Day 30: The Finale - Gratitude Post

(Photo credit)

This post idea is inspired by another post I read earlier today but the tone and theme are quite different. I usually believe in counting my blessings and be thankful for what we have. Alana's post inspired me to find gratitude in blogging and the challenge that I have been taking this whole month. I'll accept that it hasn't been easy. I have had to push back a bit of work to prioritise writing the post for the day. I'd rather finish it first when I sit to work rather than scramble to meet the 12 am deadline (like I did last year)

Gratitude also seems like an apt finale rather than the usual lessons-learnt-from-the-challenge post that I did last year. There are things I learnt this year too but I'll be putting them differently. No listicles. :)

First of all it feels great to achieve my first 30 on 30 in a daily challenge! And I think this is possible only when it is set as a challenge. Goals are fine but challenges really drive us. We don't want to be left behind or accept defeat. When I took the challenge last year I was deluded into thinking that writing everyday can be so easy peasy! Just continue what I did for a month! And it took me 8 days to come back for my next post in December! Once the challenge is up, there are other things that jump at us which we have deferred for too long in the favour of the completing the challenge. So yeah! We all need a challenge once in a while to best ourselves. In fact, we should change some of our goals into challenges and we'll definitely have a better shot at making it!

I really enjoyed writing this time. Mainly because I got to dip into post ideas that I have been jotting down for pretty much the entire year. And I've really wanted to write on all of them. I covered quite a few. Plus, I ensured that I found the time to research and provide resources in my posts. It did cost extra time but it definitely improves the quality of and satisfaction from writing the post.

Another thing I managed to do this time, and loved it, is hopping on to others' blogs and reading them. I've found some great blogs and since this is an international fare, I read some posts on Thanksgiving, the US election and other things that aren't relevant in my country. The #NaBloPoMo community is truly international, all of us got talking about the issues that concern us in our immediate surroundings.

So to begin with, I think the first person/people I want to thank are people behind the amazing BlogHer community. Not just for organising this whole challenge, creating the blogroll, putting up prompts and being the encouraging, engaging community that it is. But also for the prompts that they put on their blog every month for us to pick and choose what we want to write on. Getting bloggers from across the world together is quite a feat!

I am also grateful - to the writing gods, I guess - that I could be part of another challenge and actually complete it. I love writing and it has been a great experience to write and put content out there for everyone to read after the abysmal year its been for blogging here.

Also, thanks to all my readers who've stuck around through times of no content and come back when new posts arrive. Also, a special thanks to bloggers from the #NaBloPoMo community who dropped by and left their encouraging comments. I have tried to return the favour and will continue to look up more blogs to read from the Blogher Facebook page.

I still have topics in my list left. And hopefully, if the streak of motivation continues, I should manage a post or two a week. Nothing ambitious for now! :) Looking forward to you all coming back for more posts.

This post is the final post for #NaBloPoMo blogging challenge of 2016 which stands for National Blog Posting Month hosted by BlogHer every year.

Day 13: 3 Great Resources On Beating Writer's Block

For times when you are stuck! (Photo credit)

How can we have a daily challenge and not talk about writer's block! While we do have prompts to write on on weekdays, we may not want to use some of them. And weekends anyways need to be survived without prompts. Although, I feel, depending on the topic of your blog, there can be no dearth of topics...ever! If you read enough, you will know.

Anyways, since we do get stuck at times, here are a few brilliant resources to keep you going.

1. The first one is my own post that I wrote during the blogging challenge last year. I follow most of these tips and they have worked quite well for me:

6 ways to beat writer's block

2. The second one is from Wordpress. It has a few more tips to beat the block:

4.5 steps to busting bloggers' block

3. While you start on that list of topics/ideas, here are a few prompts to flex your creative muscles and get the creative juices flowing:

Five posts to write right now

While this is a short post, it has enough food for thought to last a while! All the best for the rest of the challenge! Let the words flow...

