Saturday, September 8, 2007

Of Friends, Me and Our Blog...

Hectic schedules, busy days, work pressures, pending household chores, issues in projects, spreading epidemics and absconding team members... all these and more have squeezed the life out of us. And it is during such times we look upon friends, we look for outings ... we look for stress busters!
It is at this point that I started blogging...with the only intention of relieving some stress (and believe me writing or speaking out your thoughts does relieve quite a lot!) I started thinking out of my daily chores and the office pressures, and the change in thoughts made me feel better. Then came the question, "Don't my friends have the same pressures?? Do they not need stress busters?? Then why don't I apporach them. Reading and writing might not be a stress reliever for some, but atleast reading the blog and pondering over the topics would definitely be refreshing!" With this thought, I decided to make it "OUR blog". Initially I had to follow-up...but then friends started typing their thoughts and it was a wonderful response.

It was good to know that my friends have loved the content and appreciate the matter. Pradnya says "pratyek blog nava watto...each time a fresh new topic" while Janhavi likes our blog as it does not have gyaan sessions. Another friend, Sunny Boy aka Suraj mentions of simple writing being the virute that compells reading the blog to the full, rather than scanning through. One of my friends who is a master at blogging, Nagesh anna, appreciates the topics chosen saying they are filled with joy and evoke positiveness.

Let me be honest here! The topics that I chose were more related to my life and the intention were to make these as positive as possible so that my dear friends who have been contributing so generously, feel that the blog is actually a stress reliever. And Nagesh anna's comments probably fit here the best, "What i like about your blog, is that you are giving an opportunity to all your friends to speak out. Not everyone is hyperactive enough on the net to maintain their own blogs. Initiative like yours will encourage them as they see their words being read and appreciated on your blog." A few friends who have been reading our blog have started their own blogs now...and if our blog has inspired them to do so, I would be very happy about it.

The unique matter of our blog probably is the header that change every week. Some have appreciated this as on weekly basis, some during the feedback. For me it has been a wonderful blogging experience so far and I hope it has been for all my friends who have been a part of it. The post about Aaee was the one that received most comments (that was very obvious) and the next was about friends. Ashwini says "your friends blog is really emotional"


Continuing on the introspection/reviews, let me put some things that have been suggeted to be worked upon and the plans further:


The first feeling that I received said that though the topics were good and were well edited, they seemed to be cut short and made small. I agree with this point and I am planning to re-visit all the topics again with more emphasis on some sub-topics. However for the current, I am keeping topics as open as I can, so that any person who can contribute without having to think much.

The second is probably most common so far...our blog has been a good reading experience as it wasn't completely the "me" thing, instead it was "our"...which reduced the personal touch and made it a sort of 'others experience'. Now this point is a dual sided point and there is no hard-line that says so-much of me and so-much of others would be a perfect combo. So what I am looking at doing is adding my own experiences as and where I can, so that our blog is still "ours" and at the same time, has a personal touch too.

And finally as Sunny boy suggested I am working on adding my own style of writing...

Overall, our blog has been good...thanks to all your contributions. At the same time, since the only thing that is constant is change, I'll keep changing our blog, our topics and the style of writing to keep up with the change, try covering more on every topic. Your inputs, suggestions and feedbacks have been very helpful...so please do have them coming in!

The topic for next week, very obviously is the Almighty Lord Ganesh Festival, so please post in your memories of the wonderful festival. The week after that we would be talking about the hazzards and problems that we create while celebrating the festival. So keep emailing to ash.nadkarni@gmail.com

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