Darn, March is almost halfway through, and though the skies
in Hyderabad
are picking up that brilliant blue that only March and April can lay claim to,
summer, the devil, is already in our midst.
One year back, I was putting the final touches to my most insane project
ever, to devote my time and effort to social change through my writing, art and
teaching. Hard to believe that a year has gone by. The initial months were
challenging and sometimes discouraging as my family and I grappled with new
realities. I was impatient for results
and tangible proof and insecure in my lack of a plan B. Change and developments
were both slow, and it was only the persistent faith of my family and loved ones that kept
me going. They believed in me when I doubted myself the most, and I am glad that I didn’t give up, since this day would not have come
any other way. 
In the meantime, most of the new posts that I have been
working on are somehow not shaping up to my satisfaction and have been stewing
it out in the drafts folder. I thought maybe I could pretend to be a pro
blogger (nothing to do with the A-list blogging boot camp of the same name or
its poorer cousin - copy blogger) and do a report of the last one month of blog
developments. Read on, you may be
pleasantly surprised at what is in store.
February was an exciting month at Subho’s Jejune Diet. It
kicked off with the GoogleccTLD redirect which was a first step towards country specific
censorship. More than the implications
it has on freedom of speech in our country and society, I was confounded by
what it did to the stats of the blog. While this led to a plummeting page rank
as my traffic and backlinks all got split depending upon which country the blog
was being accessed from, it was a challenge to try and build it back. As I settle into March, I am happy to report
that though the .com pages are slowly but steadily sliding downwards, the .in
pages of SJD are climbing back up to close to where they were earlier. My love
for all things Google has as yet held me back from switching to a custom domain.
I would rather love and lose than never have loved at all, and I am certain
somewhere along the road, things will balance out.
Total RSS subscribers of this blog crossed the 150 mark in
the first week of February, something I had not been tracking, and it was a
pleasant surprise to learn that so many people regularly followed my work. I
made afree download of Subho’s Jejune Toolbar available equally quietly, and it
has slowly started finding a place on browsers across India, US, and Germany so far.
SJD was listedin the first Indian Top Blogs directory update of 2012, the best Indian blog
review and directory that has earned the respect of the Indian blogging
community through its focused effort and unbiased opinion. As I write this post
well into March, SJD was also showcased by
Indian Top Blogs.
I was also humbled by the love of fellow bloggers in the
form of a flurry of blog awards that were sent SJD’s way from wellwishers and
followers.Writeupcafe chose SJD as the blog of the month for January 2012 (see badge sitting proudly on the sidebar).
SJD was awarded the Versatile Blogger Award by Abhyudaya
Shrivastava of RegularDoses and Rahul Aggarwal of CognitiveAmalgamation. This was the first
blog award that came my way. You may want to take a look at my gratitude post on this occasion.
SJD was awarded the Liebster Blog Award by Tanya of ThoughtPad and by Akshay of TheEternal Fighter, The Ultimate Comeback Kid. (Akshay is battling amazing
health karma for someone so young and I invite all readers of SJD to send
health and strength in his direction.) My post passing this recognition on is
still in the works, but getting there, getting there.
SJD was tagged by Pranita of MiraclesHappen and by Aarathi Selvan of Between Life’s Doings. Both of these are bloggers that I hold in high regard, and
it is an honor and a pleasure to be tagged by them.
Having faced several difficult lessons in life in the last
few years, and in spite of several requests from my initial readers to the
contrary, I had made a conscious decision to keep SJD on a relatively
impersonal level. Instead, I kept my
focus on self improvement and social change and kept my personal journey out of
the pages of my Jejune Diet.
My parents celebrated their 50th wedding
anniversary, and I decided to write a brief post on this milestone. What I was
totally unprepared for was the storm of loving wishes and congratulatory
messages that came from the readers of SJD in response to that post.
This outpouring of love in the comments made me realize that
I was once again building up a family and a community where “I belong” through
my blogging and your reading. I wish to thank each and every one of you for the
strength that this love gives me in my battle to create the world of my dreams.
I know that my intent and prayers for the wellbeing and
success of all SJDs readers cannot go unanswered, and I know that your efforts
to encourage me will definitely bear the sweetest and most perfect fruit. And
the seeds of that wonderful future are being nurtured right now as you read
this. Thank you for your presence in my life.