This post is a part of #NaBloPoMo which stands for National Blog Posting Month hosted by BlogHer.

And it's the 200th post!

And it's 200 posts!! (Photo credit)

So here is my 200th! I started blogging in 2009. Wow! That was a long time ago and you can read all about it here. It's quite boring to be honest. Blogging evolved rapidly only in later years. And I started writing in much simpler times.

What is exciting is that it took me years of sporadic blogging to hit the 100 posts mark. And it has taken me a little over a year to write another 100! Thanks to the encouraging blogging community and a couple of blogging challenges along the way. The research I did for my training blog a couple of years ago also served as an impetus to keep the momentum going here. You can read some of the lessons I have learnt through blogging along the way. 

Blogging is a lot more vibrant and interactive activity now that it was when I started. Since I got started with my training blog and updated my knowledge on blogging for it, I've had tons of ideas. But time is always a constraint. What stands out in my mind is that no matter how frenetic and complicated the blogging world is, I have let this space be my peaceful sanctum of writing. And the reason to write here still remains the same: for the joy of writing. I have never bothered about the traffic on this blog - which might seem stupid to some people. The whole point of a blog is getting as many readers and build it to apoint where it can make money, maybe. But with so many other things to bother about, I don't want public opinion or deadlines of commercial writing mar my passion for writing. At least not here.

What is also amazing is that I'll be writing two posts today. This one, since I just realised it's my 200th and another one for an ongoing blogging challenge. Since I couldn't have woven this into the prompt of the challenge and did not want this milestone to pass unwritten about, I decided to an additional post to mark the event.

Keeping up with a blog is hard work. And the most common complaints are writer's block, lack of time or the motivation at the end of the day to pull out your blog and type. But every post we write is a step ahead. It doesn't matter how many breaks we have taken or how frequently others write, as long as we have something to write about and we make our voice count, we have done justice to our blogs. And this is one step ahead for me in keeping my blog alive and putting out my voice out there. 

Blogging Break: Putting Things in Perspective

Take a break! (Photo Credit)

So, it’s another come back of sorts to my blog. Does that bother me - the long break? No, it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s just nice to sit quietly and watch the world go by. This time, I also watched the madness of other bloggers go by. This break also proves that one can’t rest on one’s past laurels. And that, one is never invincible after overcoming a challenge (the #NaBloPoMo, in my case) unless one continues to put in efforts. So, I am back with no promises of coming back often. To me, it’s ok to flow with the flow once in a while. It’s ok not to push things to do the way it should be done to conform to some arbitrary rule I did not make. 

Breaks are good. From whatever one does in life. Surprisingly, looking at others go about their frenetic activities while you are on a break makes them appear even more fast paced. So when I think back about blogging related activity that I noticed around me during my hiatus is - there’s just too much of it. Could be because of the effect I told you earlier. But I also felt that everyone is so much in a hurry to blog. To blog more. To blog everyday. To write for every weekly theme. There are so many conversations around how to just keep posting no matter what. I am honestly astounded at how fellow bloggers can not just churn out posts everyday but also share them on various blogging platforms for others to read!! I constantly wonder - how do they manage! I figured that maybe I am not just that hardworking or it’s not in me to be able to do that or just plain ‘don’t care’ attitude! Any which way, I realized that not being in the rat race works for me. 

And I think the more I saw that happening on social media, the more I savoured my luxury of not blogging when I did not want to. To choose to stop typing just because I don’t feel like. And to be ok with it. As I have mentioned earlier, I write for the passion of writing. I write because I feel strongly about something. I don’t know how to write to increase page views (I don’t even know that for my professional blog! “What a fool!”, you say? Well!). I don’t know how to write to drive traffic. (I think this means the same as what I said before). Yes, my professional blog has some semblance of planning for the posts of a month. But that’s about it. Blogging is not the central thing in my life. I am sure avid bloggers reading my post - if anyone’s reading this post at all - might gasp in incredulity at this assertion. But that’s just how blogging works in my life. (Though, hats off to people to who manage all the blogging with kids and full time jobs)

