Looking back

I was tempted to write Z for Zummary, win-win at one attempt, a summary of the A-Z blogging challenge while also taking the easier way out on Z. But, that seemed like cheating, grossly mis-spelling the word and also denying this blog the chance of one more post for this month. More importantly, the only letter I was sure about when I started the challenge was Z, Ze Salon all over my mind and my Facebook feed these days. So, you, my reader, have to live with one more post from me, a takeaway of sorts, from this one month of blogging.

• When I started this challenge, I was quite sure C would be the last my blog would see this month, 3 posts in 30 days. And, in fear of my anticipated failure, I didn’t tell anyone (including V) about the challenge, for a couple of days. But, discipline can work wonders. Every morning, I was out to prove myself wrong, that I could write a post a day, and it has worked well, quite surprisingly.
• Being part of a global challenge is a good thing, perhaps the best of things. I registered on the A-Z challenge website on March 31^st, a day before the challenge began. My number then was 1789. The rule is that, if my blog looks like a marketing tool / is inactive / doesn’t have a post for 5 days in a row during the challenge, it would be removed from the list. Naturally, my ever active competitive spirit kicked in, instinct not letting me rest for fear of being removed from the list. I have finished at 1166 today, which means my perseverance won over ~600 others.
• Oh well, now that the challenge is over, I am missing it already and feeling a little empty. Can I wake up this Monday morning and start with a again? I could do my own A-Z challenge for May, but I have a fleeting feeling that without the ranking and competition, I will be a very lazy and undisciplined kid. If only I could cover some of these myriad topics across the next few months just as blog posts, that will be a win in itself.
• I am a grammar freak, as you would know, if you know me well. I spend inordinate amounts of time editing my posts and not just because I know there are well meaning friends out there waiting for the first opportunity to catch me in the act of committing grammar crimes. But, this month, I removed that part of me and put it inside the far end of the “discard” closet as I wrote. There are many posts here that I did not read a second time before posting. My G for Grammar Nazi post had (still has) some glaring, pathetic language errors. It’s alright sometimes, I have learnt. Moving ahead becomes difficult when the mind is shackled by too many structures and constraints.
• The challenge suggests that it will be nice to have a theme across the 26 posts. Being the generalist I am, I did not think of or commit to one particular theme. I did not want to be shackled to it! But, I have ended up writing a fair number of posts that have a flavor of travel across the month, about Prague, Paris, Ljubljana, Amsterdam and Dubrovnik. I had taken a travel diary with me last year while on one of my trips, and the things I jotted down then greatly helped in shaping some of these posts. The idea is more so reaffirmed in my mind now, that I should always carry a travel diary with me, even if it is old-fashioned in this era of smart phones and tablets.
• This is my first year of the A-Z challenge, though I have been following Sayesha, who takes up the challenge every year and writes some very interesting posts. My only focus this year, as a newbie, has been to write every day. The challenge is much more than that. The challenge is also to read as much as we can, of the others who take the plunge along with us. I have failed miserably in the reading part. Reading requires discipline, just like writing, and it cannot be ignored because a ranking system is not tracking how many posts I read every day or how many comments I post every day. That’s definitely a big failure, and I hope I can work on it next time around.
• All of us have a “want to be appreciated” motive in mind when we do things – performing well at work, doing a concert on stage, displaying our artistic creations in a gallery, writing a book and publishing it. I am no different, no evolved human who creates just for the sake of creation and inner happiness. I write my blog posts and advertise them in all free media – Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus (even that!). And I like being read and told they are nice posts. It is new energy being pumped into me every time someone says that they read the post and it was nice. This time has not been very different. Many of you have appreciated me for taking up the challenge, and more importantly, have read these posts I have been writing. It truly means a lot to me. So long, and thank you for all the support J