I blog, therefore I am!

“People call me a blogger. I generally shy away from the term because to me, bloggers are boring, self-obsessed narcissists who use their website mainly as a means to discuss the inconsequential minutiae of their day to day life.”

So says – not I, folks – an anonymous writer on the net. I bet you guys thought I said it, right? But, I couldn’t possibly have said such a thing. Firstly, I don’t even know the meaning of most of the long words in it and I can’t pronounce them either without biting my tongue.

The concept of ‘blogging’ first appeared around the late 1990’s apparently – a blog being a short form of the term ‘web log’ which consisted of text entries on the web in chronological order of date. Among other things that people did with their blogs, many recorded events and activities that updated friends and relatives on what they were up to. There you are – inconsequential minutiae?

When I announced to the world somewhere in late 2016, that I had decided to start blogging, it was not surprising that a friend of mine shied away like I had just sneezed thousands of coronas on her. Can’t blame her. She fervently requested me not to write about – in the anonymous writer’s words – inconsequential minutiae. In her words – ‘what time I woke up, what I had for lunch and what I did after.’

I assured her I wouldn’t.

The idea of blogging didn’t simply come to me overnight. I used to write as far back as I can remember. There were plenty of opportunities for me to take up my creative pen. I regularly wrote for my college magazine. And then there was an Inter-College Festival which ran a writing contest one year – Write-A-Lot – and my humor entry won the 1st prize. People sat up and took note then. From there to writing short humorous ‘middles’ for the local newspapers of Goa was a hop, skip and jump.

Then there was a long gap of no writing at all. Let’s blame it on marriage and all its consequences. It would be years later that I would take up a pen again.

Until then I had never paid any heed to the blog world. I only knew that Amitabh Bachchan blogged and so did Twinkle Khanna. Celebrity stuff ya know.

One fine day I decided that celebrity or not Radhika Acharya would blog too.

This earth-shattering decision being made, the next step was to set up my site. Now, I always was, am and forever will be on, not so friendly terms with computer and technical related issues. So my best option – rope in my tech-savvy twin sons into this grand project.

I therefore dashed off a longish message to one of them via WhatsApp. I ‘wrote-a-lot’ in my message if I remember – about blogs in general, my blog in particular and finally ended the epic message by rather belatedly asking if he knew how to set up one.

“Yeah,” he wrote back. Brief. To the point. Obviously we won’t see this chap entering any ‘write-a-lot’ contests!

Pretty soon, the dear fellow set up my own wee little blog with all its trimmings. I simply came, I saw and I wrote. Traffic was slow, stats were depressing … but I wrote, because I loved it. No aspirations, no ambitions. Just blogging.

I would have gone on ‘just blogging’ till Judgement Day probably but fate had other plans. The A 2 Z Blog challenge happened. And how! 26 posts, one for each alphabet each day through the month. That, I tell you, changed the scene.

The online blogging platform Blogchatter dared me to think beyond blogs into the covers of a book. With the luxury of Kindle Direct Publishing and the encouragement and support of my new online blogging friends, I converted the 26 posts written in 10 days flat, into book format in 5 days flat, in spite of the fact that MS Word tried its best to bring me down to my knees. Did I mention that I have twin sons? They come in handy at times like this.

Thus was born my 1st book The Adventures of the JP Family. Although I have miles to go before I can call myself an author, I’ll get there some day.

For now, with one e-book on Amazon and another baking in the oven, the scene looks kinda cool. It’s no more just celebrity stuff.

Amitabh Bachchan blogs. So do I. Twinkle Khanna writes books. So do I!

Cheers!

I’m taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa 2020.

And I also take this opportunity to dangle my book under your nose with the fond hope that you go check it out! 🙂

The Adventures of the JP Family – a fun filled book of short stories about a fun family!