Another reason for the hiatus has been probably a common thing that all of us go through - life takes over and it’s hard to find the time. With some personal issues and the rush of keeping up with my professional blogging, I has to compromise on a few things. And my personal blog is usually the casualty. Plus, once you stop, the languor sets in making it even harder to begin again. You know, you’ve been there! But after avoiding looking straight in the eye of my neglect of this blog, even when I could begin writing, here I am fighting through my lassitude. 

While I was pondering about blogging sitting on the periphery of the blogosphere, I figured what might work for my blog here. I need to work on what works for me. Daily blogging doesn’t. I need to go back to my reasons for writing - the love of it and improving the craft of writing. So consistency through well thought of posts seems to be my kind of plan. I am outright incapable of writing a good post every single day. Maybe, if that was my only profession. So, I need to find a rhythm that keeps me going and the blog too. And I think I have kinda figured what that rhythm could be.

If you have made it all the way here through my rant, thank you so much! Your free gift of good karma should reach you soon! And while you are here, have you been through a phase where you just took a break even from something you love? It could be a hobby or a (weekly) ritual that you followed for a long time. Tell me about it. I’d love to hear about it. 

5 Lessons I learnt from #NaBloPoMo - the blogging challenge

Yes! I am back! I had planned to write this post on December 1 under the delusion that since I could write 27 posts in 27 days, continuing the streak would be easy peasy! But yeah! I learnt a few lessons about blogging 'after' I finished the challenge. So here are all my lessons from the blogging challenge put together:

1. It takes a challenge to kick us into action: It is so easy to rest on the laurels of past work! We need to constantly challenge ourselves to keep the blog going. And I think that's what the challenge is - finding time amidst the overwhelming chaos of everyday life. So, keep your motivation going. Set the least possible goal - say once a week - so that it's not too much and anything more is an achievement! And take up challenges once in a while. They really revv up your blogging mojo!

2. Plan your posts: I can't emphasise on this enough. I also mentioned this in my post about beating writer's block. By plan, I don't mean have an elaborate editorial calendar with due dates and ideas etc. If that works for you, great! But I sure haven't stuck to any calendars so far. But I have started jotting down ideas in my little book for some time now. And then I put them in the drafts of my blog. So now, I don't have to hunt for ideas - in my head or my little note book. I just go to my blog and see what I'd like to write about on that day. If I have ideas on some topics, I jot them down to so that I can develop them when I choose to write on it.

3. Prioritise - Is writing really important to you? Or would you rather do something else with that time? During the challenge, writing was absolutely important to me. I am a stickler for sticking to plans and schedules, well, in some ways! So, I wrote consistently and squeezed in time during the challenge. But after that, other things took priority. So, if I connect this point to the previous one, decide your post idea for the week and ensure you find time through the week to keep working on it. This way, writing is at least in the schedule of your week and you will find the time for it.

4. My writing has gotten better - I have been writing for a few years now and have always felt inadequate. I toiled to put together words I'd be impressed with and felt that others had a better way of putting things together. But with this writing challenge, I have actually noticed my writing get better gradually. We are usually unaware as we move from consciously incompetent to unconsciously competent. I struggle a lot less to string words together now. Earlier, it was an effort to put an idea into a perfect sentence that would convey the same message as my thought. But surprisingly, practice did make me, well, close to perfect. So, write more to write better and faster.

5. Passion sustains all: When I first missed posting for the first time on 28th November - I faulted on points 2 and 3 - I let it go thinking it's okay to miss one day since I was traveling and had limited net access. But once I stumbled, it became easier to skip the next day too. I think there's something about letting our guards slip. Every time I skip gym for a couple of days, it just becomes easier to do more of it. (Any research behind this?). And it just gets harder to get back. I never thought I'd not be able to write for an entire week after the challenge! So, yeah, keeping the passion going and staying focussed on your reasons for writing are very important. Forced commitment is hardly a commitment. You need fuel to keep going. Find the reason for yours!

