Blogging for 15 years

 

I recently completed 15 years on Blogger. 15 years ago, one fine morning, I suddenly had a brainwave. I wanted to have a blog of my own. I have no idea how such a thought corrupted my mind, or maybe, I do.

The world was a different place then. We were young, still coming to terms with the immense potential of the World Wide Web. I had been stringing together words to form sentences of value for a while, but the audience was a limited few. When you create something, no matter how miniscule, no matter how insignificant it might be to the cause of the society, you often tend to be overprotective of it. So was I, writing in last pages of notebooks or on small diaries with black covers that were shielded from prying eyes. Verses, mostly, and occasional stories that usually ended up in crumpled papers in the dustbin at the corner of the room.

15 years ago, I shed my inhibitions and decided to open up to a wider audience. I forayed into blogging on a whim, simply to unleash my voice on to the world. My words. My thoughts. My passion. Why not add to an already tensed planet? Distinctiveness was born, with an idea to be distinct, if anything. Unfortunately, there’s nothing distinctively distinct about this blog so far, but that will be dealt with in a different post, maybe a few hundred years later.

Anyway, at the end of January 2009, I wrote my first blog post - What makes Manchester United so special. The emotions are very raw, the writing flawed. Yet it comes across as exactly what it was meant to be - a young man's undying love for his football team. It is also an ode to my long friendship with Anirban and Sandeep, fellow Manchester United supporters. What would life be without football and friendship? Dull. Bland. Incomplete.

I recently revisited the post that started it all, 15 years on, and found myself peeking through the window at a picture of myself from years ago.

Reading your first post from a decade-and-a-half ago is a little different from opening a 15-year-old diary. If you love the first-raindrop-on-earth fragrance as you turn the pages of your old diary, you will be disappointed. There’s no such aroma in the air as you surf through blog and reach the point where it all began. It is also considerably less enchanting than turning the yellow-coloured pages of the past. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this little trip down the memory lane was just as enticing.

Words written on paper wither away, get lost, torn, burnt, but Distinctiveness survived, and I am glad that it did.

Because penning your emotions is a lot like supporting a club for more than two decades. You can hardly recall the exact day that the madness started, but does it really matter? Yet I do remember one of the very first verses I wrote as a teenager, ages ago. I remember proudly showing it to a few of my select friends at school. I remember getting it corrected from the established poet and lyricist in the house, who suggested the word ‘culmination’ and helped complete my verse.

It’s these small memories dotted in my writings that give them a special place in my life. This is why I hope Distinctiveness carries on. It is a common knowledge that art lasts longer than the artist. Although Distinctiveness is no art and I am no artist, I still hope that this blog survives simply to get my words across, long after I become dust in the wind. Maybe help the ones who seek solace, give hope to ones who need them. Perhaps lend a few spare smiles too? Maybe that’s too much to ask. Or too little.

I also hope that one fine morning, years later, when my son stumbles upon this URL – probably though an anonymous letter – he can get a little peek into the life, and thoughts, of his old man.

15 years. 49 blog posts. Pathetic average, but countless memories. Now let’s hope it doesn’t take another 15 years for the next one. Or the next 50.