6 years, 458 posts, 3,87,765 words…

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later, it’s that time of the year again. That time when I review the blogging year(s) gone by, where I reflect a bit, whine a bit, make a confession or two… All because its my 6th blog anniversary or blogversary today. 🙂

When I published my first post on this day 6 years ago on the Bandra Fort in Mumbai, it was with the hope that I would be blogging for a long time to come. And yet, each time a blogversary comes around, I’m surprised, and secretly proud, that I have lasted for so long!

For those who came in late or have not followed my blogging journey, let me summarise the first five years of my blogging journey. While the first year was an exciting time of exploring and finding my feet in the blogging world, the second year was a heady period of peer appreciation and recognition. The third year was when I got a reality check in the form of severe writer’s block and negativity and bullying in the blogging world. In year four, I faced extreme blogging fatigue, and took time to slowly reclaim the pleasure of blogging. In contrast, year five was my most relaxed year of blogging where I did exactly what I wanted to do blog-wise.

We now come to Year Six and the question — what was it like? The 6th year of blogging has been the strangest and the most challenging year of blogging so far and can be divided into two very distinct phases. In the first phase, I wrote/blogged furiously almost as if my life depended on it, averaging 7 blogposts per month. The second phase saw me writing just 4 posts over 4 months — 3 in the month of February and 1 in May. Perhaps for the first time, I didn’t write a single post for two months (March and April) in a row.

Actually, it would be incorrect to say that I didn’t write; it would be more correct to say that though I wrote, I didn’t publish any blogposts. My drafts folder contains about 16 draft blogposts from my Uzbekistan trip, book reviews written as part of #TSBCReadsIndia, a post on a sculptural panel from a new series I have planned on Indian Art, as well as posts from a trip taken to Tamil Nadu earlier this year, and more. I don’t know why I haven’t published the posts in yet. I wish I had an answer for that; all I can say that I didn’t feel like doing so.

I received an overwhelming number of mails and messages from many of you wondering if there was something wrong and if this blog was shutting down. I will repeat the answer I gave them here. The answer is no. An emphatic NO. There is nothing wrong and this blog is not shutting down. Eventually, sometime in the future, it may morph into something else or shut down, but that time is not now. Everything needs a time out or a vacation once in a while and this was mine.

I feel ready to end this “blog vacation” and become active once again. There are posts in the draft folder to finalise and publish, as well as new posts to write. There are opportunities in the horizon that I hope will work out leading to more experiences to share with you here on “My Favourite Things”.

The 6 years of blogging with 458 posts comprising 3,87,765 words, 45 videos, 1 audio, and 2,436 images, have elicited 4,60,710 page views, 11,564 comments, and 87,495 spam comments. I’m all set for Year Seven of blogging and see what it has in store for me.

I have lots of exciting new ideas to put out on the blog and can’t wait to get started. A big thanks to all of you for the love, encouragement, support, concern and reminders, and more. 🙂


PS: And for those of you who didn’t miss reading my posts, pretend that you didn’t read this post and wait for the next one. Yes, there will be a next one soon, and then another, and then another… 😛


The Blogging Journey… Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 | Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 | Year 10 |


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35 thoughts on “6 years, 458 posts, 3,87,765 words…

    1. I agree that it is “Bahut Nainsafee”. But what to do – the mind works in such mysterious ways. I have tried to remedy that now by finailsing and publishing the the first of them on the fortified inner town of Khiva. Hope you enjoy reading it, but than that I hope you visit Uzbekistan one day.

      Thanks, Prasad.

      Like

    1. Thank you so much, Nutsure. I usually enjoy wring my blog posts. Don’t know what happened this time. Still, I’m back in action in my 7th year with a new post published yesterday night. 🙂

      Like

  1. Congrats on the beginning of your 7th year in the blogging world! You know, normally a round0up of the year sounds sort of similar year after year (at least mine usually do), but yours read different every year, though like most of us you do a rounding up of the years past. That is what makes me come back to read you, post after post. And oh, have I told you that when I read your travel posts, I feel as if I am sharing the experiences of say, Alice or Dorothy? 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. My yearly roundups sound the same too, Zephyr. The whining is a constant across the years ! 😛

      Thank you so much for your wishes, love, support, encouragement, plain talking and those mails telling me to correct typos and what not. What would I have done without you?

      Hope you enjoy travelling with me in the months and years to come.

      PS: Hope you like today’s visit to Khiva 😉

      Like

  2. Congratulations on completing 6. All those posts in the draft folders has got my lip smacking. I have been following your blog for the past two years and have loved every post written, I can read them even now as they do not feel dated at all. This is a lovely place to be.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. ” I can read them even now as they do not feel dated at all.”
      That is very high praise indeed, Lata. You made my day, no many days for a long time to come. Thank you so much for reading, liking, and most importantly giving feedback. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Calls for a cake-cutting in the real world. And not just for the milestone – not many bloggers have been able to maintain such variety and consistently high quality content.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m glad too, Anon. There is so much more left to write and share. But taking this break was good too. I needed it.

      Thanks for your wishes. 🙂

      Like

  4. Sudhagee, congrats for the blogversary. What a beautiful journey. High time you publish the drafts lying. I have quite a few too and need to edit and hit publish. Some of them dates back to 2008 and quite a personal post when I was leaving Mumbai over heart break!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hello Vishal, so good to see you here after ages. And thank you so much for your wishes.:)

      Don’t you think its high time that at least some of the drafts saw the light of the day? On a lighter note, I’m glad these drafts are only about 2-3 months old !

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you so much, MM. You are also, I think a reader ( and now a dear friend) who has been reading my blog and celebrated all my 6 blogaversaries. Thank you so much once again.

      PS: Please start blogging again.

      Liked by 1 person

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