And before I finish this post, I will shamelessly use this space to promote my blogging workshop for beginners. Do let your friends know about it. Please find the details here:

I'd love to learn from your blogging experiences. Share them in your comments and lets help everyone learn from here.

#NaBloPoMo Day 20: Why concision is important in writing

Ernest Hemingway was once challenged, as the story goes, by his fellow writers to write a 6 word story that could make people cry. The bet was for $10 which Hemingway won for coming up with - For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn. A perfect example of a poignant story which does have a beginning, a middle and an end. And a whole lot of possibilities you are left with. True work of a genius!

I attended a creative writing workshop today sponsored by Blogadda as part of Social Media Week in Mumbai. It was titled Spinning content: Writing for the Web. While the workshop threw up no specific learnings, we started with an interesting activity. It was similar to the story I just narrated. We were supposed to draw, not write, our place of origin, favourite food, hobby and where we see ourselves in 5 years. And we were to pair up and introduce our partners in 6 words which would include the information we got from the drawings. Challenging, at first. But some of us got it pretty well!

The terseness could be achieved only by stripping all the additional articles, pronouns and sometimes, even verbs. I think the more scope we are given, the more verbose we get. Concision is always a principle I have believed in and one of the important concepts that William Zinsser talks about in his very inspirational book, On Writing Well. By actually doing this activity and trying to fit everything in 6 words was a memorable lesson in the concept. And the result is quite brilliant because every word has a solid place in the sentence. It is not diluted by supporting syntactical structures.

Can you introduce yourself in 6 words? Preferably a sentence that makes sense rather than a string of adjectives? I am going to try writing mine tonight. Do share yours with me in comments so that the other readers can read too.

#NaBloPoMo Day 18 - Does writing have the power to change the world?

This post is inspired by a chat I was a part of on Twitter today. The chat got into a heated discussion when I pointed out how blogging can be used as a powerful medium of change and not just a personal goal of posting once a week. I have been active on a few blogging communities, learning from others and getting to know the issues that other bloggers face. I understand a lot of their issues but also disagree with a few like writer's block.

One of the issues that we all face as bloggers is lack of time or motivation to fit in regular blogging into our schedule. Life takes over and we are left with guilt for not writing as much as we thought we should. Being able to stick to our plans and write regularly is definitely a personal achievement. And with each of us meeting that goal, it sure makes blogging stronger and more of our thoughts go out there hoping to make a difference.

But I am thinking about blogging for the sake of making a difference. I believe that blogging has the power of changing the world. When someone can use the power of social media to become the Prime Minister of the country, I think the time is ripe to use online activism to  bring about real change. Write to build awareness. Write to change attitudes. Write to bring injustice to notice. Write to throw light on social parity. Write because you can use the power of words. Write because pen will always remain mightier than the sword. Write for the larger good of the world.

There was no social media or blogging when Gandhi was struggling against the British. Hence he organised a real Dandi March and launched Quit India Movement. To me, blogging can be that medium which can galvanise a nation into action. Words have the power to move. And when enough of us use that power, we will make a difference. We will force things to change. We will rope in more support for our causes.

I am reminded of the inspirational end of Purba Ray's speech at BNLF when she said that blogging can go to a level where when people ask you what do you do and you reply, "I blog", they respond with "Thank you".

You have the weapon of blogging. How you use it is your choice.

(I quote Purba from memory and I hope I have brought out the meaning and context in the right manner)

#NaBloPoMo Day 16 - Half way through the blogging challenge

So here I am half way through my november blogging challenge! Has it been hard? Yes. Has it been very hard? No. It's something I have to remember to do every day. Though it's not as simple as that! Read on.

