Monday, September 24, 2012

The Good in Me, The Good in You


I am thrilled that my 100th post of the current calendar year is again a tag post. When I started blogging I thought that the genius of my writing would shine through like a beacon and draw readers to my blog like moths to a flame! The idea that the light of my genius did not cause my blog to shine like a star and people can be dazzled only when they came into my blog dawned on me much later.
The question was ‘How do people even know that your blog exists leave alone know how you write?” Blogging Communities were certainly a big help but networking, it seemed to me, was the only way I could inform people that I too inhabit this sphere. Of the many means of networking, tagging is one way of being introduced to readers and of introducing good bloggers to readers.
I am blessed by the fact that I have found enough affection from fellow-bloggers, who have been kind enough to tag me repeatedly. Since I have been tagged in my early days of blogging, my own memories of scrounging for readers (and I am still scrounging!) is too fresh in my mind for me to let go of the opportunity of doing my bit for other bloggers by way of tagging them. This once I am trying to limit myself to bloggers whom I have not already tagged as well as bloggers who are not already familiar to the known readers of my blog.
As usual I am getting ahead of myself. I have been tagged this time by a very popular blogger – and one of the few with whom I have met and interacted – The Fool. It is a privilege to be tagged by him and he has also been kind enough to write in praise of my posts – and coming from a reviewer of note it means a lot. What I do not understand is that he claims that I need no introduction! To maybe a handful of readers that is true but the vast majority would probably react ‘Suresh, who?” It is nice to be considered popular but it would be far nicer to actually be popular and I would not want the former to come in the way of the latter!!
To get back to the subject under discussion, let me first mention the rules of this tag.
1.      You are tagged.
2.      You give links to posts that belong to each of the following categories
1)      Your most beautiful post.
2)      Your most popular post
3)      Your most helpful post
4)      Your most controversial post
5)      A post whose success surprised you
6)      A post that you thought did not get the attention it deserved
7)      A post which you are most proud of
3.      You select five bloggers for passing on the tag and inform them about their being tagged.
My most beautiful Post: I am not too sure if beauty is a word that will ever spring into anyone’s mind upon reading any of my posts. If, however, I may extend that term to mean ‘emotionally touching’ and if I may assume that a post qualifies based on the nature of the comments, I would say that ‘The Gates of Hell’ would qualify under this category.
My most popular post: I have no means of assessing popularity except by pageviews or comments. Bar one post, ‘Yesterdays and Tomorrows’ qualifies as the most-viewed post and, certainly, has invoked the most comments of all my posts.
My most helpful post: I normally write either humor pieces or short stories and thus, except as entertainment, my posts cannot qualify as helpful. I have written quite a few pieces on Philosophy, however, which may be considered helpful. The one post that is most materially helpful is, possibly, “The Arithmetic of Retirement”.
My most controversial post: I am normally non-controversial and like to be so. The one time I deliberately wrote what I thought of was a controversial post was “On Criticism on Blogs”. That, surprisingly, did not cause any controversy with any disinterested reader. “My Guest post for Alka Narula, Again” on the long-standing 'Ram’s treatment of Sita' issue did give rise to a lot of argument, if not controversy.
A Post whose success surprised you: I think of all my posts as just what the world should be rushing in to see and read first thing in the morning and, thus, obviously I am the last person to be surprised when any of my posts succeed! (So much for my reputation for modesty!!) “Eviction”, however, surprised me when it gained 200+ page views in a day – and without any spam comments to explain the upsurge. If you consider the fact that – up to then – not a single post had got 200 Page-views in toto you can understand why I was surprised and continue to be so.
A post that I thought that did not get the attention it deserved: I am modest – as everyone will tell you – and, thus, I do not expect more than a quarter of the English-literate population to read each of my posts. Going by those ‘modest’ standards no post has truly got the attention that I think it deserved!! Even by the standards achieved by my latter-day posts none of my earlier posts have been paid any attention.
For me, however, ‘Marketing Battles’ is a 8-part post that deserved more attention. It is a fun tale to read in my opinion. It can also be read as a relatively painless introduction to the basic concepts of Marketing Management. At another level it is also a parody of a world that advertising can bring into being. With all this it has largely been an ignored series – whether because of the length or because the values I see in the post are only a mirage, I do not know!
A post I am most proud of: Mmm! For this I have to select the one that I found difficult to write and managed to do very satisfactorily. The Fool had challenged me to write an Indianised version of the movie Wild Hogs - which I have still not seen - and I managed to write ‘Desi Wild Hogs’ and, in my opinion, did a very decent job of a humorous story.
Now for the bloggers I wish to tag.
Abhyudaya : I have been a fan of his cartoons for some time now.
Bhushavali : The amount of traveling this young woman has crammed into her life is astonishing.
Ash : I like her humor posts though she is articulate about social issues as well.
IndianSatire : He runs a nice line in funny horror-scopes.
Kappu : Writes fiction and day-to-day happenings with equal versatility.
I do hope that each of them actually continues the tagging and bring more bloggers into the purview of their respective readers.

