I was thinking of planning a new blog. A long way back when this blog was started, I had no distinct vision for it. With all due respect to the three years younger Aniket, he was probably too immature and nascent to think about things like ‘distinct vision’ and stuff. So this blog started. As my thoughts found an outlet, they flew in more and more freely and found their place on this blog. All kinds of thoughts and observations (from personal interests like music and athletics to philosophy to social commentary) made their way here. In between were a few works of fiction, too.

Some time back, there started coming some creative literary ideas in my head. And this blog started acquiring a literary shape. Soon I began to notice a certain reluctance in myself in writing random/ general/ non-literary posts, as it might destroy the specific ‘literary’ character of my blog.

I finally decided that it wasn’t good to stub out my thoughts and not take up non-literary themes. Also, that the majority of posts have been literary in nature and that this newly acquired character should be preserved. So, there should  be a separate blog for non-literary, personal kind of posts.

Quite a few questions arose after I decided to create another post. Okay, the literary works will be here on this blog. What about the past non-literary works? I decided to shift them to the new blog, too.

“What about the comments, then?”  “Okay, even they will be shifted.”

“Wait, this doesn’t seem right!” “Hell, not all things are supposed to be right, Okay!”

But then there were practical issues. People might have bookmarked, or at least identified some of the posts, and might want to visit them again. This partition ends that possibility, however remote it may be. Also, the blog records would be disturbed. Finally I thought I’d keep the older posts where they were and start posting personal posts on a different blog.

Now, what separates a personal post from a literary post? Are my travelogues literary? Of course. Are they not personal? Like hell they are. What about some of the philosophy? It makes for some good literary reading (by my standards), but is also intensely personal. What about the stories? Even they are written from personal experiences, and express personal angst.

“Is it really possible to tell where ‘personal’ ends and ‘literary’ begins? Can I really draw a line here?”

An island was inhabited by aborigines. They weren’t much advanced, and took life as it came. Soon, colonisers came and occupied the island. They brought with them their religion, their culture and their science. As others from their original place found that here was a place of opportunity, they started coming in droves. Soon the immigrants outnumbered the aborigines. Their leaders now started oppressing the aborigines. They told them that the island had a distinct culture, and that they, the aborigines did not fit into it. Therefore they had to leave, or they would be driven out.

In another such island, the aborigines were stronger. They were still in majority in certain areas. They successfully demanded a separate country from themselves.

But the differences between the communities hadn’t been as clear cut. The aborigines and the colonisers had come in contact, and adapted from each others’ ways. Many rituals and cultural traits were common. Some people had intermarried and had mixed kids. These kids had traits common to both aborigines and immigrants and if was impossible to tell which was which.

It was, therefore, impossible to partition one community completely from the other. Such a partition could never have the exactness of a surgical operation. Surgical operations can never be performed on two intertwined creepers. Such creepers, if separated, are bound to bleed for a long, long time. The wounds can often get septic, and become incurable diseases.

Just like Kashmir has become for India and Pakistan. And it is paining like hell these days. Even harder is the pain of the Kashmiri Pandits, who were driven out of their homeland despite being one with the majority Muslim population, just because some people thought that they didn’t fit in the overall character of the valley.

I’ve decided that my blog will stay as it is. And I wish certain other decisions were up to me.