Looking Back

The year is ending and it is time to take stock. Of one’s life mainly, but since my life-inventory has not had any worthwhile changes to it, I’d rather take stock of my blog. It would be a much more pleasant task, I think.

I began the blog in the January of 2015 on a whim. A cousin had suggested, “Didibhai, why don’t you write a blog? You could make some money.” Money sounded nice and so intrigued (and tempted) I entered the blogging world, a little hesitantly with a less than ten lined piece called ‘Teething in Blogging Land’. I was pleasantly surprised to receive three whole comments on the piece, all extremely encouraging. Heartened, I wrote some more and then some more and soon it became a habit. I even managed to garner a dedicated set of readers, all close friends and acquaintances including Other Half. In fact, OH’s enthusiasm actually surpassed mine and it was what had fuelled my writing spree in the beginning.

Over the last three years, I have written a lot and when I read back, I realise that my writing has evolved substantially, from the initial juvenile Convent-High School level to a more mature style. I have tried my fingers at many genres, plain blog posts to short stories, to poems and even a novella. I have become more confident of my abilities as a writer, up to the point that I mustered up enough courage to send some for publication. None have been accepted of course (which sadly, is rather telling on the quality of my work!). My blog has achieved more than 25000 views and though I know that some of it is spam; still it’s not a  bad achievement, considering the fact that my readership is limited solely to my friends and acquaintances on just two social media platforms i.e. WhatsApp and FaceBook.

But right at this point, I get a feeling that my blog has reached a plateau in terms of readership. And there are four main reasons (as I see it) for this stagnation.

One, my writing ability and my style of writing have turned stale and quite predictable. I think I should have to change the entire stance and construct of my language to bring to it freshness and appeal.

Two, I get the feeling that my choice of subjects lack ooomph. I think I really need to up the ante if I want to sustain and increase my readership. A nephew while advising me, summed it up succinctly, “Aibee Masi, write something saucy, something scandalous, something that Freud would be proud of.........!!!!!!”

Three, I really need to increase my reader base. With the same old people reading my stuff, I seem to be getting nowhere. So if you are an old reader of mine and if you like what I churn out, do share it with your friends and family and acquaintances. This would have the added advantage of increasing my chances of receiving some constructive criticism. Though I confess I take negative criticism very badly. That is partly because I am not used to it for most of my readers, being close friends are always terribly sweet when it comes to giving a feedback. I can actually count on my fingers the number of times I have received a negative word for my writing. (So now I have taken to assuming that if a reader remains silent about my work, it simply means that she did not like it.) At this point, I would like to recount the one and only time I came closest to being trolled (well almost). This was when I posted my piece called ‘A Cracker Free Diwali’ on an FB group and was hounded by the group members who insisted that it be removed because it was a politically motivated post. I did not know whether to laugh or cry at the insinuations; but I was thrilled that the whole controversy had the welcome effect of boosting readership of that particular post by more than 50%.

And lastly, I have realised that the written word has no longer any appeal as a pastime in today’s fast paced world. How many people actually read a book nowadays in their leisure hours? Most of us would rather see a film, listen to music, watch a sporting event or a soap on TV or surf Social Media on our cell-phones for those mountains of two-bit messages; rather than read a book. (Other Half, my erstwhile avid reader is a case in point. Nowadays, I have to literally bribe him to read my posts.) So tell me, when was the last time that you bought a book? It has been quite a while, hasn't it? The sad reality is that reading is now an outdated hobby and few people have the time or the inclination to read anything longer than a forwarded message on WhatsApp. And there is not much that I can do about it. I think it would wiser for me to start a YouTube cookery channel instead. You never know, it might actually make me famous! So keep your eyes peeled for it...........

PS: A few days back a young colleague read a post from my blog (for the first time) and commented, “Aibee Madam, it reads like from a renowned author!!!”

Wow, BP, thanks. You just made my year!