Happy Birthday Equals 150th Post

I started blank

I knew nothing,

Slowly it grew

Step by step!!

Smiled and teased

Claps and stones

Courage with fear,

Lived and died too!

Three years voyage

Still rowing hard,

No looking back

Only pride, no regrets!

Three years back:

Sitting in a class beside the elephant hill at Ettimadai, I was really confused about blogging. Many of my classmates had a blog. The word blogging was a trendy topic of discussion during those days. Finally I too decided to start a blog. I asked my classmate Vidya about this. She was a new blogger that time and had no much idea on that. She said: “Just search ‘how to start a blog’ in Google”. Google re-directed me to BlogSpot.

BlogSpot asked me a blog title. A few names of my classmates’ blogs went through my mind. Suddenly, a name came to my mind: Voice of a Village Girl! Ok, let it be an option because even now I’m not sure whether my native is a real village. I tried for alternate names. Soon, I recognized this is the perfect name for my blog. With the picture of a few golden colored bangles as header image and a plain black template, I started my blog.

In the beginning, my intention of this blog was to publish my full news reports that I did as a part of academics. Usually, most of the news stories are edited by sub-editors before publishing it in our college journal, Campus Beats. Apart from removing unwanted words from the report, they are also forced to trim a few paragraphs in order to fit into the provided space while designing the news paper. I cannot blame them because I myself used to kill their stories mercilessly.

Today:

A real adventurous journey of three years from Roopa to roopz… Zero to 150 posts! I still cannot believe how I made it. There were ups and downs, appreciations and criticisms. Some were really harsh; while others were too sweet. Although I cannot claim that it is my life that I’d depicted here in this blog, I found a life in this world of blogging. I began this expedition without any expectation!

Earlier, I kept on nagging my friends to read, comment and follow my blog. I should thank them for not giving a blow on my face for irritating them. Following are those people who encouraged and supported me:

• Classmates, seniors, juniors and faculties of Amrita School of Communication
• My dear friends of Sreekrishna College
• My schoolmates of Peevees and Good Hope
• My colleagues and boss of Webnamaste
• My fellow blogger friends
• Facebook and Twitter friends
• Indiblogger, Blogger.com and WriteUp
• Microsoft Word (for providing me synonyms and correcting my sentence structure)
• My family, cousins and relatives

Even when I receive a few applauses for blog posts, the missing of Soni M Bhattathiripad is still a pain for me. I wrote a post about him in a hope that someone will give me positive news about him. Though the post created a sensation, that spirit did not long much. That missing still remains as an unsolved mystery. Hope Soni’s puzzle will be solved soon as the enquiry from the authorities is at a high speed today.

Writing 150 posts in 3 years and the role of SEO Executive taught me a few lessons:

1. Scribble whatever you wish (it is your blog)
2. Write every post as if it is your first blog post
3. Add maximum pictures to make the post colorful
4. Always consider the feedback of your readers
5. Never mix business in your personal blogs
   
6. Respond properly to the remarks of your readers
7. Read other blogs and do comment (not just a ‘nice post’)
8. Commenting on other sites can increase the traffic to your site
9. You can give positive or negative feedback
   
10. Criticize and point out the faults politely

Sorry for making you read such a long post! Three years or 150 posts is nothing in blogging. I still have a long way to go… Thank you world for accepting my blog and giving me a brand name- Village Girl!

Special Mention: Meenakshi, Anees, Vidya, Nimisha, Priya Sajith, Navin, Prajith, Priyanka Stephen, Vishnu, Renjith, Prajil Aman, Seethal, Vibin Das, Nisha Dilip, Jabir, Deepak Karthick, Leo, Vinod Bhattathiripad and Priya Mundekad