43 comments:

  1. I remember when I was new (more than 5 years back), I was so thrilled when I got my first tag and considered it to be a sign of acceptance by the blogging community!

    Tags are funny, and for me most useful during the horrid times when I don't have anything to wrote about. I usually save them for coming out of writer's blocks! :P

    And , Btw I guess you're already famous here. :)

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    1. Who, Me??? If enough people keep telling me that I will even start believing it - even if it is not true :):)

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  2. I saw it coming from TF's blog straight! You have done ample justice to the tag. It was great to refresh the stats upon you once more! ;) I am sure you have passed on the precious tag to worthy bloggers.

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    1. Mmm! This is a great tag to write for - all you had to do is praise yourself and that comes easy to me :) :)

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  3. Haaaaa.... Thank you. That's a sweet compliment and for tagging! :)
    Would write on this soon and let u know... :)
    My Travelogue

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  4. Suresh glad to be tagged I will post my blog and also detailed reply to your blog.

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  5. Well, I fear being tagged. I do not know what to write and who to tag.
    Good to know, you like it. Enjoyed your 100th post. Congrats :D

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    1. I like the fact that people like me enough to tag me :) Writing the post, however, is not as enjoyable - selecting people at the risk of annoying those you are unable to select due to limits; hunting around for links and putting them up and all is not fun! :)

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    1. Thanks, Indrani! Btw this is my 100th post of the calendar year, 121st overall!

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  7. Its good that you are modest Suresh but I agree...'U need no introduction' :D And yes, Your 'Gates Of Hell' is something I can never forget!

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    1. Mmm! To you thankfully, Jaish, since you have been kind enough to be regularly visiting my blog. Not necessarily to all the others :)

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  8. Congratulations .. and those are great tips for a blogger in your unique style. Wish I had more time on hand. Sigh!

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    1. Thanks Farida! I was only pondering on my journey but if it laid out route signs to others I will be delighted :)

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  9. Loved the links in this post... keep them coming. All the best :)

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  10. This was a surprise treat. I try and stay in touch with your work, but this post was a journey of discovery. Most of the posts you listed were ones I have not read. The range of subjects and the depth with which you have "explored" them was a pleasure to be part of. And I am not certain if it is due to my default setting on my home browser, but it is only now, using my parents computer that I saw from your archives how consistently prolific you have been. Lot of reading to catch up on.

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    1. Mmm! It would be an honor to have you explore my archives, Subho!

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  11. 100 posts this year..wow!! Congrats on that. I missed some of the posts that you mentioned in this one. Will definitely go through them..:)And will check out the bloggers you have introduced too.

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  12. Firstly congrats on your 100 posts !
    Actually I've been meaning to comment for quite some time. I read your entries on a email feed, and am usually too lazy to go about commenting.

