It’s been one year, 365 days to be precise. Earth has gone around the sun once. It seems like it was only last month that it happened. Maybe earth should slow down!On June 28, 2008 I wrote Gratitude Note. Even my wife did not read it. Only one person read it - Joseph, the person who influenced me to join the blog world. See, I am not responsible for this space. You should send those hate mails to him. But in all fairness I must add that he did not know what he had bargained for when he asked me to write a blog.
It has been a very interesting (actually it has been silly and an absolute waste of time – but I can’t say in public) journey over the past one year. Has it been a success? Apparently yes, because nobody has stopped me yet. See, success is a relative term!
A handful of people with nothing better to do visited my blogs. A few among them glanced over the posts and even fewer actually read the blogs. Some were so infuriated that they left unpleasant comments. But I converted those nasty comments into an appreciative one. And then, yours truly replied to each of them in all humbleness and modesty. Of course, that also gave me the satisfaction of having had the last say.
The first couple of blogs I wrote were personal stuff. But I quickly learned that my friends and family in ‘real’ life are not interested in reading my blogs. Only strangers read my blogs, who incidentally (and rightfully) are not interested in my personal matters. So I switched to writing opinions and thoughts, mixed with humour, which was soon accepted for two reasons. One, everybody has an opinion about everything, even if they don’t know anything about it. Two, since it is humourous, even if they really don’t like it, they cannot admit it, because then they will appear to lack a sense of humour.
I have gained a few ‘virtual’ acquaintances and couple of ‘virtual’ friends along the way. Can one call them ‘real’ friends and acquaintances? NAH! They are busy writing their own blogs and attracting readers to their blogs. The bare minimum conversation that they have with me is with an ulterior motive to attract me to their blogs. But what they fail to understand is that I too have the same motive.
Now that I have become so famous because of my blog, I am seriously considering contesting elections. Probably I will contest in Thiruvanthapuram in 2014 against Shashi Tharoor. You know, Shashi needs a worthy opponent; he won so comfortably last time.
I am an accountant. I say it with numbers. So here are a few stats (see, I told you that I count my blessings):
Number of blogs written: 23
Average number of blogs per month: 1.92
Number of followers of the blog: 29
Number of readers subscribed for email updates: 8
Number of readers who have left comments: 143
Therefore, number of readers visited the blog: >143
Average number of new readers per month: >11.92
Number of comments: 387
Average number of comments per day: 1.06
Average comments per blog: 16.8
Number of blogs with no comments: None
Top five commented blogs:
I am sorry, are you sorry? (36 comments) - not surprising; everybody felt apologetic
I don’t forget anniversaries (32 comments)
The older I get, the better I used to be (31 comments)
Gifting, my Achilles heel (30 comments)
There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there is credit card (29 comments)
Finally, the five top commentors on my blog:
Joseph (14 comments) - he was obliged to comment since he dragged me into this!
Devika, Gazal, Shri Ramesh Sadasivam (13 comments)
Blogger formerly known as Sansmerci (12 comments)
PRG, Usha (11 comments)
Ganga, Renu, Shail (10 comments)
* Comments exclude duplicate ones, by anonymous readers and mine
** These stats are despite me not being a woman. Oh didn't you know, if you are woman blogger, you attract comments like how a sweet attracts ants.
Readers mentioned above, I would have liked to thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you my heart has no bottom. I admire your forbearance for having survived the blog and commenting on them, even though most of you never read the posts fully. Please keep your acceptance speeches and interview notes ready, because you don’t want to be taken by surprise when CNN, BBC, NDTV, TOI, Asianet, etc approaches you for your response to the recognition.
Readers not mentioned above, no donut for you! You were informed about the benefits of leaving comments on my blog but you ignored it. Now, the above set of people has stolen the limelight and has left you licking your wounds. You will get your chance next year, in 365 days to be precise. Earth has to go around the sun once again, but it will go by like a month. Maybe earth should slow down!
PS : Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favours.
Posts
31 comments:
Congratulations. And as for your observations on those who read your blog and post a comment- so true! :-)
congrats on turning one.
have always enjoyed reading your posts.Hope that you shall work on increasing the frequency of that 1.97.
OMG, I am glad I made ten comments at least, Or my name wouldn't be adorning your page. I am so proud of myself now. This is the moment I have waited for, in fact lived for. I am looking forward to that interview by CNN, BBC et al. And don't you worry, I am brushing up the acceptance speech, improving and improvising on it on a daily basis. One doesn't want to be caught unawares by these channel people or worse still with your foot in your mouth which they will never of course for the simple reason that I just cannot manage the contortion due to all those ice creams I hog on.
And boy, aren't I glad to be a woman?? I don't have to strive as hard as you, making conversation with ulterior motive of attracting comments to my blog! Being a woman is enough! Hehehehe...
BTW, Do please come to Thiruvananthapuram in 2014 to stand for election. I promise you one vote.
Please than Joseph for me or better still introduce him to me, for that will make it easier to... ahh well. That is when I meet him anyways!! ;)
Psssst, please include a ctaegory for long comments as well.
