Looking Back Looking Forward

courtesy smrlc.org

May 19, 2011. I got worked up over some TV News channel’s hypocrisy and posted my first Blog ‘Ponzi Schemes’. Today, less than 9 months later, I am posting my 100^th Blog-post covering both the blogs, the satirical ‘oneeyeclosed’ and the more serious ‘botheyeswideopen’. The first few posts barely averaged 15 views; the last few have been in the 1500 zone regularly. Miles to go, yes, but also time to say a real big big Thank You to all my readers.

As all Cricket lovers know, a century is no time to get carried away, it is time to take a fresh guard. In the context of Blogging, it may also be a good time to review the experience so far and to see if some changes are warranted.

When I started Blogging, I had no clue whatsoever about this new universe. Just as well, perhaps. If I had known a bit more, I might not have ventured into this field and missed out not only on re-connecting meaningfully with some old friends ---Deepak Swarup Agarwal from Jaipur, Rakesh Bansal from Faridabad have been particularly supportive along with Arjun Badlani, Arun Tengshe, Bhupati Das, Bighna Nayak, Jasveen Jairath, Krishnan Ramachandran, M.S. Gilotra, Narayanan Shankaran, Prabhat Lall, Pravin Rattan, Ravi Bhatnagar, Ravi Srivastava, Smriti Dagur, Sunita Sethi, Tribhuvan Dhingra, ---and stalwarts like Dean Nattu Pilani or brilliant youngsters like Anish Gawande, but also on making new ones from the Indiblogger family like Rene Ravin, Indu Ravisinghji, Saru Singhal, Sujatha Sathya, Arti, Barun Jha, Raj Kumar, LeoPaw, Magiceye, Hariharan Valady, Seema Sharma, Farida Rizwan, Mathivanan Rajendran ….the list seems endless, so I may please be forgiven any omissions! Truly a collection of ‘Old Friends and New’ and tons of thanks to all of them for the ever encouraging attitude. And yes, one does tend to take the larger family for granted so I am not mentioning them individually but one knows that they are all there.

Coming to the changes in the pipeline, there are many serious topics at Micro level which are crying for attention-- Education, Health, State of Hospitals, Energy, Urban Planning. It is a long list where there is a mismatch between my anguish at the state of affairs (high) and my awareness of possible solutions (low). I would like to invite Guest posts on ‘botheyeswideopen’ for any of these or similar subjects---aur bhee gum hain zamaane mein. I am well aware, and consider myself extremely fortunate, that among my readers are people with exceptional expertise in their areas: people who run 20,000 Crore Corporations, people who have served at practically the highest levels of Indian Civilian and Military establishments, Entrepreneurs who have built 100 Cr.+ companies, MDs and former MDs of  large Indian Companies and MNCs, eminent Educationists, people who have run Electricity Boards,  Dadas of the TV, Ad and Music worlds, pioneers from the Indian Animation universe, people who are passionate about Water or Nature, some of India’s most renowned Doctors and NRIs creating the state-of-the-art  in different countries (40+ according to Google).

It would be tragic if the vaults containing this treasure trove of knowledge and expertise are not opened simply because these masters may not have the inclination to start and nurture a Blog. Writing a 5-600 word piece from time to time may be more manageable. From Energy to Copyright issues or the quality of Recruits in IAS or IAF, or whatever  else you are passionate about, or you want to simply write a nostalgia piece or share an illuminating incident, ‘botheyeswideopen’ could be the platform. Do note that this blog does not have any Copyright protection.  I will work on strengthening its reach over the next few months, much work needs to be done on ‘botheyes…’ for this.

For ‘oneeyeclosed’ also I have some changes in mind which will be shared in the fullness of time. This post, with a  change in Title (‘The Hundredth Post’ on the other one) and Visual will be put up on both the blogs. In effect two runs from 99 to 101 instead of a timid single! Will the changes contemplated succeed? Who knows! But when has the fear of failure ever stopped me from attempting anything?

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