For me, blogging challenges have been stuff that legends are made of! Writing a post every single day for a month? You must be kidding!! And that's the response/attitude with which I dismissed the whole idea. I did feel guilty too when I knew that my friend Ankita is taking these challenges with a full time job and a little kid. But since I was setting up my professional presence online, it seemed to stressing to take on something like this. Plus, to be honest, I was just lazy! But this November I decided to kick myself into some action and get some blogging done. I was mentally preparing myself for the daily marathon and there's something about a challenge that gets all of us going, doesn't it!

What made it worthwhile is that I always keep jotting down blogging ideas that I get and this seemed like a great opportunity to get my writing out on all those topics. I have just been running into that list and wistfully wondering if I'll get back to writing. Also, to me a blog post is something that has to be a substantial piece of writing. I am bad at writing small articles and feel bad when I do that just to tick my day off for the challenge. So, the ideas were ready and I had to sit down and hack away at the keyboard.

Well! The whole challenge about blogging is to be able to do just that - type all your thoughts out, apart from structure them well, proofread and put it out for people to read. And the first bit itself is a challenge with online and offline distractions to fight against. I have managed so far, sometimes scrambling at the last minute to get that post out. (One of them was the result of realising at 11.50 pm that I hadn't blogged that day and it was indeed 12am by the time technology acted up and let me finally post it!). I have blogged about 6 ways to beat writer's block based on my learning from the challenge so far.

I think the easier way to do the challenge is to follow prompts by BlogHer. That way you don't have to think of a new idea every day. You will need to think of something only for weekends since the prompts are only for week days. The bigger challenge for me is to explore my own ideas. I need time to structure my thoughts and write the whole thing down. It can't be a last minute, rushed affair. I have tried to find time to do that on some days. I have not been able to pick ideas, jot down points for them and type some of them out as buffer. I hope to do some of that for future posts since the Diwali madness is over and I have time for more serious work now.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of doing this challenge. Will I continue posting everyday after this is over? Probably no. But I know that it is possible to put out a decent post every other day at least. I just need to keep up the passion and sense of achievement I feel through the medium of blogging. We just drop blogging from our priority list and take it as a chore. And no one likes chores. :)

Before you zonk out of my preaching, I'd like to end by giving credit, yet again to @blogchatter who has been doing such a great job of encouraging bloggers and keeping them on track. If you are an aspiring blogger, currently a blogger or a successful blogger even, you should follow them on Twitter. I'd also like to send a warm hug and thank you to my blogger friend, Ankita (@LifestyleProBlog) for inspiring me always with her passion for blogging and writing. She is the only real person I know who takes blogging challenges and that felt something real than unknown people who do challenges.

If you have been sitting on the fence, just take up the challenge. For yourself. You may stumble but that's alright. You just get up and get going again!

#NaBloPoMo Day 14 - 6 reasons why this week was awesome!

In our everyday busy lives, there are only a few times that we cherish. There are different reasons for doing that. This week was one such time for me. This week has been pretty awesome one in a long long time. Reasons:

1. My most favourite festival, Diwali
2. I could do the whole ritual of Diyas, Lakshmi pooja, decking up in my fineries and with my better half with me
3. My ever traveling spouse was home for an entire week
4. We set up our new speakers and spent some quality time listening to them
5. I let myself indulge in sweets since Diwali is not Diwali unless you eat Indian sweets. And without guilt
6. I gave my work some rest and slept like I haven't in a long time.

Can you think of times you count memorable? I'd love to hear about it.

#NABloPoMo Day 9 - 6 ways to beat writer's block

Writer's block is an often discussed topic in blogging communities. I am no writer and I haven't been writing for years. But as I understand through our discussions, it is the inability to come up with new ideas and blog consistently. It's either lack of ideas or not being able to write well about them. I think it also includes not having enough motivation to actually sit down and produce some work. It's a strange procrastination that grips us once we keep stalling the act of writing.

