Hmm, its time to write about travel, food and adventure, so I open the indispire to check it out, but honey the fare is different. The week has gone by while I have been weak excuses. Arvind Passey wants to know why ten or less entries for indispire topics but hundreds for a contest… does it reflect about the state of blogging in India.
“indispire!” an apparition of Mary Kutty who taught me English in second standard appears,”How challenging is it to spell in-despire right.” The apparition inquires.
“indispire” I voiced firmly but with the newly acquired skill of politeness.
“where did you hear it,” Mary Kutty questions
“well it is the title of a weekly activity at indiblogger where bloggers throw up questions to which other bloggers respond.”
“A prompt”
“common sense says that no one is in despair. Logic says indiblogger incites to muse… ” the apparition observed “truly said, common sense is a rare sense” declared before evaporating.
The prompt, works a seed from which each of us feed our ideas, energy and the resultant thought and ideology is out there. The prompt now takes the persona of a Muse. Each Friday we sit down, read the prompt and beign doing our work concentrating the powers around us. the Muse takes note of our dedication and she approves, we have earned her favour in her sight. As we sit down and work we become like a magnetized road that attracts iron filing. Ideas and insights occur. The process of musing addresses the need in us to be in touch with a mysterious tantalizing source of inspiration that teases our sense of wonder and goads us on to another level of adventure in thought journey. But interestingly muse is not an artistic mystery, it is an mathematical equation. the gift are the ideas, insights that come to us as we drift to sleep.
While a contest is a struggle for superiority. It is a competition in which no contestant performs without direct contact with or interference from competitors. This comes from a deep need to win at whatever we do and perhaps an even stronger need to avoid losing or even appear to be losing. The winner effect is a term in biology to describe how an animal that has won a few fights against weak opponent is more likely to win bouts against stronger contenders, this applies to human too.
A contest is about winning over others and winning is about self validation. Winning is about declaring your supremacy over a group. Winning is about being alpha.
As to why contest draw more participants as opposed to indispire, is because we all see a different reality and we make decisions based on what we see. Each of us work at protecting our interesting in the best way we can.
The world is commonly viewed as a place where someone must lose for someone to win. Moreover a competition comes with a tangible, visible trophy that declares us better than others. It is trophy that puts us as the alpha of the tribe that makes a contest more enticing than a musing which calls for deep introspection. Introspection at times compels us to face unpleasant truths and insights while the adulation of a trophy is definitely more pleasant.
Forget about reflecting the state of blogging in India, look at the television reality shows we all pretend to be alfa–it reflects the mindset of Indians in general.
penned for indispire #251
Cantadora - The keeper of stories. 
This attitude reflects the mindset of Indians… now this could be difficult to agree to though your analysis isn’t wrong. Will you recommend that even indispire must have an ongoing program of incentives added?
No, not at all indispire inspires a personal journey. It is wonderful to deal with writer’s block.
Your last sentence is up for argument actually. Though your opnion of less introspection becoming a norm when compared to winning competetions is a very good observation,
😀guess 30yrs.of medical practice makes me cynical.