Half a Ton Thanks.... 15 unknown facts

Ladies and gentlemen, in case you didn’t notice the world’s best blog ‘My Times’ has crossed the No.50 mark. I guess it calls for a treat. Yes, as a treat I am going to write down things you may not know about ‘My Times’.

1. . My real name has never been Jon or John or Johnson. I always had the fancy for the name John from childhood. It could be because of the dashing young jeweler with the name Johnson. It could also be due to my dashing and handsome cousins with the surname John. Besides right from the kindergarten to college, there were 2-3 people sharing my name. They all were either dumb or geek. At least in my blog I chose the name I like.

2. Blogging happened purely due to situations beyond my control. I was asked to come in as a part time author for a private blog. As I started writing for the blog I realized I had the potential to write. Very soon the blog closed down. But it opened to me the new horizon of blogosphere. Thanks to my old friend and quite famous blogger Praveen, I kick started ‘My Times’.

3. I am particularly sensitive towards the hypocrisy around. I hate news papers and magazines using media as a platform to illegitimately spread their propaganda by publishing tweaked news. I wanted to interpret the happenings around in my way. Hence I went for a name resembling a daily- my own daily. Thus came the name ‘My Times’.

4. The dull and boring hours in the office also accelerated the birth of ‘My Times’. I found no meaning in the work. I wanted to do something that mattered.

5. The first step was to check if I was good enough to be a blogger. So I started writing down some 10 posts before I started the blog. Contrary to my plans ‘My Times’ went online in one unbearable morning. The rough draft of a blog is still written down in a notebook before it goes online.

6. First few blogs were typed from my office PC. Later I brought a laptop of my own. That was one of the best purchases I ever did.

7.. As soon as I started blogging I realized that the biggest challenge is to optimize the length of a post.

8. Once I met an old school pal in a park, unexpectedly. I decided to write about it. That is when I realized I could narrate stories very well.

9. I got pissed off at my good friend because he wronged someone. I wrote about it and feels guilty about even to this day.

10. I went on with a pathetic template for a long time before I settled on with the present one. I hate to tweak the HTML.

11. In the initial stages I marketed the blog directly to my friends. I stopped doing that soon. When I started ‘My Times’ I had this idea that I will turn out to be a blogger with hundreds of followers and hundreds of comments on every post. A few months back I realized that I will never be a famous blogger. I made peace with myself.

12. I try my best to do a minimum of 5 posts every month.

13. Once upon a time I realized ‘My Times’ is growing cluttered with so many meaningless posts. Thus started ‘Think’. ‘Think’ is to put small, unrefined posts that can spark the reader. I put posts on it impromptu and most of them are big craps. But to my surprise people love craps rather than good blogs.

14. One day I went ahead and brought a camera. Thus started my photo blog ‘Photo tells a story’. Today I don’t put any images in ‘My Times’.

15. I felt really good when quite good bloggers started following my bog (very rare. Doesn’t happen now).

Blogging is lonely affair. There are times I get depressed when I feel that my blog doesn’t matter to anyone. At such times people who say ‘You write well’ matters a world to me. During my initial days Praveen followed and commented on my blogs without fail. That is a reason ‘My Times’ is going strong to this day. Then there is my good friend Kalaam’s sister who claims I have got so many female fans ;). Although I don’t have the reason to believe that, her words gave me a sense of pride that propels me more. Then there are countless people like Vattu, Kalaam few of my colleagues who still push me for one another post. Thanks a lot good people.