May 21, 2012

And there were ten

This blog recently completed ten years. In 2002, inspired by George and feeling the need to stake claim to a little street corner on the information superhighway to persist my writing, my brain-dumps, my 'musings' (the word-of-the-year in the early days of blogging), I began this blog. We must have been one of the earliest Indian blogs; soon, more and more people joined in, and the resultant detritus can still be seen in the world wide web.

A quick glance at my posting frequency over the years shows an alarming decrease since 2008. Unlike many, I wouldn't blame it on the lack of time or interest, but on having moved into what in hindsight was an ultra-heavy reading phase. I had nothing to say, I was just hoovering up data, information, insights from books, essays, and yes, blogs. Then Twitter became the default home for the one-line throwaway. I look back and marvel at the relative longevity, the linkability, and the survivability of blog posts.


Blogging and I, we took each other places. I took part in a book blog, a story writing blog, a blog on the Pune Times of India, my IIT-B 'core dump' blog, and a blog on Vishal Bhardwaj. Closest to heart are my quizzing blogs: a unusual quizzing-tragic-blog that became a key marker of the BCQC's online presence, and my daily topical questions blog, Infinite Zounds.


And this one, of course: using which I experimented upon millions thousandshundreds tens of readers. During moments when I wonder what I can do, I can always go back to the blog and say: I can do that.


Anniversaries such as these are a great excuse to indulge in some miniscule personal vanity. So the next few posts on this blog will be a collection of some of my favourite posts. We're so old, we need to be recycled.

21 comments:

anantha said...

Congratulations are in order :) I was inspired by you and George to start my own and I havent updated it in 3 years!

J Ramanand said...

Thanks! The blog had the social effect of introducing us to each other, didn't it?

Stop looking at your tweets, and go update your blog :)

SURAJ said...

And i still do not have a blog. :) Thanks for 10 years of the good stuff. even though the posting frequency has decreased quite a bit, for those of us(like me) who were late to the party, the blog (archives too) has always been a source of much joy and reading pleasure.

J Ramanand said...

Thank you. You are a product of the modern generation, and are allowed to make history on your FB wall.

Anonymous said...

Keep blogging!
- Dunbar

Siddharth said...

Congrats Ramanand on ten years of blogging. Yours is the only blog which I have been religiously following for the last 4 years. Excellent stuff!!

Siddharth said...

Congrats on 10 ten years of blogging!! Yours is the only blog which I have been religiously following for the last 4 years. Excellent stuff!!

J Ramanand said...

Siddharth, Dunbar: thanks.

Anonymous said...

The only blog that I still follow. IMO The reduced frequency of the posts have made them even more compelling.
Not just a 'congratulations', a big THANK YOU is in order.

J Ramanand said...

Thank you, that's kind of you :)

hirak said...

My gosh! It's been ten years of your blog. I should say that I was prompted to start a blog after reading your blog (and George's).

Blog survival is very Darwinian or Nietzchean! A testament to the great quality of writing.

J Ramanand said...

Thanks Hirak!

Salil said...

Congratulations! These days I visit blogs only through Google Reader. Very occasionally that too.

J Ramanand said...

Thanks Salil. I still think there is a place for blogs among tweets/facebook posts etc., albeit a limited one. The good thing is that the noise has left the blog signal to move to twitter & fb.

Abhi T said...

Well done, always quality stuff in your writing, here, IZ, fb.

Keep it up!

J Ramanand said...

Thanks Abhishek!

asherxai said...

I've been following your Blog ever since you started it.

Heartiest Congratulations for completing ten years and Thank You so much for your wonderful writing !!

asherxai said...

I've been following your Blog ever since you started it.

Heartiest Congratulations for completing ten years and Thank You so much for your wonderful writing !!

J Ramanand said...

Asherxai: thanks! glad you didn't post 8 more comments :P (joking)

Anonymous said...

And weren't you were also featured in a newspaper for all the blogging? :-) Congratulations two fold, on the 10 years and your baby girl! How perfectly delightful. It has been great reading you all this while and I hope there are many more to come. Yours has to be one of the few blogs that I have stayed with through the years.

J Ramanand said...

Thanks so much Preeti. Yes, I'm still living down that newspaper article's mention of my 'how to kill mosquitoes' post :) And thanks for the baby greetings. Oh, and nice set of posts from Norway.