My day started with a pleasant realisation that took me spiralling down the memory lane. A notification from wordpress that said I completed two years of blogging today.
2 years. 731 days. Many hundred hours. And just as many memories. Days of lows and highs, joys and sorrow, exhilaration and tears.
So many things happened and so much changed that I feel compelled to stop here briefly and take a stock of things.
Two years ago when I gingerly began this journey, I was at such a stage in life, that I had completely lost my mojo. Plagued with self-doubt and confusion, I had completely lost faith in my decision-making abilities. I wanted a space to rant and vent my thoughts, a place where I could momentarily lose myself and escape from the normal go-to-office-come-back-home routine. A goal, a purpose, a thing…a ‘something’ that I could call my own. A ‘something’ that I was doing for the pure joy of doing, and without expecting much in return.
I knew nothing about blogging. Truth be told, I wasn’t even that much of a reader of other people’s blogs. I had just heard about wordpress being one of the new blogging platforms. I joined wordpress, because everybody else was joining blogspot. I didn’t know how to set it up or how it should even look like. I didn’t know that I could have chosen a name, other than my own, for the url. (Now I am stuck with my own name). I figured everything on my own, one small step at a time. I didn’t know if I will survive for long. And I definitely didn’t know if I will find any readers at all. The day I got my first comment (other than that of a friend’s), a first follower, I swear I could have jumped with joy. Even today, almost 15000 hits and 600+ followers later, I still feel the same excitement with every new comment and every new follower.
I survived. 731 days later, here I am. Blogging about life in general. My life, my observations, little tid-bits from Here and There. And it is so humbling to know that there are people who like this space, people who diligently read, who take their precious time out to comment each time I post something, who wait patiently for me to come back and talk when I disappear for days, sometimes weeks at a time. People who are patient, forgiving, encouraging, and motivating. People who have written in to me saying that they love to read my simple blabbering. Many lovely readers who have sent me texts and emails saying that they relate to what I write; that the easy-breezy nature of my blogs occupies their time when they want to relax and unwind.
And wasn’t that my only aim in the first place? I never wanted my blog be a place of serious discussions, arguments or grave topics of national/international interests. In my mind, I always pictured my reader reading with that tiny little smile on his face. My reasoning, very simple as it is, was that there are enough complex things in this world for a person to dodge. Let this place not be one of those. And your repeated trust in me makes me believe that I may have somewhat succeeded in this…umm this endeavour?! I thank you all for being a part of my journey and for being such a wonderful, motivating audience.
Even now there are days when I feel why bother, why write, is it making any difference to anyone, would anyone care if I stopped writing? After all, I don’t have a subject-specific blog. This is just a place for random musings. May be I should stop. But eventually, I always come around from these thoughts and remind myself that it doesn’t matter how many readers I have. What matters the most is that I write for my own joy and my peace of mind. This one thing I started in times of adversity has seen me rise from the lowest pits of darkness to the happiest days of my life. This blog has been my true companion. And as long as my heart is in it, I shall continue my affair with allthingsworldly. If I do stop, it will only be for the right reasons.
So what really changed in these 731 days? A LOT. My life did a 180 degree spin. And of course the biggest has to be my MARRIAGE. I met TCG and knew instantly that he is the answer to all my prayers, and didn’t waste any time in making my moves on him and hooking up with him. Took a sabbatical from work, enjoyed that little time off with my lovely family before the D-day. 2 months later flew to NZ and crooned to a smiling TCG at the airport Saat samundar paar main tere peeche, peeche aa gayi…main tere peeche, peeche aa gayi, much to his amusement. Slowly setteled in to the ‘Kiwi” way of life, spent copious amounts of time looking for a job and landed one. Travlled through NZ, marvelled at the beauty surrounding me, basked in the sun and the sand, braved the winter, the storms and the earthquakes. Missed, missed, missed my family, my friends and my hometown Mumbai.
But the most satisfying part of this journey has been self-discovery. I finally acknowledged to myself that I love being in the kitchen. I love cooking. And I love dreaming about what my future may hold for me. I have spent half my waking-hours in the kitchen in the past many months, whipping up desserts, baking, cooking and trying my hands at many cuisines. There are so many new tastes that I have picked up, and so many new additions I have made to our diet in the past few monthts that I hadn’t done in all these past years put together. And it really helps that both TCG and I are always open to experimentation. TCG is always very appreciative of my experiments in kitchen and hence I am always looking forward to try new things…for him.
For me, cooking is therapeutic, it gives me a high. It truly makes me happy. I always loved cooking but discovered this passion only lately. And it has all happened in these most wonderful 731 days (Things I am grateful for Reason: #23).
all things worldly... 