10th Blog Anniversary

10th Blog Anniversary |Gratitude post

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10 years it is!! I still can’t believe it. I never imagined that I would be writing this gratitude post in June of 2020 and my blog would be up and alive and in the best shape of its life.

The year was 2002 (If I remember correctly)

It was a parents-teachers meeting day in school and our answer sheets from a recently conducted quarterly examinations were to be shown to our parents. Yeah, you read it right! The current generation won’t relate to it but back in those days, the parents were invited to royally and publically humiliate and scold their children. No parent ever seemed satisfied even if their child scored 95 out of 100. They would still crib for those 5 marks left unsecured.

I was standing in the middle of the classroom, accompanied by my parents and sister, surrounded by many of my classmates along with their parents. Suddenly I realized almost everyone in the classroom had frozen and was looking at me. The classmates had sympathy in their eyes for me, as they too were victims of similar fate and all the parents had the same all-these-kids-are-donkeys look on their faces. It was my father’s roar after seeing the marks I scored in the English language exam, that had transpired the scene.      

“I wonder what will happen to your future. Do you want to sell vegetables? Remember I will only spare 500 rupees and that’s it. That is all you will get from my side. You are neither creative nor imaginative. How can someone score in a single-digit in a thirty-marks essay? Look at your younger sister, how wonderfully she has scored in her exams,” He said angrily and was gradually nearing the top of his voice.  

I wanted to retort, “She is hardly creative or imaginative. Half the time of her existence has gone in sleeping. I am imaginative too, just that I am bad at expressing” but given the sudden rise in the classroom’s temperature, I chose to quietly continue gazing at the single digit that I scored.

Everyone slowly got engrossed in their kid’s answer sheets after listening to how I have spoiled the legacy of my entire family and brought disrepute to the lineage. Though it is of other matter than ninety percent of them didn’t even attend school. But that line about being not able to write creatively hurt me and stuck with me. Forever.

Two things happened – that moment unconsciously sowed the seed of writing inside me and we never asked Papa to come to any of the parents-teachers meetings ever again.

In the next examination, I wrote an essay about how the world would be hundred years from now and to everyone’s surprise, including my father’s, the essay scored the highest and was read in all the sections of my class that year.

I wrote my first article ‘Incomplete Friendship’, at the behest of one of my friends, as he was compiling write-ups at the end of our school-life. Post that I wrote many write-ups, letters, essays and stories that never got published. My family didn’t receive any of those letters and they still remain within the confines of my barely alive hard-disks.

The year was 2010 (This time I remember correctly)

I realized that I had too much spare time post my break up from a six-year-old relationship. I had recently read ‘Five Point Someone’ and felt yeah, I could write something like that too. And that is how this blog was born.

Initially signed up for a free wordpress.com after a lot of search and research. The word blog itself was so new to me. Hardly did I know anyone, who knew of this term, let alone blogging. I was on my own to create it from scratch. And that is what I did. Learned each and everything that I know of blogging, step by step, committing mistakes after mistakes, doing multiple hit and trials to reach where I am today. In fact, ‘The Contemplation of a Joker’ was not even the name with which I began, though was smart enough to purchase the domain manasmukul.com then only.

Last year when I went self-hosted, I did that from scratch too on my own, but this time I was way more confident than the first time I launched the free one.

This journey, like any other, has seen its share of ups and downs. There were phases where I didn’t feel inspired enough to write. On a couple of occasions, I was even on the verge of quitting blogging for good but somehow resisted that urge. Know so many people who began with me in 2010 and gave it all up within a year or so. It totally depends on what motivates you to start.

The dream was to be a published author with a couple of paperbacks to my name by now. The dream was to take my blogging to a financially sustainable level where I could focus on it full-time. But when have dreams materialized into reality so easily. They require certain discipline and dedication, maybe I lacked that or maybe not. But, if not for those dreams then I wouldn’t have been still pursuing writing ten years down the line.

If Papa would have been there he’d be the happiest seeing me pursue my passion without caring for the fact whether it has contributed to my bank balance or not. I still remember how happy he got on occasions after reading my posts – he would take print outs of them. The one I wrote on demonetization he shared among his office colleagues.

Well, if I continue I will end up writing a book on this last decade of my blogging. On this 10th blog anniversary there are a few names that I want to express my sincere heartfelt gratitude to – without them I would have run out of fuel long back.

Shraddha Mukul – This blog wouldn’t have existed without this name. My ever so patient sister, my first and harshest critic – I am sure she is getting ready to thrash this one too.

Balvinder Kaur – My mother, who has always been there for me, no matter how good or bad I have been as a son.

Rashi Roy – my super co-host of the two blog hops and a buddy. A lot of recent success the blog has seen is because of this person believed in the Joker. Only I know how she manages to put up with my temper.

Shalini R – my first friend from the blogging universe and one of the best bloggers that I personally know. We have both told each other so many times that we are quitting and still manage to stay afloat.

Souravi Paul – a dear friend, who has the biggest belief in me that I am a writer and has always egged me on to pursue my passion and dreams.

Prateek Wadhwa – my school buddy, who is always ready to critically review my work and is always very kind to share his photography work for free.

Riddhi Sharma and Anukriti Sharma who were always there with their support, reading every work and ever ready with their constructive feedback for me to improve on. 

Pragun – a virtual friend with a virtual name, who reads every poetry of mine and shares her take on it.

Shivani Salil – a kind-hearted soul, who gave me a unique opportunity and honoured me by associating with her book and painstakingly going through the first chapter of my forever incomplete book.

Vibhu Gaur, Piya Gajbe, Nidhi Rawal Gautam, Noor Anand Chawla, Vartika Mehrotra Gakhar, Priyanka Nair, Sonia Dogra, Deepika Sharma – each one of them have been instrumental in their own way in this 10-year-old blogging and writing journey. No words can express my gratitude towards them.

To all the participants of both our hops and the writers of the anthology ‘The Woman That I Am’ – thank you so much for believing in us and supporting us.

Forever thankful to the platforms like Blogchatter, Blogadda and recently closed Indiblogger and Blogmint. They truly bring the community magic to life.

And above all to all my readers and visitors of my blog, without them, the Joker won’t be smiling.

I am sure I am missing a couple of names but each and every person who has read me, appreciated and criticized me and helped me grow in this writing journey – You all have a special place in my heart. THANK YOU ALL.

Love. Hugs. Cheers.

If you have reached till here don’t leave now. There is a link to the ‘Joker Trivia’ on the 10 years of ‘The Contemplation of a Joker’ at the end. Follow all the rules and answer all the questions and you could win exciting AMAZON vouchers.   

Click the Image or the link HERE for the Trivia.

For all those who follow their passion,

For all those who write,

For all those like my writing,

And

For all those who have celebrated their 10^th Blog Anniversary

It’s not a good bye,

But it’s a GOOD BYE…

Manas ‘Sameer’ Mukul

Read how I celebrated the 9th Blog Anniversary.