What does blogging mean to me?

Last fortnight, Gangadhar tagged me. Last week, I was reading this post Taggy …. Looking back! in Shark’s blog. I felt really nice reading her answers for all those questions about blog, bloggers and blogosphere. And this week, I got tagged by Vijay asking me to introspect about my blog. Is this a tagging season, I wonder!

Here I go…

1. Are you happy/ satisfied with your blog, with its content and look?

Looks wise, I am happy. The page has a clean white background with easy-to-read fonts. As for content, I would certainly like to do better. I envy when I read a few blogposts that are written excellently and wish I had written them.

2. Does your family know about your blog?

Yes (& my blog also knows about my family!). My wife, mother-in-law, uncles, aunts, sisters, nephew and nieces have all visited my blog. Waiting for my toddler son to read and comment in my blog in a few years!

3. Do u feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?

I don’t feel embarrassed to let people know about my blog. Some of my friends know about my blog. Would like to tell many more about my blog. Of course, I would definitely not brag about them everywhere.

4. Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?

Even before blogs started, I loved to read human interest stories. Newspapers and magazines were my source earlier. Now, apart from the papers and periodicals, I have the blogs where I get to read some fantastic stories. Blogs have been a steady source of information. I have made a lot of good friends through blogging. I think all these have caused many positive changes in my thoughts and outlook. Also, It is good to organise one’s stray thoughts. Writing them down imparts clarity. I have gained a lot by reading the comments of my blog friends, some of which have opened up new lines of thinking.

5. Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?

Before starting Rambling with Bellur, blog hunting and commenting was a favourite pastime. Even now, I often hunt for new blogs based on the topic of interest. Of course, I visit the blogs that I have blogrolled regularly.

6. What does visitors counter mean to you? Do you care about putting it in your blog?

Visitor count is a reflection of how popular your blog is. It lets me know who is visiting me and why.

7. Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?

I have met a few of the bloggers, talked to a few of them and corresponded with a few others. I have imagined how my bloggers/ readers would look in real life. Some of them have displayed their images on their blogs which is also helpful to get a clearer picture.

8. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?

You get to know a lot of smart people. You get to read their view points and experiences. You also get an opportunity to share your ideas and experiences with the blog world. I am glad that I started blogging as it has helped me in interacting with some of the best and brilliant minds. Recently, thanks to my blog, I got to chat with my next door neighbour after a long time.

9. Do you think that bloggers’ society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?

Bloggers write about what is happening in their lives and what is happening around them. They write about their friends, colleagues and relatives and many other things. In that sense, I feel blogs are an extension of the real world and is no way isolated from it. There are a lot of bloggers (whom I know) exchanging E-mails and also keeping in touch over phone, besides the occasional bloggers’ meetings.

10. Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it’s a normal thing?

Constructive criticism does not annoy me. I always feel there is a scope for improvement throughout one’s life. But there are people who criticise for the sake of doing it, which is bad.

11. Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them ?

Being addicted to newspapers and Politics, I neither fear them nor avoid them. Sometimes I look out for them. I like to look at politics in a satirical way.

12. Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?

Recently, the government acted foolishly by blocking all the blogs coming in the blogspot domain and that was an act we need to dissent seriously. A blog is another medium of communication. Sad that some people find a way to misuse every new invention. Blog world too has its share of saints and sinners like the real world.

13. Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?

Alongwith the final rites that I hope my son would do to me after my death, I would want him to take a Print-out of my last published blogpost, burn the page and mix the ashes with my body’s and immerse both at Pashchimavahini. In fact, I want to do a ‘Gaya Shraddha’ to both me and my blog! I don’t want to become a ‘Ghostwriter’ anyway.

14. What do you like to hear? What’s the song you might like to put a link to in your blog?

I would love to hear Classical music, especially Thyagaraja Pancharathna Krithis by Balamuralikrishna, Shankarabaharana Raaga by MS Subbulakshmi, Sahana Raaga by MD Ramanathan, Karaharapriya Raaga by Mandolin Shrinivas, Umayalapuram Sivaraman’s Mridanga, Kaapi Raaga by Ustad Bismillah Khan, to name a few. I also love hearing the Vedic Hymns. Old Kannada and Hindi film songs, Ghazals by Mehdi Hassan and Ghulam Ali and ‘Shakti’ are my favourites.

Would love to give a link to the Kannada folk song Dharani mandala madhyadolage known as Govina haadu which says the story of Punyakoti, the cow. Inspired by a folk tale, ‘Govina Haadu’ (The song of the cow) tells the story about Punyakoti, a pious cow. This simple and moving folk song ends with the triumph of the honest. Adbhuta, a hungry tiger, chances upon the gentle Punyakoti. The tiger is elated and gets ready to eat her. Punyakoti begs for a temporary stay so that she can go home to feed her calf. Adbhuta is certain Punyakoti will never return, but on good faith lets her go. Punyakoti feeds her calf, asks other cows to treat her little one as their own, and dutifully returns to the tiger. Adbhuta is stunned by this act of honesty, and stricken by guilt, chooses to jump off a cliff.

You can listen to the song here.
Also vist: http://mngudi.com/Gudi/govinahaadu.html

I now tag Mridula and Nilagriva plus anyone else who wants to take up this sweet taglet.

This was a very interesting tag and my honest thanks to Vijay for handing it over to me.