Oct 09, 2007 04:43 PM
3240 Views
At some point or other in life, one has to hang up their boots, and walk away into the sunset. Be it a sportsperson or a movie actor or the CEO of a company, at one time or other, they have to say quits. The only key is when to walk away. As the popular saying goes, "Leave when people ask you why, not when they ask you why not?".
I started a long innings in Dec 2003, when I wrote my first review. 3 years, 10 months and 315 reviews later, the time has come for my marathon journey to end on MS. Its not that I have got bored of writing, no my passion for writing will never diminish till my last breath for sure. But what I have achieved here so far is only a beginning, only a first step. There is still a long way to go for me. It was a very tough decision for me to stop writing reviews out here. But it was a decision taken by me after a lot of thought and deliberation. Something which was on my mind for quite some time. For long I had been wanting to come out of here, but a couple of things stopped me, the fact that I was quite actively involved in MS, and also for the want of an alternative space. As of now due to access issues, I really cant play an active role on MS like before. The first half of the year were certainly the best days of my time in MS, and now those days are gone period.
Now comming to the second part, while MS has given me a platform to express my views and helped me to improve my writing skills, it also has been constraining in a way for me. I am a person who loves to write freely, and am passionate about it. But before that I really wanted to improve my own writing skills. And MS in that way had been really helpful for me, it helpled me to organize my writing better as also try to convey more using less words. It helped me to focus on mundane things like formatting, spacing which I would often neglect. Mind you I have never been a great writer, and even now I am just a good writer, nothing more than that. I learned from experience and suggestions by other fellow members. And as of now, I would rate myself as fairly good. Not too bad, not too excellent, I guess somewhere in between.
But over the last couple of months, I had been feeling somewhat cramped out here, somewhat suffocated. I am a person who loves to express freely, and delve deep into any topic. And that is not possible on MS out here, because of the restrictions due to word limit. Also another reason is that I am a person who never has the same thoughts on any topic. My thoughts on that topic could change in due course of time, and I would love to give a different perspective from what I had earlier, which again is not possible in MS.
Also the fact that most of the time I would not find the topic I wanted to write on, and would either have to wait for MS to approve my request or try force fitting into another topic, and then giving a disclaimer, which honestly I found quite ridiculous. All this have made me feel pretty constrained, rather than expressing myself, I had to spend more time editing and formatting, rather than thinking of the content. I really wanted to spread out, to reach out rather than just confining myself and feeling good about it.
Let me be clear I dont have any issues with the restrictions MS has. It is their site, and they have the right to do whatever they feel best. It is that somehow I never really felt I fitted in here. Or as Bruce Willis says A wrong guy in a wrong place. But then I guess most of my life I have been that a sort of maverick, a sort of rebel, some one who could never fit in anywhere, some one who was always the outsider. I dont have any issues with people who love MS, and are happy here. I dont hate MS either, its just that I wanted to move out. I guess im a bit of a free spirit, some one who lives life on his own terms. In fact its a wonder that I managed to stick with MS for 3 years and write around 300 odd reviews. But the time had now come for me to go out into my own space. And that is when I started to work on my blogspot, Sleepless in Cyberia, ( https://scorpiusmaximusindicus.blogspot.com ), where I could really express myself in the way I wanted. As of now the blog has come into a good shape, and it also shares space with two other blogs, a quizzing blog, Sleepless in Quiz Land, (https://maximusindicusquiz.blogspot.com/) and a blog on my experiences in Korea and Seoul, Sleepless in Seoul(https://scorpiusinseoul.blogspot.com/). And I am also planning to start a technical blog soon.
This blog has been like a labor of love for me, but this is just the beginning for me. For me I dont want this blog to be just a collection of some random posts. I want it to be a repository of really useful information on topics of which I have a fairly good knowledge. I want this to be a kind of place, where people say "Hey you want some good information on a topic, go to this site?". Yeah as of now, it is still a blog spot, but my dream is to convert this into a web site. A kind of informative web site, where people can get information on any topics. And thats why my blog is always open to any one who wishes to contribute. Now while it has been a good experience for me so far in MS, it is time for me to spread out. I tried to balance my blogging activities with MS, but its been a tough ask. So right now I want to focus exclusively on my own site. The foundation is in place, the plan is in place, the bricks are there, its just that I need to build it up. And so I say good bye out here to MS.
But the farewell here is only to the site called MS, not to the wonderful people I met out here. Not to my friends here, who would always remain friends forever. So please keep in mind, that while I am leaving MS, I am not leaving behind any of my friends out here. For me friends are the most precious resource, and something I hate to lose. And for your sake, I will still be dropping in the odd comment or two on your reviews, its only that my focus will be mostly on my blog and my website. And I request you to keep dropping one my blog site, and add your comments. I owe whatever success I had in MS to your inputs and feedback, and I would always welcome any suggestions from you. Just as you helped me better my skills as a writer out here, I would make a humble request to all those who have RRCed my reviews regularly, to keep visiting my blog for updates, because thats where I shall be posting most of my articles now, as also moving all my old articles there. So thanks to each and every one of you for the support you gave me, and I hope to receive the same level of support from you in future to all.
