One boss once said, “You’re a different person on Twitter. But, when you write long-form, you get too propah. You lose your voice.” He was right. While writing essays, I was desperate to be taken seriously, not be tone-policed. So, I took the academic route. It was great while it lasted, but there’s truly no fun in that.
When I came out of that shell and started writing in what’s a more natural voice, I realised that my ideas also became less propah. I was finding fun ideas, quirky arguments that I would otherwise not have considered as serious writing at all. Take this one for Silverscreen, for instance.
Telugu Cinema, Where Were You Hiding Your Gentle Lovers All This While?
Erstwhile Ranjani would have made an academic argument about hyper-masculinity. Renewed Ranjani found meaning in musing about a tea-making lover. I must admit that thinking of writing as an extension of oneself liberated me from the shackles of what I thought was ‘acceptable’.
Who knew that Twitter me was more the real me!