I have been through the "What the hell do I write about" phase during the early days of my blogging. In fact, that was a such a large thought bubble that I did not blog for a year and gave it up as a lost cause. I reluctantly came back to write sporadically about something that caught my eye or something I felt strongly about and had to write. But as time passed by, I realised that there are a lot of things I could write about. I just had to be alert to things around me. Over time, I have learnt a few things that can keep the steady flow of ideas going and you could actually sit down to write about. Here's my secret recipe to beat writer's block:

1. Carry a tiny notebook: Or notes app of your phone will do too. When I first came across this advice, I pfffft-ed it and thought who can carry a book all the time. But an extra Moleskin book that I did know what to do with ended up in my hand bag became my write-ideas-as-they-occur-to-you-book. And you can see that I have used just a couple of the #NaBloPoMo prompts so far. I have so many of my own ideas!

2. Planning the posts: I don't mean create an editorial schedule of which post goes out when. I haven't done it even for my professional blog, let alone the personal one where I want to be my own unbridled self! I mean - pick an idea that appeals the most to you at the time and jot down points that come to your mind. For instance, I have thought of writer's block and points have occurred to me at different times - and the little book to the rescue. (I am also someone who needs some distance between writing and posting. New points will mostly occur to me when I let my ideas stew a bit) So when I sat down to write today, my points were ready. I am less likely to think of more after I have posted this. And the structure is ready for me to follow.

3. Posts can be short/varied: For years, I have believed that a blog post should be long. Or I think I have had so much to say about any topic I feel strongly about that short posts never worked for me. But as I read other people's blogs and was exposed to ideas like microblogging Mondays and wordless wednesdays, I realised that all posts need not resemble a thesis. I could talk about a quick point I had to make and be done with it. I did not have to research a lifetime worth of material to get a post done. And posting pictures and writing about them is so much fun. I guess it's fun reading them too. Though I still believe that blog posts should be meaty so that people aren't disappointed.

4. Write in the morning: Another piece of advice I thought was buhawkee! But then I still don't mean you need to be up at 4 am to finish your post. I don't do that either and am mostly struggling to meet the 12am deadline for the day (like today!) But the output is a lot better and stress free if you get some typing done in the morning. Not much - maybe arrive at work 15 minutes early and start working on the post of the week. You can add a bit during lunch too. Writing at the end of the day can be tiring and harder to stick to. (In fact, I am so used to racing against time that I forgot I had written in the morning on Nov 1 and was ready to chase the deadline the same night!)

5. Type straight on the blog screen: I have started doing this only recently - for the blogging challenge actually. I used to keep jotting ideas and partial posts in a word doc, almost finish writing there and then paste into the blog. I think the editing work increases because the look changes from a word doc to a blog screen. For some reason I haven't properly figured out yet, it just seem easier to straight away type here. Even the future drafts. That way I know what's in the pipeline.

6. Write when inspiration hits you: I am sure the best of writers never got a brilliant idea every single day of their lives. Everyone goes through a dry spell once in a while. Especially so when we are a burnt out generation mostly juggling jobs, family, kids, taxes, social media, traffic and a lot more at any given point in time. So, if you find yourself swamped with life around you, relax! Let it be for a bit. If you are scared people might forget you or you don't want to leave a gaping hole of your absence on your blog, you can reblog/repost stuff from the internet. Add a quick introductory paragraph to it for context. Your readers come to your blog to read interesting stuff and they will get it any which way. You can always find stories related to your blog which you can share.

Do you agree with what I said here? Do you still think there's writer's block? Feel free to send me your comments. I'd love to know what I might be missing in my understanding of the phenomenon.

#NaBloPoMo Day 8 - Why do I blog?

