Member Praises

Flashback

Ardra Vamshi

Been reading all those nostalgia laden blogs…could not resist retracing my own steps ..just checked and saw that my first blog as posted on Jun 26th ..2003

How did it begin for me??

Well, I had been a Sulekha visitor from, I think 99 or 2000- my brother told me about it- subscribed to the option of rec’g selected articles in my mail…used to read most of the articles regularly- sent an article to sulekha and when I re’cd the review and letter of acceptance- WOW! That I was thrilled would be an understatement- floated in the ninth heavens for weeks…

Time passes- posted 2 more articles- interacted with a few sulekhites erratically- got good tips on writing effectively from some experts…but my muse had gone into hiding…still kept lurking around silently…peeked into CH once a while, but never participated..used to read some of the threads randomly-

And then, last June , got a notification in my mail about sulekha weblogs…actually had tried my hand at blogging on one other blog site- but was stumped with all the technical voodoo- html tags, hyperlinking- and stuff- all that went over my poor head.. had concluded that blogging was not meant for me.

Peeked into weblogs…hmmm- interesting- read the faqs…okay sounds easy…got myself registered- now what do I blog- I had this habit of keeping a diary- not a day to day record…just now and then when I feel like it, so hunted down those old diaries, dusted them , skimmed through them, zeroed in on a few entries and went on a blogging binge…at one go…(deleted some of them later)

Waited eagerly- yeah for the comments to pour forth- kept checking every hour for the comments- no- nobody had read my blogs, I thought..nevermind- I kept reading the others- occasionally posted comments- I think it was to Venkkk’s blogs that I posted comments first- and that too as a blog- and Presto! My blogs rec’d comments- it was not a planned maneouvre, but that is what did it- I had not then realized one could send personal mails to another blogger- then posted another blog comment to BBG- and by then I was slowly finding a space in blogdom…then I think I eventually posted a couple of blogs for Maria and Sara…

Initially, I think I pondered over topics to blog- usually was inspired by some other blog, and nowadays, I think it is just simple sharing- no trying to cook up topics- the people around have become so familiar that perhaps the comraderie makes me overlook format, spellings, pattern and other writing rules.

I do not r’member how I stumbled into checking my mailbox in my blogger id- and I was pleasantly surprised to find 2 personal mails from other bloggers…and that is how it all began in my case.

It has been an interesting interaction, because one can relate to different people at different levels- like the completion of different picture jigsaws/facets that constitute one’s persona- with different friends.

Like Maria said if the virtual life interferes and distracts with real life, then perhaps its not very healthy- well, that happened to me, when some time around Jan, Feb I think, I had some problem with the blog pages- they would not get stored in the history files for offline reading- I would have downloaded all the pages for reading and then later when I sat to read them offline- to my consternation, the pages could not be accessed- and I remember, I hve to confess, I was not a very pleasant person in real life those few days- Thankfully for my family- somehow the problem got solved by itself, and I was back to normal- so much for withdrawal symptoms.

Along this one year, blogs has evolved, changed…continuously- there were times when I felt it might fade away..there are a few friends who dropped off in between disillusioned, disappointed, sad. There was the spam deluge- then there were angry, bitter blogs…and yet some of us remained…

There have been some real good strong talents- I r’member Aditi- she wrote so well, I think Samantha and she are into real time writing-

Some other names that one no longer sees are- Momento, Mt. Cleverest, Maitrayee, Mez_charu,. Such Angst, Icyborg, Lavish jack, Sigmund Fraud. Dijkstras,Dazzle, Smita samm, Deadman walking ,Aparna, Abhi, Ashwin, , Beantown, Nisha,Fluteholder,Du Hast Mich,- Samantha, Clairvoyant, Reemaa, Reticence- (wonder what happened to her hopeless love story- Reti, if you’re out there, do let us know) ,Superstar, Hermione, Alka,. Venkkkk. Ravi Anbil – Amu, Ponds, BCM, Stan, TBT, Writer, Lady Jawan,. K-Leo, and of course Unni KK , who had promised to come back.

My Hi to Maria, BBG, Sharmila, Reshmi, Atracus Thullika, SSM, Fizo, MzTIC, Meenakshi, Blithe Spirit, Yosso, Nishi, Sanjana, Srinivasan T.V, void, Crystal, crimson, Jelly, Lalouve, tocsin, kculon, Anagha, Nithya, another1, sweet surrender, Saranya, Navinav, Karmic Kartoon, Warpster, PP, Pradzie, IBL, Ananth, Sauparnika, Anetra, Bookworm, Nagin, Jaya balaji, Asha, expo,el enigma, dogmatix, shpriya, Indian, Anush ( I wanted to specially mention your name- keep writing), Locks (where’re u?) .

Friends, I wanted to write everybody’s name- …Maria says- there are 2000 bloggers now…my, that’s a tough one…so please excuse me those whom I’ve missed…

Hope to see all of us next year too…

Luv Ardra