Almost everyone who writes has had the experience at one time or other of forgetting some wonderful topic they had in mind. Right? I am no different. In fact I am a regular at it having over time morphed from Miss Remember Everything That Has To Be Remembered By Merely Deciding to Remember to Miss Someone Who For The Life of Her Cannot Remember What It Had Been She Was Thinking Just A While Ago. Umm.. well.. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but still it is bad enough, especially when one is a blogger, have signed up for NaBloPoMo and have topics brewing inside one’s head for the same.

What’s annoying about the whole thing as far as I am concerned is that one moment all would be crystal clear in my mind. The next thing I know either the okra on the stove which needs a bit of stirring, the doorbell, or a chirping bird, take your pick, will have intruded and in a split second have upset the brewing cauldron. When I return to check there is nothing left, all of it having mysteriously evaporated into thin air as it were. This is certainly a change from a few years back when I used to proudly declare how I wrote blogs in my head while doing work around the house, and only sat down to type them out at my convenience. It does not happen that way any more. Sigh. Those were the days.

It is tough when you turn from someone with excellent memory to someone who is so forgetful that she even forgets what she had been talking about while in mid-sentence. No kidding. It happens a lot to me and I can tell you it is pretty embarrassing. The first time it happened you would have been forgiven for thinking I was a beetroot in human form, so red had I turned. I apologized profusely to the person I was talking to and admitted my inability to recall what I had been telling her about at that very moment. She was very nice and understanding about the whole thing. It happens, she consoled me, don’t worry. Well, that’s easy to say, not so easy when you are the one forgetting. It was sheer panic that first time. By and by though I have learnt to accept it as an unavoidable part of my life.

I needed ‘crutches’ in the form of notes to help me. So I downloaded an app for jotting down important stuff, on my smart phone, and have been using it off and on, whenever I remember that is. But I was not about to take any chances with NaBloPoMo in the offing. So I kept the phone close to me (for a change) at all times instead of leaving it upstairs in the bedroom, and in between chores, whenever an idea struck I quickly punched them in as points in a note.

All cool, right? I only had to open the app, read points, be reminded, and start writing. Wrong, my dears. It only looks good in theory. In practice what happens is I stare at the list like the one above and wonder what the points mean. What was I thinking when I wrote it down? People as audience to clap? What the hell is that about?! One needs clowns, it says. Really? i don’t even like clowns. Who were those people who contradicted me for no reason? Ha, like really? I’d like to meet them again.

This is all so confusing and annoying. I am sure it will come back to me in time, as it has in the past. But I don’t have time to play games, pretend to be patient and least bit interested in having them back. So for now I will have to look for answers which will give me quicker results. I have concluded that what I need to do on an urgent basis is make a list about the list, or a list with points fully elaborated so as to be clear at a glance. Or may be I should simply sit down and write when the idea strikes. Yes, the last. definitely, the last.

©Shail Mohan 2015