I started this blog in 2009 - a time when blogging wasn't a great phenomenon it is now. My knowledge was also so limited that I only knew about blogger and promptly made my blog on it. I just wanted to explore what blogging was all about. The only thing behind the venture was the pure love for writing. Even today, what keeps me hooked to blogging and I keep coming back even after breaks is the love of putting down what I think. And there's nothing more satisfying than a well written piece. (Sometimes we do run into our old posts and wonder - Did I really write this?)

Blogging has changed so much since I started here. There are ways to drive traffic to your blog, key words to worry about, blogoversaries to be planned and give-aways to attract more people. I have never celebrated a blog anniversary or planned a give away. But that’s just because when I started my blog, social media wasn’t an overarching, dominating presence in our lives. Well! It doesn't interest me even now. Although, now I know a lot more about how blogging and promoting content works, I still refuse to get into the rat race. I am also active in a lot of chatting forums, including the amazing @blogchatter where we discuss various aspects of blogging and learn a lot in the process. We often talk about the right frequency of blogging and how we all struggle with our every day routine to find the time, inspiration and the inclination to write and post regularly. I always think we make a big deal of it. Unless you blog for professional reasons or for your clients where you need to ensure a certain frequency, worrying about putting a post a week is futile. I agree with Purba Ray when she said, during BNLF,  that it's best to write when inspiration hits you. Otherwise, I feel, it's all forced labour. And if you truly love writing, you will be drawn to it sooner or later.

So, yeah - the love for writing still remains the primary reason why I blog. And I will write only when I have something worthwhile to add here. Let me know what are your reasons to blog. I'd love to hear about them.

#WIN15 - The Brilliant Blogging Event By Blogadda

A day full of meeting people and having fun is great. It's even greater when it involves your passion - writing in this case. I blog for my passion for writing. And it is always a bonus to get to learn the ropes from stalwarts in the field. I registered well in advance for #WIN15 and was super excited about it. Though it was a little early and too long for a Sunday, I was there nice and early. I was greeted by smiling (and not sleepy) faces at the registration desk. I was also asked to give out a video byte about what I look forward to the most in the day. (Btw, I got to check if that went on air!). Once I was in, it was catching up with people I knew and the game of - doesn't that guy look like X on Twitter - began for me.

The event was in a huge hall and the stage was all set by the time we took our seats. The entry of the host of the day - Siddharth Kannan - on a cycle, greeting people on the way was an apt introduction to how much fun we were going to have with him. The event was divided into talks in the first half and workshops in the second. The day began with story telling with Lakshmi Pratury of INK talks who spoke about how to identify passionate story tellers.

Next up was a very interesting talk by Dhaka based blogger Rezwan who spoke about how blogging in evolving in his country. That was followed by Huffpost India editor, Sruthijith telling us about the best way to keep blogging and writing. The talk on travel blogging by Ajay Jain threw light on the lesser known aspects of travelling and blogging. It was pretty inspirational to know how traveling had really made him evolve as a person. This was followed by a chat session Anaggh Desai and Aditya Magal - the Gods of blogging. The morning sessions ended with talks on the business of blogging. Harini Calamur, Ashok Lalla and Prashanth Challapalli delivered insightful talks about how bloggers could monetize their blogs by writing for brands.

By the time we were out for lunch, these sumptuous designer cakes made by the talented chefs of JW Sahar greeted us in the lobby. Networking continued during lunch where we caught up with more people who had walked in late in the morning.

These are all cakes!!!!

The workshops began post lunch. There were two workshops in each slot and hence you could choose just one. Since the first set of workshops were on food and travel blogging - both not my area of interest, I decided to wander around. I ended up in one of the other venues hosted by Blogadda where Pampers was launching a new diaper product. And guess who I found there....

My celebrity moment! :)

It was awesome to see her and be a part of an event she was hosting. I have always found her fitness inspirational!

And then arrived the creative writing workshop with Natasha Badhwar that I was really waiting for. (The parallel workshop in this slot was on video blogging) It was the most unique workshop on writing that I have ever been a part of. Like her columns, Natasha's workshop had emotions involved and she brought a new aspects of what can make us better writers. Being ok with who we are and permitting ourselves to feel the way we are were fresh and unique perspectives I gained from her workshop. 

