Why I decided to blog

Why a blog?

This, apparently, is the first question you are supposed to answer when you start a blog. There might be a shorter way of answering this question, but I thought I should tell you all a story first.

About a week ago, I was being thoroughly productive and scrolling through Instagram. On my Explore page, I came across a woman’s reels that I found quite funny. I clicked on her page to check out more of her reels. In her bio was a flag – a white flag with a red cross, like a ‘plus’ sign, on it.

Now, for all those who know which flag this is without having to google it: Sheldon called; he wants his Fun with Flags copyright back. For those of you who don’t know which flag this is: welcome to my world.

I guess this is a good time to mention that it was 12:45 am and my brain, for the most part, was asleep. So, by the time I got to my Google search bar, I had forgotten which way the red lines went. I typed, ‘white flag with red diagonal stripes.’ Apparently, the St. Patrick’s Saltire has red diagonals. Before I could think about googling what a Saltire is, I fell asleep.

The next day, I woke up and decided to continue searching for white flags with diagonal red lines. Turns out, the St. Patrick’s Saltire is often used to represent Northern Ireland. Feeling at peace with this information, I go back to this woman’s page so that I can watch her reels. Let’s just say, I was not happy when I saw that I had been searching for the wrong flag the whole time.

I forced myself to avoid going into another flag-related rabbit-hole, and scrolled down to her reels. Instead of laughing at her jokes, I took note that she has a British accent. So, it must be one of the flags from the UK.

So, I went through all the UK flags in my head. I knew Wales has a dragon on it. England is the blue flag with red stripes that go criss-cross in all directions. I went ahead and googled ‘Scotland flag’ and apparently that’s a blue flag with white stripes – diagonals. Northern Ireland, as I had been told, was the St. Patrick's Saltire. 

If you are screaming at your screen asking me to just google the white flag with the red cross, I am sorry to disappoint. For a person who did substantially well in school, I am not very smart, really.

Now, my brain went, ‘Oh no, what if she is British but lives in another country? And what if she has put that country’s flag on her bio? How am I ever going to find the flag? It could be any country in the world.’ With a deep sigh, I gave up.

Well, for an hour. I spent the next week wondering about the flag from time to time, but doing nothing to help myself. Finally, yesterday I sat down with the intention to capture the flag. For the idiot that I have proven myself to be, I have above average research skills. I know that even if you think you know something, you may, in fact, not actually know anything about it. I decided to google the flags of the four countries that constitute the UK.

The white flag with the red stripes, that I saw on the woman’s bio, is England, my friends.

The blue one with the red stripes, which we always associate with movies from England, is the flag of UK. Once I saw that, I instantly realised I had known it all along. Of course, the blue flag was the UK flag and not the flag of England. But here I was. I had spent a full 7 days to find out that the UK flag is, in fact, the UK flag.

I read in Twinkle Khanna’s book, Mrs. Funnybones, that her son said she should write a book about her ‘cool’ thoughts. She had just finished telling him about her belief that borders are imaginary and ‘being Indian’ is just an ideology. I don’t have children to tell me to write a book, and (this one might come as a shocker) I am not Twinkle Khanna.  But I have thoughts; lots of them. And they stay in my head, stuck in a never-ending loop of overthinking.

Most of this overthinking presents itself when I read a book, or watch a movie or show. Maybe I just miss being a literature student. Or maybe being a literature student means that I have royally forgotten how to think if not overthink.

So, why a blog? Hopefully, I can share with you all what book, movie or T.V. show I have been mulling over that week or month. On average days, I might only end up realising that I already knew the answer to what I was overthinking. On better days, I might hit on something that I didn’t know. I wonder if you all would like to accompany me on both those types of days. Hopefully, you might find that interesting.

If not, you now know what the flag of England looks like, and what’s better than some random facts that you will never talk about again? Did you know, Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell?