Writing has been my one solitary craft. No surprise there for you! Since the time, I first tried to write a poem in my seventh summer break, I’ve loved the entire process. I enjoyed end rhyming of words and to create bizarre imagery-based verses.
By the time I was in my high school junior year, I started to confidently save my verse in a green coloured ruled-book. I knew there was acceptance within me because my English teacher had given me an approval nod.
So, my craft started as unsettling rhymes to creative fictional works. But it was not easy getting to the present and now. There was much that I had to go through before I could say, that my work was presentable to a small group.
Passion for Being Published
My college education was a fought for choice. My Bachelor’s was aimed towards English language. In my final year of high school, a class on John Keats’ poem ‘Ode to the Nightingale’ shifted my perspective. At that moment I decided to take English literature as my major.
The desire to read original, translated, transliterated, and ancient languages in written form in English gripped my passionate heart for borderless literature. After college, post the BA finals, I had to wait for a year before being conferred with my BA Degree, the University of Madras authorised certificate.
I was not sure where I wanted to go with my college education so, I spent some time learning Graphic and 2D Animation in an Institute. In that period, I would in parallel work on getting poems in typewritten format. My desire to publish my poems was still a budding hope.
During that break, I found myself often downstairs in my father’s home office. It was here that my poems became typewritten on the Godrej Typewriter. After gaining permission from my father, I would type a messy version of my poem with so many typos because of my excited typing.
Electronic Format of Poems | a better option
I would rejoice at the poems that came out well-written but there were a few badly printed ones too in the typewriter printed version! When I realised that I was using up a lot of office stationary and all filled with typo-prone poems, I felt that I was not being decisive about my poems.
But then, I debated on using the office computer since it was off-limit and so to use it, I came up with a stratagem. I sat down with my parents for an afternoon tea one Sunday. I explained to Appa that I wished to use his computer when not in used by him for typing my poem
Appa surprisingly agreed and also gave me a folder space for the saved poems. From 1996, I have been writing my verses in the MSWork’s Document application. These were easy to edit and I could work however long on the poems until they were nearly perfect.
During that period, I had created a mock up book of the collection and titled it “Dry Leaves.” I also created the cover page design using colours and Apsara drawing pencils.
I found it was emotionally satisfying challenge to create that booklet of 35 poems. I enjoyed book binding. The thrill from figuring out pagination and making sure the poems looked and read well.
I still remember chart papered, hand drawn cover page and the neatly printed poems, I was over the moon. Later, I sent the collection of poems to my relative’s friend who was to be my first beta reader.
Around that time, I was still struggling to understand the gentleman’s critic of my work. After deciding to work on it some more, I focused on the courses that I was doing back them Diploma in Computer Technology.
Animation and Graphic Design
In 1996, I had done a course in Two Dimensional Animation and Graphic Designing. The distraction was to make the book cover better. After I finished that course, I got interested in what was all those little bulbs of blinking lights from the computer.
My curiosity was boundless and carefree to understand what happens within a PC. The time when I was studying DCT and DCNT were well invested. Since the changing scenario of computing technology was happening right in front of me.
At Hardcore, an Aptech Venture
I learnt about PC. I did a researched article on Silicon Wafers and how transmitters, transistor, blueprint of how the entire chips were made and it was such fun learning the entire process.
After the course, I worked for three months as a counselor for courses provided in the institute. Somehow, the job didn’t align with my vision for myself. I quit and spent the rest of the days writing new poems.
That is when my cousin’s surprise visit with gifts of HTML code book and a Ethernet card happened. After reading the introduction I got interest in the HTML coding. It was pretty easy to learn. That way the computers are uncomplicated.
Using a minimal HTML tags I created a Text only website. I used webpage builder of Netscape Navigator in 1997. These pages were hosted on Netscape’s free server. Well, it was still in an evolving product.
Added to that, I was still green fingered and eared in the field of Internet. I had just finished my DCNT specialised for Novell Netware’s Administrator and Engineer based course.
I was scared to go to Bengaluru to give my CNA and CNE online test. But I could understand the network and budding field of the Intra and Inter networking fields. Then, I knew I had much to imagine where these industries would go.
The Beginning
The initial months of the HTML code book, I don’t remember its version, but I do remember taking notes from it. Around May 1999 once I deemed I had the skillset to code, I had arranged all the content for the website.
Then, there were hyperlinks for the individual page. I built the home page with the PaintBrush application hand drawing tool the image of Ganesha with modak and his vehicle the mouse.
Then, this clickable page open on to the secondary homepage below it. I had about five to six pages created from the Deed of the Trust and the book’s informational text.
I gathered all information about books and Trust’s activities to rewrite them in web-friendly fashion. Once all the content was ready as text document, I introduced the tags to the Text application and saved it as .html files.
This website opened up more order from a College in Karnataka where Yoga Sutram was taught. “Yogasudhakara” book had a steady sale of the books for the students of that institution. Digital Marketing was not even present back then.
Post was not a concept for me back them. I saw only pages and making them hyperlinked in all pages. A simple back action could get them to the previous page; but it wouldn’t have made it possible to checkout another page. It was quiet an interesting challenge and I thrived in it.
Beta Version Closed in 2007
I just got to know that Netscape closed the Beta version in October 2007. Unfortunately, I did not download the copy of the website. So, now I just have the research materials in a text only document.
By 2004, I was no longer in Chennai and moved on to Singapore. I was also surprised how back then, I believed anything and everything on the web. So, searching on the net was second nature to me.
First Employment Based on the Website
I got my first employment outside home office in October 1999, I quit even before I could understand a lot more about the field. Sadly, I left without resolving the webpage issue of the left panel using FrontPage did not appear like the live website.
If I were to advice my younger self from today’s perspective I would say don’t give up and strive until you find the solution. I assumed that I didn’t qualify to be in the job since I couldn’t solve the issues on the page.
Timeline of My Internet Writing Journey
| S. No. | Name of the Work | Qty | Date or Year | Remark |
| 1 | KVT Website | 28 May 1999 – 10 Oct 1999 | Completed the webpages and published it | |
| 2 | First webpage for ProdEx | 13 Oct 1999 – Dec 1999 | Product page | |
| 3 | Sulekha Selection Process | 3 | 2001 – 2002 | Sulekha blog selection | Writer’s List |
| 4 | MIT Writing List | 65 | Apr 2007 – Dec 2010 | Writer’s List |
| 5 | The Paper Lantern | 12 | 2007 | Newsletter |
| 6 | Helium | 10 | 2008 | Old Works |
| 7 | MFA Blog | 7 | 2010 | August 2009 Old works |
| 8 | Granny’s Story Pouch | 20 | 2010 – 2016 | Started in May. Closed in 2016 |
| 9 | Dream About Books | 11 | 2013 | June and brought it down immediately |
| 10 | SEO Content | 2014 – 2015 | Seo for School of PM and School of PE | |
| 11 | Vidyasjournal | 125 | 2015 – 2017 | May 2015 to April 2017 brought it down |
| 12 | Technical Writing was blogging as a hobby | 102 | 2016 -2017 | Restarted Vidyasjournal |
| 13 | 360 Degrees Conversations | 18 | 2017-2018 | Restructured it on 11 June 2019 |
World Wide Web’s Unchartered Territory
I found that I enjoyed the writing of articles, researching, finding weird connection between topics. I would experiment with my personal website and try it out in the workspace writing assignments.
I miss the assigned daily tasks for the various products. I am a diligent and a regular writer, while I am in tied up in 9-5 job. When I quit a job, I am like a kite whose string had been severed. Flying without any purpose.
I also found out that I could do better than what I could. I, never shriek from learning new things and testing it until I practically understood it. The joy of overcoming challenges needs sometimes.
Impatience happens to be one of my vices. I enjoy figuring out solutions for problems by myself. Later, I was to learn that life is all about sharing and improving together.
Keywords and Interview
So, when I joined as SEO Content writer, I had an overall quick googled idea of keywords, just a day before the interview. I attended the interview and the written test based on my belief in my writing.
But after writing for a year for the Digital Marketing department, I was not growing at all. I felt, it was a dead-end job and there was no new thoughts happening for me.
Information hordes as if a tightly held secret were detrimental to progress. It worked as a contradiction for me. I wrote second guessed articles. I didn’t if it did just well or not. Without giving this intel to the content writers, it meant no progress is possible!
We were two writers in the team, as we worked with zero feedback on the performance of the content generated for each channel. Though the company had analytics team for posting and tracking, but the witholded information lead to no progress.
Websites or Blog site from 2015
I joined as a technical writer of Fintech company in 2016, and I found such joy in working for this company. There were so many versions customised as per clients’ specs. Though, I started out wordy partly due to my blogging experience, relearned in slow trickles.
There is an unusual joy in disciplined working and having a routine. I was happiest when I was working in the Fintech company. I company support my side hustle as secondary grade teacher. They gave me flexible time to work.
Around this time my perspectives changed and I had a desire to be a editor, while I am yet to conquer the Elements of Style and grammar.
But the Fintech company’s work culture was excellent and I only saw positive reinforcements. This could just my viewpoint, others may differ. Compared to other companies that I worked and quit dues to my belief that I found myself falling short.
I think I found my tribe in the Fintech company. But, it is also true that I am not capable of reading the vibes in a room. Or mentally process the social clues to interactions, often putting my foot right in my mouth. I have always love to work and beyond it I am not interested in negative interactions.
Blogging Gigs Post Employment
| S. No. | Name of the Work | Qty | Year | Remark |
| 14 | Dry Sheaves | 12 | 2017 | 29 April 2017 a poetry based website same year closed it |
| 15 | Bookworm’s Corner | Vidyasbookjournal.com | 11 + 107 + 38 + 46 | 2017 – 2021 | June 10, 2017 – July 19, 2021 Experimentation with personal essays |
| 16 | Filmistan | A Filmy View | 2019 | Started on 11 June 2019 But was scraped |
Publishing Dreams
Eventually, I never really saw any of these written works as a printed hard copies. My dream to get my book published has been permeating throughout my youth and adulthood. The first time when one of my poems were published in college Magazine Tattoo, I was thrilled but it faded away the very next day.
Then, I spent 2000 trying to find out if my written works were worth its salt. When I found that I was excessively emotional. Then, I switched to Prose, so I did Journalism and Corporate Communication.
The surprising message of working in different field is that writing is an ongoing process. We are as good as our last work. But if you need to perfect the craft that working on it eternally is the best way to go!
Insights and Takeaways
Eternal improvisation is a new understanding for me. I still have miles to go before I sleep as Poet Robert Frost says in his poems. I was in a desperate need for validation and published book, I thought was the only means to achieve it.
Baby Steps to Being Published
I took a step without questioning and in jumping into self-publishing. I felt so devastated since I was not published in a proper traditional way. I have tried to, but eventually getting rejected still hurts.
The takeaways from my previous critics and well-wishers alike I tried to make my work fit in the four lessons:
- Not be excessively Emotional
- Write Articles without Bias
- Explore Different Writing Venues
- Finish a Task Undertaken
Now to do that, it requires so much self-reflection and positive self-critiquing. I had a lot to learn was my thoughts so far. I began with so much lack of skills and progressed slowly to where I am today, in the process of my writing journey.
In the Pursuit of My Happiness
Pre- and Post-covid, I found that language interest me more than the content. But the content embellishes the tool of language. Those three years I spent gathering impression of life and my unique take on it.
Efforts For Publishing
I spent from 2021 to 2024 just trying to survive and to write as best as possible for my website or blog site. I was still working on how to write better than I was previously writing. These days every blog post is a new way to see things.
Timeline of Creating Content for Publication
| S. No. | Name of the Work | Qty | Date and Year | Remarks |
| 17 | Literary Submissions | 43 + 38 + 46 + 75 | 2019 – 23 | Published Writer Pursuit as a Blogger |
| 18 | Self-Publishing effort | 116 + 32 poems + 1 book | 04/07/2024 to 20/01/2025 | With BookLeaf Publishing’s 21-Days Poetry Challenge 2024 Got Published in 20 Jan 2025 |
Passion for Writing
These days, I keep writing using some research help from ChatGPT. But I feel that not citing the Ai engine for the research content for its origin. That, I gather is not perfected research method for me.
The fact that the Ai Engine search through so many websites and book references that are saved as electronically readable materials. None of it is cited and generally crediting ChatGPT is insufficient.
I feel guilty to take the effort of a Artificial Intelligence and not mentioning all those people and books that contributed to the blog post that gets published on my personal blog site. The fact that I am still figuring out how to use the tool while also acknowledging that it aided me in my writing.
There are many more blogs to write. My sincerity in writing a blog would often counter balanced by doubts. This leads to my shutting down my blog and resurrecting the whole blog site.
I wish the blog post could be yearly or seasonal change in the presentation while a particular season of writing can be separately shown like the seasons.
The current design used by my blog site is Colinear since 2019 and there is no change since then. I feel I don’t want to change my old design. But the part of me who is sick and tired of it.
Present trend is micro-content and growing snack contents means time squeeze. The lack of patience for long form writing is also fast growing. Maybe design and content structure could be archived once every year.
Options for a new design can be used without disturbing the old post. That would mean a lot of programming and new website structural changes.
Credit: From Personal and Work Experience.
Itinerant Storyteller 