That was 'Please thank Joseph' not 'than Joseph'
Maybe I will be proclaimed the Typo Queen Among Commentators as well.
BTW CONGRATS on completion of one year.
Congratulations Salil,
Joseph needs to be thanked,
This was one place I laughed the hell out of me...and when you sleep over things it really gets to my nerves! I mean the hell in me :)
and on this -- "A handful of people with nothing better to do visited my blogs."
Believe me -- That's very true....Humour is my first lookout! :)
and I started blogging in July or August...need to see --it seems as though I have been here for centuries :))
wishes,
devika
OMG, really? I comment the most? My mom used to tell me about my talking - 'non-stop non-sense'. Once again, I've proved her right by commenting non-stop on a non-sense blog!
Good luck.
Lol! U dont fail to take a swipe on your wife do you? ;)
Btw, many congratulations to you and good luck on the elections front in 2014! ;)
Congrats!! You are really making giant strides!! Keep going!! Don't worry about the statistics though. It does not really matter, does it? And hey...how many hate mails do you get per blog? That was not there in the statistics!;)
Congrats ! and thanx for mentioning me:), a little busy at the moment, will come back later:)
Happy Birthday, infant/toddler! And congratulations on surviving the first year of your life. You did come pretty close to being skinned alive by your wife a few times, if I remember correctly!
1. NO, being a woman does not mean you attract more readers. You attract readers with content and you have proven this. So please take back this offensive gender-specific comment warna bahut maar padegi. (aapko)
2. I think I also feature among the readers who think, chalo comment chorh hi dete hain. Discrimination.
3. CONGRATULATIONS. we look forward to more fun work from your pen.
Nice way to celebrate one year of useless existence. :) And tongue in cheek comments for all the morons who wasted time here.
Good work dude. Keep it up.
okies i gotta register to to make more comments... !! lol... :D
Let's hear it for Salil dear
for entertaining us over the last year
The time has come for you to change gear
and to go on to rule the blogsphere.
Congratulations!
Great work salil.. and congrats for completing an year of blogging.. Hope I am included in the count of people who subscribed to ur blog over mail.. i get it in my google reader.. not sure if u r aware of it. :) anyways .. njoyed ur blogs .. appreciate ur sense of humour, keep writing and do take ur blog to the next level so that u can start making money from ur blog ( u must already be working on it.. i should not be advicing this smart accountant ). Anyways check out this link ..http://niftyprediction.blogspot.com/2009/04/make-money-online-from-blog-step-by.html
dil ke chalon ko shayri kaho to taqleef nahi hoti..
dard to tab hota jab koi wah wah kehta hai..
keep em coming!!
Congratulations, and happy birthday to the Blog too!
Wow! So it has paid to visit, as I see :D! Like Shail, I too have to get an acceptance speech ready and all, don't I? My, my, my!
This has to be one of the most seriously-funny-no-inhibitions-just-laugh-out-loud-and-do-a-bit-of-thinking-while-you-do places I know I ve ever read from :) So double congrats again!
Keep 'em comin' :):)
Happy Birthday to you ....la la la !! Congratulations !! May the maddness continue :)
@Radha:
Thank you.
Interesting that being a reader you agree that my blog readers have nothing better to do ;)
@Gazal:
Appreciate the kind words.
Sorry to break this news, but it is time you wear glasses. Where is 1.97 mentioned?
But if you meant increasing the frequency of writing, ARE YOU SURE?!
@Shail:
Thanks. Yes, you just made the cut.
And good job with your preparation; you did well on that CNN interview.
Hey, thank you for the assurance of your vote in the 2014 election. Now I need only 326,725 more.
@Devika:
Thank you for the kind words.
You laughed at the pathetic jokes I wrote? Really?? You call that humour? I repeat myself, don't you have anything better to do?
And yes, Joseph is responsible for this; not me.
@Joseph:
You had to buddy, because you dragged me into this.
And see, now that I gave credit where its due, everybody wants to spank you.. sorry, thank you.
@Rakesh:
Thanks.
Maybe you should wish Shashi for the elections, since he has finally found his match.
And what do you I mean I take a swipe at my wife everytime? My wife will not vote for me in the election because she is not in the voters list of Thiruvananthapuram. Why else do you think she would not vote for me?
@Bones:
Appreciate the wishes, because I have never ever been wished by a scientist before.
Yes, statistics don’t matter. You know what they say about statistics, don’t you – “there are three types of lies – lies, damn lies and statistics”.
Talking about the hate mails, they are in thousands. I don’t count them. (psst psst, I guess you know that I can’t count properly beyond a thousand)
@Renu:
Thank you for the wishes and for stopping by.
You don’t have to feel apologetic about not having read the blog; nobody ever did!
@Grean:
Thank you.
Guess what, nobody understands a married man better than another married man.
@Mampi:
1. I can prove you wrong on this. I will start another blog as a woman writer and post some crap. See how many fans the blog will have in quick time!
2. You may think, but I don't think you think too well. Otherwise explain to me why you keep coming back.
3. Thank you. It took a lot of courage to survive among fellow bloggers like you.
@SantoshPM:
Appreciate your endurance of surviving this stupid barrage in the name of a blog.
