February 22nd, 2007
The Most Delayed Comeback Post Ever
Welcome to Gauravonomics Blog! Subscribe to my combined feed in a feed reader or by e-mail and you'll never miss a single post. Thanks for visiting!
OK, after weeks of procrastination, I’m finally writing the most delayed comeback post ever, making a confession, asking you for a favor, and extending an invitation.
But first, a little background, for those who came in late.
At first, I had a blog at gauravonomics.wordpress.com where I wrote about this and that. It seems that some of my most popular posts were about my hyperactive love-life - my predilection for child-women, my tendency to comment-flirt, my dates with a fellow blogger, my open invitations to bed or wed and the ineluctability of lost love. In between, I also wrote about talking to strangers, looking at women, my obsession with auto-rickshaws and being a used car salesman. That’s when I wasn’t writing fifty-five fiction pieces or inventing alter egos. And it seemed to work - I had 20 plus comments on most posts, and even 50-60 on some, and backlinks from almost 90 blogs.
And then, I stopped blogging on gauravonomics.wordpress.com, because I didn’t want to write about my love-life anymore and didn’t know what else to write about.
But, I didn’t really stop blogging; I love blogging too much for that. After a while, I started blogging at desiblogging.blogspot.com as Desi Devil. Basically, it was a filter blog - “The Best of Desi Blogosphere, with a Touch of the Devil” - but I also wrote about desi pop culture once in a while. For a few weeks, I had a lot of fun with it, until I realized that I didn’t want to read four hundred feeds everyday and not write anything of my own.
I set up gauravonomics.com in a moment of misguided enthusiasm, thinking that once I have a blog of my own, I’ll figure out what to write. And it has worked, in a manner. I have written over fifty posts over the last month, and even if some of them are reposts from DesiBlogging, that’s excellent post frequency. My page-views are already up to my peak gauravonomics.wordpress.com levels and my feed already has 90 plus subscribers (20 odd for the DesiBlogging feed and 70 odd for the Gauravonomics feed).
But - and here’s part one of my confession - I miss you. I miss your comments, I miss our comment-conversations, I miss the sense of intimacy, the sense that this blog was my living room - our usual adda - and all of us were friends, bonding over a glass of wine. Since most of the traffic in the last month has been search traffic, most of my readers aren’t regular readers, and while it’s good to meet new people, it’s even better to get to know them. And while I do know that a lot of you have been reading my feeds, I don’t know who you are, as you haven’t been commenting. Only the regulars from my gauravonomics.wordpress.com days have been commenting and, my friends, haven’t you been vocal in telling me that you are not happy with my “wannabe desi” and “YouTube slut” posts!
Which brings us to part two of my confession - I haven’t been happy with my posts either. Like the rest of my “Trishanku” self, this blog is also stuck between two worlds - Gauravonomics looking within to find meaning and Desi Devil looking outside to find interesting things to write about.
So, here’s what I have decided. There will be no “Kiss All Tell All” posts still, but more “The World According to Me” posts. There will be no comment-flirtation still, but more comment-conversations. “Bombaywallah and Mumbaikar” will be back, and so will be “Arbit and G-Man”. The YouTube videos will stay, but they’ll now come in a weekly digest, with expert comments from the “YouTube Maven”. The “Being Desi” posts will also stay, but they’ll now come as conversations between “Wannabe Desi” and “Desi Maven”. All this will happen immediately, and if it works, there will be more.
Now, onto the favor(s). First, I would request everybody who is subscribed to the DesiBlogging feed to subscribe to the Gauravonomics feed instead. Both the feeds have the same content and the shift will make it easier for me to track how many people are reading my feed. Second, I would request everybody who has linked to gauravonomics.wordpress.com or desiblogging.blogspot.com to update the link to gauravonomics.com, so that my Technorati rank stops looking so abysmal. Third, I would request all of you, who haven’t yet subscribed to the Gauravonomics feed, to subscribe to it now so that you don’t miss out on the new improved Gauravonomics. Fourth, I would request all of you to drop in a comment and say “Hi”, so that I know who you are. If you can, also tell me what you like or don’t like about my blog, so that I know if I’m still with you, as I strive to make my blog better.
And, finally, the invitation. I love the idea of a blog as an adda - a place to talk and bond with friends - and I love the idea of throwing a party for my friends. So, here’s an open invitation to all my readers - you are invited to a “Blog-Warming Party” at my (Prabhadevi, Mumbai) house on Saturday, March 3rd! I’ll put up a formal invite in a day or two, but feel free to drop in a line for more details. Yippee! I’m so excited about it already!
WOW!!!
Blog on ur blog!!
Call that a blog post
HM…. You are born to BLOG is guess!!
Maan…amazing…seeing ur collection- am really thrilled!!
Cheers,
~~Marutham
[Reply]
Hehe a blog about blogging - metafiction and all that! How self-reflexive
[Reply]
Welcome Back.
[Reply]
[Reply]
First things first - I also have the same Humayun’s tomb pic on flickr! Well thoda sa different angle :).
and most importantly.. I recently started using feeds after trying to avoid them for ages. Added your blog, observed it for a week and had decided to remove it from feeds (hadnt got the time yet) coz all it had was some youtube links and some age old forwards!! :p. This post has at least made me rethink. I like the honesty.
Blogwarming party? U mean online party? :p
[Reply]
Hehe.. Have fun meeting your stalkers! Am sure they’ll all start crawling out of the woodwork for the chance to meet you in the flesh!
[Reply]
@ Marutham/ Avni/ Wiseling/ Melody/ Sharanya: What hasn’t changed - only women comment on my blog! Not that I’m complaining.
[Reply]
err..I will be kinda the first guy to comment, I guess..
Nothing special..Just wanted to let you know that moi too exists in your readership and hope to see some good posts soon…
Cheers,
HP
[Reply]
ok ok . . . so show us the money ??
and get a decent template . . . i prefer the old one . . . like the old you
welcome back
ps: the booty call post was HILARIOUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
chow for now
fida. . . . .
pure…@yahoo.com
[Reply]
err… no jawaab… for me sire? :p .. or do u not take “constructive feedback”
[Reply]
@Twilight Fairy: Apologies for not responding to the comments earlier. Actually, Akismet is putting your comments in spam, for some reason. The blog-warming is offline, of course, at my very real house, with very real… and very good… booze and my very scintillating company.
@Fida: You made me write that post! Thank you! And what happened? All your old blogs are gone?
@HP: Finally, a male reader! I’m so happy!
[Reply]
gaurav : i KNOW i did!
yeah my blogs are gone . . . you only noticed NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
its been months….personal reasons …….IM SURE YOU UNDERSTAND!!!! tsk**tsk**
fida
pure…@yahoo.com
[Reply]
How come all the meets and parties just happen to be when I’m out of the country? pffsht!
[Reply]
@ Fida: You must start writing again; you wrote so well!
@ Wiseling: I’ll throw a party for you when you come back.
[Reply]
The links to your popular posts don’t go anywhere
I get a ‘D’oh! blah blah’ message…
Parteee!!! Are you seriously inviting anyone reading??
[Reply]
@ TG: I have been having problems with the blog, today; fixing it.
[Reply]
Another male reader for you
Yeah I enjoy your blog though almost never comment and yeah I dont use feeds. I do the weekly roundup for few blogs.
[Reply]
@ Shubho:
[Reply]
Aww, thanks
[Reply]
Doesnt time fly when you start browsing youtube! I need to get out of the house more.
Great blog btw
[Reply]