    I started reading your blog only recently through the DOVE indiblogger contest "http://jambudweepam.blogspot.in/2012/06/yet-another-hair-raising-tale.html" then I went on to read more.I must tell you am just surprised how your blog can't be very popular (I digress from this post here... I would have liked to mail you instead, but didn't find your id :(). I thoroughly enjoyed most of the posts that I've read of yours. And would definitely love to read your work as a regular column some day... (if you're aiming at that or a book perhaps )!

    So cheers to your 100th post!

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    1. Thanks Arch! It is humbling to receive such unstinting praise!

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  13. Congratulations on the 100 posts, and happy to have found your blog!

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  14. Nice one, CS. As I expected you were the only one who took my tag. Nice that my tag was your 100th post. I have read all of the mentioned posts already.Don't know about the my being popular part. If you say so, it must be true I guess. What the harm believing?

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    1. Exactly! As long as we do not exit our houses, pen in hand, looking for raving fans seeking autographs from us:)

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  15. Congratulations, Suresh. It was wonderful to go through your blog once again, but this time with you and through your eyes. And I quite agree that your Marketing Battle series, deserved more attention. Perhaps you didn't market it well enough? ;-)

    Wishing you much happiness and many more blog posts and milestones to come.

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    1. Good in theory but not in practice, Sudha! :) Which is why I took to Finance :)

      Thanks for your good wishes!

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  16. I completely agree with TF's views about you needing no introductions and your views on him as well. Both of you are bloggers I have always looked up to and highly admire.

    Coming to your posts, I am surprised I couldn't find any travel post in here. I was introduced to your writings through a post on Haridwar/Rishikesh and thereon I have been glued. You are the only blogger I've known/come across who has the ability to mesmerize a reader even without putting up a single travel picture! Hats off to you, and here's wishing you many more successes in the years to come! Congratulations! :)

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    1. Thanks Arti! The problem was that no pics makes a travel post a non-beautiful post; none of my travel posts were popular or expected to be popular; since I had no pics I had no great expectations of my travel posts etc. etc. So they did not fit into those questions :) :) It is not that I am not proud of my travel posts!!

      I am ecstatic about your praise of my travel posts Arti! Coming from a blogger who is at the top of the travel genre, it is high praise indeed! Thanks for those words and for the congrats.

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  17. Wow Suresh! I just skimmed thru my blog this morning in a rush and found the lovely message left by you. Your blog - Je l'adore!! I am such a fan of your writing and to getting a tag from you means tons of smiles! :) Thank you SO much!! Happy day to you! will honor the tag sooooon!

    Do stop by my blog!! I'd love your visits & comments!


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    1. Glad that the tag made you happy, Kappu! As for giving reading pleasure, you give me a lot of that too :)

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    2. Please visit the post when you find time! Sorry it took *this* late!!

      The tag

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  18. I have started reading the post which you felt did not get the much appreciation. Incidentally my blog is mostly on fiction based on real life which has few takers. Someone advised me to stop putting fiction on blogs and come back to Adda s to read them. if you pay for 30 cups of Tea and little snack you get real dirty comments to be angry enough to write the next one. Tagging is a nice idea. No one taged me ever except Sucharita and i did not do a bad job( Four Points Each).
    Anyway suresh I shall read all your blogs as categorized by you.

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  19. Arriving here a month too late, sir. My hearty apologies. But please accept my gratitude for the rare honour of featuring in your blog leave aside being tagged by you. It does feel great!!

    Actually, I had one hell of a ruckus going on here managing and organizing my own graduation ceremony and then dealing with the aftermath. :-)

    Thank you again and I'll soon be posting the tag in my blog. Lovely tag idea by the way. :-)

    Regards,
    Abhy

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    1. Better late than never, Abhyudaya! :)

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    2. http://abhyudayadoses.blogspot.in/2012/11/life-is-like-this-tagged.html

      The list is finally complete!!

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