A Pivot (or two)

Sundry / Substack

Some gratitude

I’ve completed nine months on Substack with FWS, and I have many things to be grateful for. Foremost – you, my reader and subscriber: thank you for coming along and faithfully hanging on for the ride. I’ve just started using Notes (it is like Twitter for Substack) and while it seems like a great community, it feels a lot like LinkedIn at times, with people being ‘humbled’ and ‘elated’ and ‘pleased’ and ‘chuffed’ to be celebrating their billions of subscribers and thousands of dollars of revenue. Every time I feel caught up in that tidal wave of counting subscribers and wondering about the reach of my writing, I come to a point where I have to firmly remind myself why I started this publication – I don’t have to look far, for the choice of name was quite deliberate. It is indescribably rewarding when I put out a post and even one of you reaches out to say that you enjoyed it. So, thank you very much for being here: for reading, commenting, and engaging with me in the ways that you have since I started FWS. It really does mean a lot, and you can (and should) expect the same quality and commitment from me in the times to come!

The second thing I must express gratitude for, even if I do say so myself, is my own tenacity in this round of things. My creative life – scratch that, my life – is scattered with multiple things I started or thought of starting with great enthusiasm, only to never begin or abandon them mid-way. It is the most human thing to do so, but knowing this does not make it any less frustrating. So I am happy to have stuck on with FWS despite the many vicissitudes of life and living since last summer. If the purpose of this publication was to ensure that I write to the best of my ability, and ‘publish’ regularly in an effort to get back to a serious writing practice (something that had eluded me in previous years), I believe that I have discharged it and set myself up for writing to become, and remain, an integral part of my life.

The pivots

#1 Breaking some old new ground

I have written some pieces on cricket as part of FWS, and have immensely enjoyed the process. Cricket for me has been that best of friends who has always been around but whose importance I am only now beginning to appreciate - that too at a time when despite its fanatic fan-following (mostly in the subcontinent), the game seems ever smaller. Growing up, all my friends were cricket fans – it was but natural to gush about events in the cricketing world and count cricketers as your heroes. These days, however, it feels like following cricket has become almost unfashionable, except in a passing way that evinces nothing more than a casual interest. Enough to demonstrate one’s worldly wisdom, but not so much as to be counted as one of the braying masses. But of course, the world around seems to say rather pointedly: it is rather parochial to be a cricket fan; it is the natural course of things to outgrow and become exhausted by cricket and concern oneself with more pressing developments in the world - or better still, champion the cause of marginalized sports (the chief of which somehow always seems to be that other eleven-player team sport that is in such a sorry state, with only ~5 billion engaged at last count). I can count the number of people in my circles with whom I can seriously discuss cricket, on half the fingers of one hand.

Against this backdrop, feeling like I would like to add to the cricketing discourse and finding that I occasionally have enough of something to say that I want to write it down and put it out there, I felt that the time was ripe to create, build and nurture a space dedicated to writing on cricket. And so, I am ‘humbled’, ‘elated’, ‘pleased’, ‘chuffed’ and downright excited to present to you my second Substack publication: Silly Point.

So Pivot#1 is that, effective immediately, all my future cricket writing will be moving from FWS to Silly Point, which I hope will become a home for fine, reasonably regular multi-form writing on cricket, and will attract seasoned and new fans of the game alike. A short introductory post will be out later today, and the first full post should be out later this month. If it sounds like your cup of tea, do hit subscribe! But equally, do spread the word to cricket fans you know – and I am sure you know at least a few: siblings and parents and friends and cousins and uncles and aunts who, like me, are and always will be perennial fans of this wonderful sport.

#2 Some cosmetic changes

I have had great fun at FWS, writing all kinds of pieces cutting across numerous subjects. But I’ve found the self-imposed commitment to post on the 1^st or 15^th (or both) of the month a little stifling. This was part of some initial ground rules aimed at ensuring discipline from my end, and predictability at the reader’s end. However, I now feel confident that I have established my bona fides to myself, and also that you would not particularly mind a change in the timing of the posts. And so, Pivot #2 is that, effective immediately, I am lifting the above rule – instead of the 1^st / 15^th, I will look to publish my posts around weekends, with a view to catching you on some well-deserved downtime, and in the hope that FWS can become part of your lazy weekend reading.

I will soon make the consequential changes on the About page. Along with this, I will also look to undertake a quick ‘brand refresh’ of FWS to add some more colour and character – inspired to do so by my poking around while setting up Silly Point.

Other than the above, For Writing’s Sake will remain as it was – pieces on culture, travel, sport (except for cricket) and a freewheeling sundry, with a minimum of one and maximum of two posts per month.

Thank you for remaining subscribed – hope to see you, or you and people you know, at both FWS and Silly Point!