Youthcurry is now one year old. Well, technically 1 year and 4 days old so this post comes slightly late. But a milestone is a milestone, and a good time to stop and reflect. So, here are some reflections.
Why I started blogging
The question is: why didn't I start blogging earlier! Well, the answer is the few blogs I had come across were typical personal journals with illuminating entries like: "I ate X for breakfast and Y for lunch".
Why would I want to start sharing information like that with total strangers?
Well, gradually I realised blogging did not mean 'pathetic personal journal'. I was especially intrigued by the idea of using a blog to organise my thoughts on a 'specific' subject.
"Write on a subject you truly love - or something you are an expert in" was the advice all 'how to start blogging' tutorials had to offer. So I chose 'youth'. I mean sure I had studied economics and once attended a wine tasting but I certainly could not pass off as an 'expert' in those subjects!
Besides, youth was:
a) related to my line of work; making blogging feel less like timepass and more like a professional activity
b) a wonderfully broad area of expertise!!
The first post was the *most* difficult of all. I simply could not figure out where to start. Then, I chanced upon a report on Indian youth in Brand Equity which declared:""Gen Y is passe, say hello to the iGeneration or as they prefer to be known, iGen". Yeah right, I said to myself - and was stirred into writing this in response.
There has been no looking back since.
Writing is a discipline
And blogging is a tool that helps enforce it! You see everyday I would have several ideas, barely 1% of them ever got written as articles. In one year of Youthcurry, 245 such ideas were actually converted into blogposts. Which is amazing!
The other thing about blogging is that when you get a thought you can simply put it down, without agonising over the opening sentence, the word limit, whether it fits into a certain publication.
In effect you write with a more 'karmayoga' kind of attitude. Without worrying about the final result. Or whether you will be able to find and refer to this piece of writing 3 months from now....Because that 'labelling' and 'filing' is something that naturally occurs.
Comments or no comments?
When I started Youthcurry I decided to allow feedback - but not to reply. Replying, I felt took energy away from writing. Many commenters therefore dubbed be a 'blogsnob'.
Well, later I did change my view on that although I still don't reply to each and every comment. But I do read them all and note the feedback.
In fact feedback has, on more than one occassion helped me to polish up a blogpiece with additional perspective and/or facts before it's published in the mainstream. So you could say I sometimes use my blog to 'test market' my writing!
The good, the bad and the ugly
Blogging also brought me into contact with hundreds of strangers - most of them nice, decent, rational human beings. But there were also the anonymice who left comments of a distasteful and personal nature. So I stopped anonymous comments.
Then IIPM happened. I learn that there are some people who will stoop to any level . But, there are others who will stand up for what is right. Even though they are in no way connected, nor do they stand to benefit. And that re-affirmed my basic faith in human nature!
A birthday gift!
Youthcurry was featured in the January edition of Fast Company magazine. Feels cool to be one of the three Indian business-related blogs taken note of.
What's more this blog recently crossed 225,000 visits!! I am humbled and honoured... And happy! That my writing could reach out to so many of you; and bring you back for more
Thank you, all! For stirring up Youthcurry; for dropping by to taste it. For helping to bring it to boil. Looking forward to more spice and sizzle in the year to come!