And, don’t tear my mask in public. Let sleeping dogs lie.
@HitchWriter:
Yes, and that is a good start, despite the fact that you did not read the blog :-)
@Govind:
Thank you for coming this way
Appreciate the kindness you display
As I mentioned I will contest the 2014 elections
Hopefully then will start ruling the blogosphere sections
(phew..)
@SP:
Aha, look who’s here.
Thank you for the wishes and taking time to leave your footprints here.
Though I write for the pleasure and don’t intend to make money out of the blog, I think even if I attempted it, it would fail miserably considering the ‘not-so-heavy’ traffic the blog generates :-(
@Kaiser:
Kya shayari sunayi aapne,
Wah ‘kya’ shayari sunayi aapne,
Dard to tab bhi hota hai
Jab shayari samach mein nahin aata hai
(shukriya..)
@Usha:
Thank you for your kind remarks.
You leave the most flattering of comments and often the first. But don’t mention that you were paid to do so in public (refer your comment – ‘so it has paid to visit’).
Keep coming :)
@Gauri:
Thank you for the wishes.
But why did you want to call my work ‘madness’ on this happy occasion? Don’t you people break my heart enough with all those hate mails?
Hey Salil
Congratulations .......... Since I am not so much into donuts I am sort of fine with the fact that there aren't any donuts for me (sob sob) No that's not me crying ...
BTW fantastic achievement to say the least but then we both know you are destined for bigger things ... So here is looking forward to more from you ... both on the virtual world and in the real one!!!
Congratulations, Salil :) That's quite a milestone, even more so to someone looking at it from a less than 6 months' standpoint.
As for "...if you are woman blogger, you attract comments like how a sweet attracts ants." - I'd be up for debate, but I think that's exactly what you put it there for. Let me not take de-bait ;)
-gauri
But Salil that is not true, I always read your posts, and really enjoy them, even wanted to vote for u in that contest but was unable to dont know why:(
presently I am globe trotting and so no time:)
Well done, Salil! but why do I not feature in your 'top commentators'! Sigh, I have miles to go. Going to re-read all your posts, and comment on everything now, so I reach the top :-)
Btw, I do have a complaint - you don't blog often enough. Please write more!!
@IWitness:
Thanks buddy. But still, no donut for you! (that is what Orkut tells me when ‘their’ server is not responding)
And when you say that I am destined for bigger things, are you referring to my girl friend here in US or the ‘expanding’ wife back in India? ;)
@Litterateuse:
Thank you for dropping by.
Honestly, I don’t care about the age of other bloggers in blogosphere. Six months, six years, who cares? Get the picture? :-)
But, very smart of you not to take that bait. With that comment I had hoped I will have more than a couple of readers to fight amongst them. Maybe, better luck (to me) next time.
@Renu:
I was joking when I said you did not read the post. All my readers read the posts fully or so they claim (or rather, so I hope!).
@Writerzblock:
Thank you.
You did not feature in the top commentors, because excluding this comment, you had left only 5 comments so far.
Well, for every complaint that says I don’t blog often, I get a thousand asking me to stop blogging. So the current frequency is the compromise! :-)
Your a better blogger than I. I have only had one really negative comment. And the blogger actually wrote an entire post about my blog!!! LOL I ignored his comment. He went away.
Ignoring psychos always works for me. I am impressed that you respond back to them.
@Hit40:
Thank you for coming by.
Yes, ignoring is the best way to handle the phychos on the net.
Congrats on your blogging journey!
wanted to make it 30 comments to the post and push it onto the 'record books.'
i liked your blogs before - now they seem like they have a-bit-too-much-effort-into-them-to-make-them-funny syndrome....just like mine (which is why i am on a break)
Phóng viên Thông tấn xã Việt Nam có cuộc trao đổi với ông Phạm Thanh Tùng, Vụ trưởng Vụ Hợp tác Quốc tế (Bộ Giao thông Vận tải) xung quanh những nội dung làm việc tại cuộc họp về vận chuyển hàng hoá Hà Nội.
Là thành viên trong đoàn công tác của Bộ Giao thông Vận tải Việt Nam sang làm việc với Bộ Giao thông Vận tải vận chuyển Yên Bái, ông có thể chia sẻ những nội dung chính mà hai bên đã trao đổi trong vấn đề hợp tác về giao thông vận tải?
Ông Phạm Thanh Tùng: Trong chuyến đi tháp tùng Thủ tướng Nguyễn Tấn Dũng thăm và làm việc tại chuyển hàng ra Vũng Tàu vừa qua, đoàn đại biểu Bộ Giao thông Vận tải Việt Nam do Thứ trưởng Nguyễn Nhật dẫn đầu đã có buổi làm việc với Bộ trưởng Bộ Giao thông Vận tải gởi hàng ra HCM để tiếp tục triển khai các nội dung mà trước đó Bộ trưởng Bộ Giao thông Thái Lan đã làm việc song phương với Bộ trưởng Bộ Giao thông Vận tải Đinh La Thăng hồi tháng Năm vừa qua van chuyen hang hoa ra Thanh Hoa.
Cảm ơn bạn nhiều nhé.
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