Blog? What bl...ooh is that a squirrel? I'm hungry!

“Arre don’t worry! You’ll come up with something eventually…stop trying to write under the pressure of a deadline!”

That, by the way, is one of my friend’s many attempts at convincing me that the writer’s block of sorts I’m experiencing right now is nothing to worry about, and that I’ll be back at my literal best as soon as I clear my mind and stop consciously searching for a topic. Easier said than done, though.

Twenty minutes, by the watch. THAT’S how long I’ve been staring at this blank word document waiting for the rusted cogs of my mind to start turning once again…for a brilliant topic to suddenly pop into my head…for a finished, and preferably well written, article to appear in front of me. On second thoughts, if at all I was to get anything, Aladdin’s magic lamp would be good. *Mental note to God: hint hint!*

On my left, my 5-year-old neighbour is tracing my hand onto a paper. On the right, her sister and my sister are having a screaming match. My phone keeps beeping every 5 minutes with a new text for me to read, while notifications on Facebook come with an even higher frequency. I think I’m beginning to see the problem…it isn’t exactly the ideal situation for inspiration to strike, is it?

Come to think of it, isn’t this exactly the reason for lot of other things never happening as well? Distraction?

Sitting in class, we may be physically present but absorb only 25% of what’s being taught. Distracted by that friend who just passed us a note, or the one jumping up and down right outside the door trying to catch our eye, or even the one doing a sort of mad jig because a spider just dropped into her lap. Why, it doesn’t even have to be a person! Even a simple colony of ants marching up the wall or squirrel searching for food is enough to whisk us away from that boring lesson on stoichiometry.

Ever tried cleaning your room? For me it’s always remained just that: a try. Open the cupboard, and I’d invariably find that favourite shirt of mine that I haven’t worn for ages. The study table, also in on the conspiracy to keep my room dirty, would somehow manage to make me find those class 10 worksheets and throw me into another one of those i-wanna-go-back-to-10th-NOW phases. In which case, of course, I would just HAVE to call up Ishir and revisit those amazing memories of that amazing class. If, by chance, after that hour of laughing at the stupid things we had once done, I somehow remember the room I still had to clean, the next area in line would probably be the shelf below the window. That’s when my hands would fall on that blue stuffed dog that I used to play with as a kid; and how could I waste this perfect opportunity to take a trip down memory lane with my mom? The room? Completely forgotten.

It’s evil really, this distraction business. Gets you into trouble ALL. THE TIME. Sit down to do your homework…but wait! Isn’t it time for How I Met Your Mother to start? Or go till the market to get mom’s medicine…ohmygod is that a butterfly?! Let’s follow it around instead! Though you can’t blame me for that one…it was this really pretty royal blue one with green and red patterns woven into it. Reminded me of peacocks in fact. Speaking of which, I better go and stop my sister before she rips off that peacock feather off my wall hanging! It’s really special to me, that wall hanging. My best friend made it for me on my birthday.

Oh wait, didn’t I have a blog to write?