I may or may not write on the other days, but on Fridays (unless an emergency prevents me therefrom), you shall have a notification of a publication from yours truly.

So now that you know why I have been MIA, let me give your sore eyes (from reading all my blabber) some relief.

These pictures are from a short trip I took yesterday to a place near Pune. Tamhini Ghat is a water catchment area abutting Mulshi Dam, which supplies water and power to Pune and its nearby areas. In the monsoons, the area becomes an inviting place replete with lush greenery and milky, seasonal waterfalls. If you go on weekdays (like we did) you won’t find the typical maddening weekend rush. Cosy eating joints dot the entire way to the ghats and you can even find plush resorts for an overnight stay, though we didn’t intend to stay that long. We went only for a day trip on the pretext of my birthday.

These pictures are all unedited, untouched. You’re getting the real deal here without the fancy Photoshopping 😉

 

Abandoned house near Palse Falls. © Pradita Kapahi

 

 

 

 

I sincerely thank you for sticking with TPC this long and for still reading my content even though I haven’t been regular with writing or reading your blogposts. I hope that this change goes down well and that I’ll still have the privilege of claiming your readership.

Have a Happy Weekend!

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Copyright ©2018 Pradita Kapahi.

All rights reserved.

Image Source: Pradita Kapahi