Gauravonomics Blog

Jamshed Velayuda Rajan, or Jammy Rajan, is based in Chennai, works for an Internet major, blogs at Ouch My Toe and is one of India’s funniest bloggers.

I have already written about why I love Jammy’s blog -

- Jammy manages to do that rare thing - being personal and funny at the same time - and every post on this blog is laugh out loud funny.
- Jammy has one of the best 404 error page I have seen on a desi blog. Reminds me that I have to work on mine.
- Jammy does innovative little things to engage his readers, like offering a Best of Ouch My Toe PDF file for download, asking readers to pick a topic for him and putting subscription and archive buttons within his posts.

Jammy, I feel, is the perfect follow-up to Jai, because of the contrasts between them in terms of their backgrounds, their content and their style of writing. It will be my endeavour in ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ to explore this diversity in desi blogging.

Q. When and why did you start blogging? Has the reason why you blog changed over time?

Yesterday, I announced that ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ was open for business -

‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ is open now! Do walk in tomorrow for (virtual) coffee and (real) conversation with your favorite bloggers!

- and mentioned my ‘eleven Desi Blogging Cafe questions’ -

Sometimes, I’ll ask them my ‘eleven Desi Blogging Cafe questions’. Sometimes, I’ll put aside these questions and ask them other questions. Sometimes, I’ll let you ask them questions. Sometimes, I’ll let them ask me questions.

If you are wondering what those ‘eleven Desi Blogging Cafe questions’ are, here we go -

- When and why did you start blogging? Has the reason why you blog changed over time?

- What do you blog about? Has the focus of your blog changed over time?

- How do you think people describe your blog to others who don’t read it? How would you like them to describe it?

- How do you think people describe you to others who don’t know you? How would you like them to describe you?

- Is your online persona different from your real self?

- How important is your blog to you? In what ways? Why?

As regular readers of my blogs would know, my ‘Desi Blog of the Day’ series has had severe identity crisis issues.

First, there was ‘Desi Blog of the Day’ version 1, where I featured one desi blog everyday, gave three reasons why I loved the blog, and offered one (hopefully) helpful tip to the blogger. I did the series for about two weeks and then realized that I was not doing enough with the series.

Then, there was ‘Desi Blog of the Day’ version 2, where I included a small bio of the blogger and three of their best posts to give you a sense of who they are and why they blog, apart from the three reasons why they are included in the series and my blogging tip to them. However, after doing only two posts, I realized that I wasn’t satisfied with that either (did I mention that I’m a perfectionist?).

So, I stopped the series for almost two weeks, to fine-tune the format.

I’m pleased to announce that I have finally found a format for the ‘Desi Blog of the Day’ series I am fully satisfied with. It’s intimate, it’s interesting, it’s insightful, and it has never been done in desi blogging before.

Today’s Desi Blog of the Day is Saffron Trail by Nandita.

Here’s Nandita on herself -

Nandita is a medical doctor by qualification, a a nutritionist and cook by passion and a freelance writer by occupation. She writes for Men’s Health - India and Complete Wellbeing, among many others and she is one of the group bloggers at Daily Tiffin - a family and lifestyle blog. Nandita dreams of starting a little home-style restaurant someday soon and her husband has already reserved the position of CTO (Chief Tasting Officer).

Here’s Nandita on cooking -

Cooking is like meditation. When I stand in front of my wok, I just put in the ingredients instictively. My heart tells me what will taste good and what won’t. And I cook with my heart. When one does that, the results are usually good. I believe in healthy cooking - low on salt and oil, fresh ingredients and spices, simple and quick procedures that help us eat freshly cooked meals at any time of the day. I eat to live so that I may live to eat!

Here are three reasons why I love Nandita’s blog -