Finale!

49 posts ago I didn’t know how to begin my journey as The Introspective Introvert.

49 posts later I don’t know how to end it either.

Today’s is the 50^th post!

Over the last 51 fortnights (I missed one a few months ago), putting out a post every fortnight has been something that has become an involuntary reflex.

When I took up running all those years ago, I conditioned my mind to start measuring distances in the amount of time it would take me to run them.

And generally found that most distances were achievable.

Something similar happened when I started writing my musings, views and reviews.

I started measuring time in a different manner.

Thus, a fortnight became just the time between two posts.

But unlike distances that remain static, I find now that the time span has increasingly started whizzing past faster and faster … where I find myself running against time just to keep my date.

Over the last couple of years …

I have written about what prompted me to stick to my fortnightly dates.

I have written about the role that music plays in my life.

I have written about the commercialization of art.

I have appreciated the uniqueness of the creative process.

I have written about an underappreciated movie.

I have written about epic scripts.

I have celebrated the 25^th anniversary of a movie.

I have lamented the erosion of sensibilities.

I have written about my meeting with a superstar.

I have shared my favourite dialogues from movies.

I have written about my decade in running.

I have paid a tribute to character actors.

I have written about management fundas – from a movie maker and studio head and from the underworld.

I have written about how and why I fell in love with advertising and the impending demise of advertising as I knew it.

I have written about traveling to an exotic location.

I have celebrated my personal rockstar and rued about the void he has left behind.

I have written about traveling back in time.

I have written about how I learnt to love dogs.

And also about what I learnt from my daughter.

I have written about politics without being political.

I have ranted about the loudness of Indians.

About the absence of road sense in Indians.

And about why certain things are the way they are in India.

I have written about a statesman in Formula 1.

I have written about the unwritten rules of celebrityhood.

I have touched upon cancel culture.

I have celebrated how simple and slow can still beat fast and furious.

I have written how customer service is now a disservice.

I have written about what it takes to respect others.

I have written about how educated illiterates and an entitled class are ruining society and societal norms.

I have played shrink and suggested ways to overcome your personal funk.

I have sought answers to some unknown knowns.

I have turned back the clock on cultural icons.

I have written about how everything is trivialized these days.

I have contextualized song lyrics with the paradox we live in.

I have asked if super-achievers owe us anything.

I have written about the cyclical nature of things.

I have tried to unravel the mindset of geniuses.

I have written about the life lessons we can get from comics.

I have written about the end of the world.

I have written an obituary to my favourite places.

I have prophesized how AI and machines will never replace humans.

I have also questioned our habit of hoarding things.

I have tried to capture the paradox of timelessness.

And I have also made (uncharacteristically for me) an announcement in my previous post.

Phew!!

If I may so myself, I am quite impressed about how much I have written.

About the range of topics I have touched upon.

(Reading the last couple of lines made me feel like how a friend so aptly described Kamala Hassan’s acting - his one hand is always patting him on his back!)

Life as The Introspective Introvert has been so much fun.

So very challenging.

So exciting.

So daunting.

And most of all so, so, so satisfying.

A half century of musings, views and reviews.

Not bad I say!

But lately, it has also become an albatross round my neck.

Not so long ago, right after publishing a post it was ‘So what do I write about next? This? Or that? Or that?’

Of late, it has turned into ‘Shit, it’s already Tuesday evening and I don’t have a topic yet to post tomorrow!’

And that has been a recurring theme over the past few months.

I can easily blame it on all that went behind the birth of my new baby and hence the lack of time.

But those would be excuses.

Fact is that I have started suffering from the imposter syndrome myself.

And it is not a good feeling to have.

The appreciation for what I write is there, and I too know that I have done a fairly decent job of my task in every post.

However, the feeling of having given the task the short shrift doesn’t leave me.

Maybe I have run the course.

Maybe I am not as imaginative or perceptive to conjure newer and newer topics to write about.

Maybe it’s the end of the line as far as the current avatar of The Introspective Introvert is concerned.

Maybe it’s time to pause.

Before I get caught and get called out.

My first post was titled Finally since what I was starting already felt like the culmination of a long struggle of getting myself to sit down and write.

This post is the Finale.

Because I am faced with new struggles of living up to the (self-imposed) standards I set for The Introspective Introvert.

And I find myself short on ideas (and to some extent time) to overcome those struggles.

To justify the 15 minutes of time I demand of you as a reader.

I don’t know when I will return.

If I return.

And if I do whether it will be as The Introspective Introvert.

Or in some new avatar.

As they say ‘never say never’.

But for now, this is it!

Before I sign off, let me just say a A BIG THANK YOU to all you dear readers. You have been my biggest motivation. In a busy, busy, busy world where time is a luxury, where each one of us is bombarded with enough and more information, news, views and content through screens of different sizes, you guys still found the time, rather made the time, to read through my ramblings. I will always cherish this motley bunch of subscribers to The Introspective Introvert.

I also cannot thank enough all those who regularly posted their comments either on the posts, or separately texted or mailed me. I would always look forward to hearing from you after every post. You guys are special.

Last but by no means the least, A MASSIVE THANK YOU to my wife for being the best in-house editor I could have asked for. She has been the first to read each post of mine - taking notes, suggesting changes, giving inputs. So, if you found my posts entertaining, insightful, and illustrative with examples, then a lot of the credit goes to her. She has also been my biggest cheerleader – relentlessly plugging and promoting The Introspective Introvert.

As Jim Carrey would say in The Truman Show, “Good morning, oh and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!”

Au revoir!

And as always, I urge you to …

Be braver. Be kinder.