Blogday thoughts

Yesterday was Founding Day for Parayil A. Tharakan Blog. It was on November 17, 2006 that I registered the blog and made an initial entry. Active blogging was to start only in January this year. Later I added the prefix, Song of the waves to the title.

The inspiration for my entry into the blogosphere was my good friend from Bangalore college days, Jacob Matthan (Sushil). He now lives in Finland and successfully handles about half a dozen blogs, the flagship being Jacob's Blog. I don’t know how he manages to do that. One of the mistakes I made was to start three more blogs - Articles By Abraham Tharakan, EARTH SAVE – Abraham Tharakan's Blog, and Short Stories By Abraham Tharakan - only to find that I could not do full justice to each.

Even after a few months into the venture I knew nothing about blogging. Then I happened to contact Nancy Gandhi for permission to use, for my post Armenian Catholicos in India., a photograph by her. I was so impressed by Nancy’s blog, under the fire star, that I asked her for some advice. Though we have never met, she was kind enough to give me valuable tips by email. Subsequently, it was because of a subtle hint by her that I made the change in the title. (See Change in blog name - 'Song of the waves...') Thank you Nancy.

If the saying that a good picture is equal to a thousand words is true, the credit for 75% of the content in my blog should go to my son-in-law, KO Isaac (See picture on the left.). Most of the photos I have posted were taken by him. He is the Chairman & Managing Director of the fast developing Chennai based ABL Biotechnologies Ltd., and President of Madras Photographic Society. He has created a large number of excellent photos. One of them, a picture of his wife (my daughter Rosemary), is given below:

I thank the readers of my blog; their visits to the site have given me great encouragement. Acknowledgement is also due to my family, and siblings, particularly Mathew and Hormis, for all their support.

A reader, Ronni Bennetty, said in a comment on my post Senior Citizens, blogging is a passport to good health: “Real friendships form among bloggers, as strong over time as in-person friendships. And with blogging, one's new friends might be anywhere in the world.” I have found this to be true, much to my happiness.

The Search Engines too have been kind to me except when I consciously try to create Search Engine Optimized (SEO) posts.

In conclusion, I am quite satisfied with what I have achieved during the first year of blogging. This is said with the full realization that I am still a beginner and have much more to learn.

I hope that more people would take up blogging. It is so rewarding in many ways.

Ends.