13th Blogversary

13th Blogversary | Blog Anniversary Gratitude Post

13 years!

It’s surreal. 

And it is a Friday too, which makes it Friday the 13th. Haha. (I know it’s a bad one).

Every year on this day when I look back I surprise myself at the journey. Never in my wildest dream, I imagined I would make it this far. But here I am. Knowing me, along with the feedback I received from close ones over the years, it is even more unrealistic to reach here.

Won’t be summarising the last year this time, like the 12th blogversary post as most of the blogging was limited to travel and poetry. But yeah happy and content that it was consistent. Been off the boil for the past couple of months but poetry wise I believe it has been a good year with Soul Craft still doing decent and me writing a lot of new pieces both in Hindi and English.

As a mark of celebration, let’s talk a little bit about the journey this time and the people who joined and left along the way. Any blogger or writer would confirm that though the process of content creation happens in solitary and for it to flourish it has to be around a community. 

I have been lucky and blessed that way. There was always the support of loved ones, writing and blogging platforms and definitely community members, some of whom became lifelong friends along the way. I struggle with ‘I scratch You scratch’ and hence I consider myself lucky that there are so many who appreciated the honesty whether in writing or feedback or editing and stuck around over the years. 

What makes this form of content creation difficult and unpredictable is that you continuously lose friends, community members and more importantly platforms and it comes down to your own will and hunger to continue dishing out more and more. A testament to the fact is most of the blogging-related platforms from the early 2010s have closed down shop.

Read how I began here

When I began, the term blogging itself wasn’t that popular, the likes of Facebook were in their infancy, Orkut was the main thing and one required an invite to even create a gmail account. Barring a couple of names I can hardly name fellow bloggers and writers who started then and are still consistently pursuing the art. Some quit and then later came back. But most of the bloggers I encountered hopped onto the train for a couple of years and then their impatience took over which led to them quitting. 

Well, anyway. I am still here and still don’t see any plans to quit in the nearby future though it hardly helps in making ends meet but still here. When I am down and out and not able to come up with the goods it is the mentoring that helps. Seeing your input do wonders for friends and fellow community members; motivates and strengthens your belief in your own thought process. 

Now with the advancement of AI, I fear we will see more and more people either dropping out or taking its help but for me, the fun still lies in the original creation process. My biggest motivation is that I want to be known as the guy who was at it till he breathed his last.

A special shoutout to those friends who encourage and egg me on despite being in conventional corporate fields. When they say, ‘What we are doing can be done by anyone but what you are doing is rare and takes courage’ is the true fuel. 

I take this opportunity to express heartfelt gratitude to all those who have stood by me in this journey especially the ones who are always after my life to write more and more. They know who they are. A vote of thanks to those who find faults and are critical of my work as they present an opportunity for me to reflect, introspect and work on becoming a better version of myself.

Thank you – Shraddha Mukul, Prachi, Rashi Roy, Namratha Varadharajan, Puspanjalee Das Dutta, Dhanya S Nambiar, Pooja Kabra, Priyanka Joshi, Deepika Sharma, Chinmayee, Aanandika Sood, Paresh Godhwani, and Atul Maharaj

With a promise to be more consistent and wow you with more and more of my work, I humbly bow down for your love, affection and appreciation.

For all those who have been a constant source of support

For all those who have been a constant source of inspiration

For all those who have been critical of my work

And 

For all those who want me to succeed at everything I pursue

It’s not a goodbye

But it is a Good Bye.

Manas ‘Sameer’ Mukul