A Writer's Block...

The good old cursor

I sit in my room staring at the blank white space of MSWord and the blinking cursor waiting for me to start typing so that it can race all across the screen. Its only purpose in life it seems is to race from one end of the page to the other leaving behind a slew of letters and words. A noble profession I might add considering how the lives and careers of writers and journalists around the world depend upon this blinking black line.

You might be wondering at this point, where exactly I am going here. Well the simple answer to that is nowhere. I have been struck by the one disease writers fear the most; Writer’s Block. It is a condition, in which a writer loses the ability to produce new work.

This is how my mind must look like now.

Ever since the World Cup concluded I have been thinking of something good to write about but have yet to find anything. I have tried my usual methods of thinking, i.e., staring outside the window, looking at the clouds and the sky, drinking coffee, listening to classical music, taking long showers and day dreaming, but to no avail. My mind it seems has just gone blank.

I've not gone mad, far from it. When it comes to talking or chatting with friends, I come up with hundreds of things to talk and discuss about. But the moment I sit down to write, my mind goes blank. It is as if there is a wall isolating the part of my mind that is necessary for writing from the rest. Try as I might I cannot break or scale this wall, it’s just too high and impenetrable.

In a funny way this wall reminds me of the advertisement for Ambhuja Cement. It is the one where two families try to break the wall separating them using all the means in hand including a stick of dynamite. When nothing works a voice in the background says, “Tutega kaise, Ambhuja Cementse jo bana hai”. It is the same voice I hear every time I try breaking the wall in my mind. This block is making me crazy!

On a serious note though, as I write this piece, I cannot help but wonder, ‘What if this thing happens to me when I’m in a job?’ The answer though quite simple is very scary. I better get myself out of this misery soon!