I am a blogger and I love to say it!

I take pride in my writings and I love to introduce myself as a blogger/short story writer.  The happiness and joy that I extract out of it is much more than introducing myself as a Telecom engineer.  (Last year when I had a chance of interacting with King Khan, Sharukh Khan face to face , I had loved to introduce myself as a blogger over other things and I hadn’t felt small at all and the best part I had got a chance to live my dream because of blogging.)

Blogging gives me my desired freedom wherein I do and write what I want. I love it more because its mine, the feeling of owning it and having complete control over something gives me a high. It a place where I chew in and vent out my creative outbursts. There isn’t someone telling me to do a list of things nor there are deadlines to meet (except the blogging contests).  Today, I have many blogger friends, we write for blogging contests, we meet over events and it has come to be as if we have our own magical world amongst the Muggles.

But nothing happens without a purpose, reason and medium. My tryst with blogging dates back to 2009. I knew only one blogger and he was my school friend. He had moved out of India to study at National University of Singapore (NUS) and there he had taken up blogging. I would read all about his daily routines on his blog and his personal space became a great medium through which we kept in touch. His rants and ramblings were fun to read.  I also enjoyed reading about Singapore and about many things happening differently at the foreign campus. It was altogether a new experience for me.  And after a year, I had an urge to make one for my own, but a private space, close to a diary.

But there was more to me. I have always been an avid reader and thus every time I read a book, I wanted to shout out to the people and tell them to read it. I wanted to spread the joys of reading. Thus four years back, one fine day the thought to register a blog materialised and I made one on totalgadha.com. I commenced writing book reviews with one of the best books, ‘ Love Story’. I wonder what life would have been if I had not done it.

But that time I had few readers, almost negligible networking and I wasn’t aware of the blogging addas at all, but what kept it going was my love for words, love for weaving stories, love for voicing opinions and most important love for Books.

So here comes the answer to the first part of the ongoing prompt at #IndiSpire.

IndiSpire- What inspired you to be a blogger? What is it that still keeps you going?

 Definitely, my friend who had introduced me the joy and thrill of it and books which motivated me to write about them.

Now, what keeps it going is the love and encouragement of readers. It has been a joyride and it still keeps me going. The thrill of penning down thoughts for a prompt or a random poem is liberating and fulfilling. It also helps me to maintain a list of all the books that I have read and the associated emotions with each of them. My blog gives me an identity.  Every day when I return to it I am inspired to do more, write more. And somewhere I feel I make my bit of contribution to the society as well because some of the posts turn out to be useful for people as well.

But more than that Blogging has changed many things about me.  It has opened me up. It has made me more thoughtful, creative and more of a thinker.  To write well, one must read well and thus blogging has inspired me to read more.  The fun of winning blogging contests also keeps it going. The appreciation from friends, family and strangers is an added perk. Not to forget, its like a breath of fresh air in the otherwise monotonous daily routine. As far as my work in office is concerned, it is too boring.  Writing for something new every day keeps me refreshed. Keeping it simple, blogging keeps me happy.

And blogging has made me a dreamer too. To live my dreams, I am sure its gonna go for long.

Keep Blogging!!!