PENDOWN

Experiential travel stories from India and 31 other countries!

2014: Oh joy! It was a super blogging year…

Blogging, Love

With a sweet taste of the past…I am excited for the new year but then I am nervous too… 

5 days in the new year, its high time that I thank the year that has been, the one that deserves appreciation for the wonderful memories it gave me. No doubt, the 365 days of the year brought my shares of ups and downs but they gave me some awesome lessons and realizations. Choosing not to mull over the broken resolutions, the unending visits to hospitals and super-low days of the year, I wanna talk about the days when I slept like a baby, happy and satisfied over my blogging prizes.

Blogging gave me a voice where I could say both my mind and heart…

When you see your Dad (Govt. officer), in the prime of his age do a journalism course, lap up a double M.A. degree in Hindi translation, learn decoding Urdu and write hundreds of ‘letters to the Editor’ in the newspaper along with a full time job, you ought to have a fascination for the ‘black and white’, literary world. Literally, I have grown up on books and newspapers. For the family, a new television or sofa seat was never on the agenda but we lusted for beautiful bookshelves for our books.  Engineering degree only widened my horizons in the science world but it could never overshadow my inherent love for reading and writing. In two years of my job in the corporate, my blog ‘Pendown’ was born (in 2010) because I had realized that I needed a space to share my voice and stories.

In 2014, Blogging changed my perspective, introduced me to the world and gave me a voice

For the last five years, with more than 400 blogposts, I have loved every bit of it.  Blogging makes my life thrilling. The excitement to craft a new post, the happiness of sharing it with others and the appreciation from the on-line fraternity gives me a high any day. I must accept that I could not live to my goal to blog every single day but I will be honest, with a full time job and part to play as a home-maker, wife, daughter to two families it was challenging and soon I gave up trying.

After 2 years of blogging in my own small world, I discovered that there were some awesome bloggers that thrived in the virtual world.  In 2012 I attended my first blogging meet. In 2013, I participated in a contest and won my first blogging prize (precious). I started when others were doing superbly good, I was inspired and more than what others were doing, I knew I could do better. Ofcourse envy and discouragement came around to hit me but I did not let the vices take over. And then came 2014, a year which changed it all for me. My blog bestowed blessings on me. It made me travel to awesome places, meet some amazing people, turned me into an adventurer and above all it gave me experiences that I would relish for years. In true sense it introduced me to the world.

Blogging to me to Print, Prime time (NDTV channel) and Places in the year 2014

I added 500 new followers from across the globe…Fab furnish called me Fab blogger and Tata called me Blogstar.

I won a Malaysia Trip through Blogadda. Malaysisa Tourism invited me for their Merdeka event. No less, I wanna boast that it was an honorable moment to be felicitated by the Director General of Communications (Malaysia) in the KL tower. It all happened through a blogpost. Wow, this is power of blogging.

I not only won Singapore flight tickets through Skyscanner but the seniors from marketing team contacted me on twitter and hosted me in their Singapore office because they loved my post.’ ‘Writing has the power to connect’

When Oman prize came through Indiblogger, I couldn’t believe my luck but I must tell you I had done everything to make it happen. A poem, a video, lots of pictures and some real interaction, ofcourse everyone did something unique but I too left no stone unturned. When the Social Community Manager for Sulanate of Oman, Dency Mathew met me in Muscat, the first thing she told me was that she absolutely loved my poem and it stood out for her making it one of the winning post.  Yay!!! It made me heady…not really just happy!
 
When Nissan’s Deputy General Manager, Mihoko from Japan met me in Kochi recently, I was overwhelmed to hear her say that she loved the story about the son, mother and father that I wrote on my blogpost. Yes she had read it and it strengthens the belief that the brands are reading it and blogging is the next big thing.
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This was not all…

India Today Group invited me to blog about their three mega events.

More, I went to zestful trip to Goa for the launch of a Car— Tata Zest,  met amazing 50 bloggers and the famous Narain Kartikayein.

I won a trip to Bangkok from a Travel company and got a Dell Tab to review..

I covered events for Unicef India, wrote for Akshayapatra and did my bit of social contribution

I met Steve Waugh, shared roofs with Bill Gates, Milinda Gates, Amitabh Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, and Dan Brown in real…

Met some wonderful authors in person, chefs, cricketers, heard famous personalities in real and pocketed lots of flipkart vouchers.

Many brand approached me for reviews, extra-ordinary events and places. I did some and I did not do some because I believe as a blogger one has to be honest with your readers. If you believe into something, only then should you go…

Even the last day of the year ended with a prize when my blogpost won a prize from Lufthansa..

And you have to believe me,  all of the above laurels came through blogging…. 5 years back when I had started the blog, I did not even know all these wonderful things were in store for me.

Well, I know 2014 has raised the bar for me and my blogging wins but I take it all as a stepping stone to do better things for myself. 2014 was a blessed one but I promise I will continue to strive to make 2015 a beautiful one. And yes I am nervous because sometimes I wonder will year 2015 be as grand as 2014? An answer that comes from within is why not… blogging is not about prizes, it about writing and that I would continue to do for always… And on any of the days if I feel the pinch, I will simply visit this post to remind myself that I had an awesome 2014…maybe its someone else’s turn this year!

The post was written to count blessings, motivate myself, everyone around and strengthen the believe that blogging is powerful and miracles do happen.

I wanna thank everyone who was a part of it and especially the bloggers I met or interacted on virtual platform. You all have inspired me.
Happy Blogging!!!

7 thoughts on “2014: Oh joy! It was a super blogging year…

  1. Such a beautiful post! Hard to believe that you have been blogging for only 5 years! you have excellent writing capabilities. I envy you not for your achievements but for your writing power!

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