February Events at the Jejune Diet

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 50^th 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.