A fair amount of people have asked me to blog but the idea never appealed to me. Blogging would mean a kind of commitment to writing, a slow-grown habit of expression and a certain vulnerability to the big wide world. I wasn’t ready for any of it. Despite that I did try to blog, a few times and with varied degrees of success (success being able to achieve the first two of the three and being vaccinated against the third). And frankly, the thought slipped my mind since I didn’t attach any importance to it then; it was forgotten (for a few years) until a friend brought it up again.
Now, my attitude towards the issue has changed. I still maintain that it requires commitment and I feel that through years of not pursuing that thread, has lead me to level of saturation where the idea seems less daunting and more engaging. My initial sheltered notions about it have waned and paved way to a level of openness, which gave me the impetus to blog. The main reason is my marked shift of interest towards non-fiction. I find myself at a phase where I’m disillusioned with fiction, which formed the base for my reading for several years of my childhood and adolescence. I still read and enjoy many novels but I increasingly note my drift towards books on real issues as compared to the ones I fervently read earlier (any and all sort of fiction). Subsequently, I feel more knowledgeable of the world in general and in want of dialogue and audience in particular. Thus, convincing myself of the need for it, I take on this venture.
Thinking all this took time but actually doing it took considerable effort. I struggled to think of a name for the blog. I went through a number of self-suggestions. Each time getting disappointed– what I thought of as a nice name or a clever name was already thought of and the domain taken. This iterated for some time and frustration got the better of me. I turned to music, where I found a satisfactory solution. Moonage Daydream by David Bowie is one of my all-time favorite rock songs. (Here also I struggled because the many related domains where taken.) Bowie ends the song by saying, Freak Out, Far Out, In Out. The last two phrases, they seemed interesting. My version of their meaning: Far Out–reach the farthest horizons; In Out–know yourself well. With those two edicts comes, Far Out, In Out.
Edit: the blog is renamed to my name now. I found my love for fiction again. So I have the best of both worlds now – without being disillusioned with either. – Suma May, 2021
Suma Mandalapu 