![]() The Law Of Mutuality Extended: Like For A Like Or Read For A Read…!A Story by Chinmay Chakravarty![]() My delicious dilemma..!![]() Why should I go on
writing? This question has been haunting me for quite some time, and this led
to an unintentional break in the first week of this month when, in a very
unprofessional way, I left the phrase ‘Budget Tomorrow!’ in my last post in January
unexplored and unwritten! Well, I am a humble being and never daydreamed about
becoming a great writer what they call ‘bestselling’ and all that. Indeed, I
had written quite a few ‘solicited’ articles/papers in both English and Assamese
newspapers/periodicals over the decades. However, I discovered that in such ‘ventures’
the merit part gets thrown out of the window and only influences/contacts/references
matter. Therefore, I had not been a great success in that line. As a writer you
send something to a publication in high spirit and hope, thinking that your
item had some merit thanks to opinions of a few of your learned friends, for at
least a response, but eventually when it sinks in a bottomless well with not
even a rejection letter you feel disillusioned. And as an inevitable
consequence in my case, I opened this blog and started writing and publishing on
whatever I wanted and loved. Now, the question mentioned above becomes rather
an existential crisis as it concerns this platform too. A writer is as normal a
social animal as any other social animals inhabiting this planet. If s/he does
something or writes something or sings a song or paints a picture or comment
upon something a minimum of feedback or response is naturally expected by her/him.
Like in my case, I’ve been writing on my site for nearly 14 years, quite
regularly; but I hardly ever came across any feedback from my ‘readers’ which
raised doubts in my mind about the nature of the ‘readers’. Are they genuine
readers or casual surfers or just bots? I don’t know. I get a good number of
hits daily, but no responses, forget about appreciation or interaction. Even known
genuine friends or kin, barring of course a few sincere ones, just don’t bother
to take even a look. Only for a brief period, years back, we constituted a group
of like-minded bloggers/writers and made kind of a ‘deal’ to read and comment
upon each other’s blogs. So, for a few months there had been a flurry of mutual
commenting and appreciating. That kind of a ‘deal’
brings us to the subject-matter of this piece: the Law of Mutuality. As explained
in an earlier piece this law of mutuality used to influence only relationships;
but now, this affects everything possible on planet earth: from the abysmally
growing social media to all forums or groups or anything online. Recently we discussed with a few musical
buddies about the fact that the class of ‘innocent listeners’ has been gravely
threatened by the mushrooming growth of ‘singers’ with almost everyone turning
into a singer thanks to the social media and other platforms. Unfortunately,
the same syndrome is appearing in the field of writing, perhaps any creative
field for that matter, too, with almost all ‘innocent readers’ converting
themselves into ‘writers/authors’ thanks, again, to the social media and also the
mushrooming growth of self-publishing platforms. This has been an emerging conflict
of providers vs receivers. So then, it just
amounts to the most needed action on your part: you must be hyperactive on the
social media and other similar digital forums, donating away as many likes as
possible on your friends’ creative works to generate some likes for you too. In
both cases, however, it doesn’t really matter if you really go through the works
in full. Most regrettably, in most of the writers’ forums too you must
manufacture as many comments/reviews as possible on the writings of others to generate
some comments/reviews for your items. To make it worse for a starter, the most
successfully interactive stalwarts don’t even bother about your friend requests,
and anyone would definitely like to expand one’s network after joining a
platform. If you lie low, your works would die down slowly, finally forcing you
to leave the site, utterly disappointed. Honestly speaking, I don’t
have the time to indulge in such digital exercises to create some artificial interest
in my writings, even after I retired from my service two years back with the firm
resolve to become a full-time writer. I devote my available time to thinking,
writing, marketing-shopping for the household, kitchen help, some news viewing
and limited socializing. That leaves me with no time to embark on a spree of
mindless liking and commenting/reviewing on writings that I really like or not.
So, I’ve indeed emerged as loser in this ‘digital race for attention’. I published
my first book on humor while in service and then the second book in the same
genre after retirement, and one of these books has already sunk in the bottomless
well with the other steadily marching in the same direction. But of course, genuine
listeners or readers still exist in large numbers. Although the traditional
book-reading or buying albums has declined the new generations have been doing
reading-watching on mobile/tab/computer screens. As is very natural, they go for
the works of the established ‘bestselling celebrities’ rather than turning any
attention to less-than-mediocre cum digital-offenders like this writer. They are
right. And I’m not complaining or bursting out in frustration either. This is
the way modern times move, and it’d not change even if you are honestly unaware
if you were a mediocre or poor or merit-less writer, because even you closest
friends won’t tell you if your work is good or bad. The way out for you is go
on a paying spree: pay for the self-publishing firms; pay for publicity; pay
the emerging class of reviewers; pay for awards, in most cases; pay for participating
in book fairs; and so. Even then you cannot be assured of attention unless you
do indulge yourself fully in the ‘like for a like or read for a read’ competition. I do, indeed, the most
basic parts. Like after I publish something in my site, I share it on the very limited
platforms that I still stick to for sheer survival, and the I do get the
expected ‘views’, but no responses as usual. At times, I also share it in my
friends’ groups; but, again, hardly any comments apart from some views that I can
gather from my stats. Therefore, all these ‘issues’
have contributed to the emergence of the question raised at the outset. My prolonged
introspection on this tells me that I cannot possibly quit my writing as it’s
been my passion since childhood days. It may get sparse or even rare, but I’ll
go on. My argument also remains: I’m still giving you funny, thought-provoking,
sports-related, political etc. pieces on a regular basis, totally free of cost.
If you still prefer to not read or respond, it’s your problem, not mine. Right?
Anyway, I’m sure this this piece too won’t evoke any response! © 2022 Chinmay ChakravartyAuthor's Note
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Added on February 8, 2022 Last Updated on February 8, 2022 Tags: Writing, Book-Reading, Social Media, Forums, Blogs Author![]() Chinmay ChakravartyMumbai, Western , IndiaAboutHailing from a writers’ family in Assam, Chinmay Chakravarty has been writing since his school days. A post-graduate from the Delhi School of Economics, he started his career as a freelance jour.. more..Writing
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