The day was getting a bit long by now since we started at 8.30 in the morning. But the high tea was refreshing with yummy snacks to fill our bellies. The day was far from over and we had a whole lot of fun lined up! When we came back to the main hall of the conference, we had Suchitra Krishnamurthy of the Dole Dole and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa fame. This part of the evening began with Suchitra and Natasha (Badhwar) discussing the way blogging has changed since Suchitra used it in its earlier days. It was great to hear how she leveraged online power to promote her album during the 90s. And then came the grand Blog adda awards followed by the launch of the book Game of Blogs. 

Phew! It was a long but fun day full of learning and meeting people. Looking forward to more such events in the future! 

My affair with Indian authors

My affair with Indian writers started recently. i realised about a year back how the presence of books by Indian authors had become ubiquitous. i know there have been stalwarts like Jhumpa Lahiri, Anita Nair, Jaisree Misra, Amitav Ghosh etc who have been writing serious prose. But i am talking about the fresh wave of authors in the last few years. Ravinder Singh, Preeti Shenoy, Durjoy Dutta, Sudeep Nagarkar to name a few. It's heartening to see that the times are so fertile to encourage new writing talent. These are all young people, mostly in their 20s and are published authors. Their books, set in contemporary times, are pretty easy read. They write for the common man who an identify with the college or office setting of the books. The characters are also of today's generation with cell phones and skype ids.

Whenever i flipped through pages of these books in my library, my general impression was that these books are so easy to write. All of them appeared to be the same. There was a particular recognisable non-literary, if i may call that, style of writing in these books. My real exploration began when i bought a load of books on Amazon sale last month plus the range of books by these authors that my local library has. (Which is also another source that helped me notice Indian authors who happened to be on the book stores shelves too)

i realised that some of it is the result of someone hacking away at his/her keyboard. But some others definitely managed to carry me away with them. Out of the books i have read so far, the one i'd choose to say a good one would be "I too had a love story" by Ravinder Singh. The story talks about a couple in courtship. You can really feel the emotions as the book progresses. You are anxious or happy when the characters go through the same feelings. Even though the narrative does slow down a bit in the second half, the story very well salvages itself towards to
the end giving the it the much needed push to keep up the readers' interest. The style of writing is breezy and with a decent reading speed, one should be able to finish it in a day.

The one i wasn't impressed with is the second book i read by the author Durjoy Dutta. i discovered him among the books in my library shelf and liked the one i read first - "Hold my hand". But this one - "She broke up, I didn't" came across to me as pointless narrative about issues i didn't find serious enough to worry about. The book is set in a college with students as the main characters. i think of college as a fun time as opposed to being deeply involved in relationships. So when things go haywire among the characters, i don't feel for them. Sometimes the narrative just seems to talk about the day to day college life of these characters and you wonder - so what's the point?? Gradually you realise that the author is, unconvincingly so, trying to show how does one react to infidelity (a stupid kiss with someone other than one's boy/girlfriend in the book). Is it the same for the boy and the girl to indulge in such behaviour? Since those relationships did not come across as serious to me in the first place - i am like grow up guys, you are still in college - it was hard for me to get involved in this whole debate. Or think of it as a turning point in the novel.  i thought the equations were too easy. The girlfriend leaves and the guy starts to live with someone else, stays with her rather.  He loves the other woman but has no qualms having a bit on the side with this woman also. And this guy hasn't even started his first job yet. So all said and done by 20, dude?? i may be a little harsh in my judgement of the book here but this is exactly how i felt. Beyond a point i just wanted to be over with the book rather than reading it because i liked it.

i have a shelf full of more authors to read up. Watch out this space for more. You can also drop your comments at @pseudopunju on Twitter or leave a line on the blog comment.