Twenty- five Seven

Grannies don’t blog

July 16, 2017

Wokandapix / Pixabay

Who am I kidding?

Yesterday I made a date to meet a fellow blogger and made the trudge through rain and traffic only to find she wasn’t there. I don’t blame her for she too made the trudge ( all the way from Delhi, I might add) but our timings didn’t match. So while both our intentions were good our outcomes were not . I had realised this several years ago when I attended blogger meets only to see my head as the only grey haired one in the room. I have participated in contests and won a trip to Malaysia .

This just made me realise that I was chasing the wrong dream. [Tweet “Writing doesn’t mean blogging . And blogging doesn’t mean writing .”]

Infact there are several bloggers who are faced with this same conundrum. Like Parul who recently asked herself where her blog was headed?

Blogging is meant for the 18+ who have active minds, agile fingers and are completely wired . It is not meant for little old ladies who are familiar with fountain pens and parchment paper.

I’ve read many good blogs which are written by real writers. They move you with their choice of words and inspire you with thoughts . On the other hand there are those who journal their lives online . Some are good while some are rants.

But they have an audience .

My target audience is still not clued in with technology and if they are, can’t find their spectacles. The internet is meant for the young. It is not meant for us old ladies who are more familiar with the printed word.

We don’t know how to deal with plugins and social media. For us we barely know how to send forwards and say hello to friends.

Imagine for me LOL means lots of love while to the rest of you it means Laugh Out Loud .

Now isn’t that apparent that I’m a dinosaur?

Yesterday’s meet up that didn’t happen convinced me that this was a sign that I should quit chasing my tail. Like the dog, I’ve gone dizzy.

So despite my genuine effort at working on increasing reach ( now have 156 followers on WordPress, a fair number of followers on Facebook and Twitter) I have just found it too much. From a bumbling blogger, I learnt the meaning of terms like Key words and SEO. I am part of active blogging communities like Skywatch and Write Tribe that really help and support me . I have participated in two #A to Z’s and The Ultimate Blog Challenge . I have downloaded and tried to practice free advise dispensed by gurus like Darren Rowse and Jon Morrow . But the bitter truth is that the 80: 20 equation is working the wrong way for me.

Grannies don’t blog

There is no more fight .

I shall not participate in challenges and contests. I will stop chasing the millions that still elude me . And I won’t pretend to be an expert and give advice.

But like a good wine that I enjoy from time to time, like a walk in the light rain, like a wonderful read that you can’t stop, blogging is hard to give up.

I will still keep in touch with writing by writing blogs. But I will make sure I get paid for that. Visiting other blogs and interacting with other bloggers is something I will still do.

[Tweet “But I will accept the fact that I am not and will never be a real blogger .”]

So, I will clean up my blogs, wipe out the other two and keep just this one blog. I will continue blogging but only when I want to. Not because I have to.

So thank you dear readers and fellow bloggers for your support and encouragement.

May you continue to inspire, entertain and engage. I will watch from the sidelines and cheer you on .

Aloha, Godspeed and Good luck.
Getting social with numbers #UBC Days 13,14 & 15

July 15, 2017

Somehow there are times when days roll from one to the next without your knowledge. Does that happen to you? Do you feel that 24 hours just aren’t enough? I suppose we all are busy and have many issues to worry about so on some days blogging gets relegated to the back burner as it were. This week was one such week when I find 7 days are just not enough.

Unlucky Number 7

7 is not really my lucky number. There is a strange story behind this. Pregnant with my first child, my husband and I decided to try an ancient sex determination test. Obviously this was totally unscientific but we decided to do it for a lark. He pulled out a long hair from my head and tied it round my ring. He then suspended the ring over my large tummy and found that it made circles not once but 7 times. This meant that we would have 7 daughters.

The second time round, now fully convinced that this was totally nonsense but just to reconfirm our belief, we tried it again

Once again it made 7 circles.

After two daughters I stopped having children and never tried this test again!

There have been other instances too where 7 has proved unlucky but that could be purely coincidental.

3rd time lucky

On the other hand number 3 and its multiples are lucky for me. My birth number reduces to 3 as does my husband’s. We were married on the 6th and both our girls are born on the 9th.

There are several other happy things happening in 3s ( like my 3 grandchildren) I’ve also found that very often if I don’t succeed at the first attempt, I definitely succeed on the 3rd. try.

Getting social

One of the joys of online publishing is that you avoid the fiddle of getting a publisher to put your work in print. You also don’t have to observe editorial guidelines and can pretty much say what you want. But equally frustrating is sending out opinions, messages, stories or whatever to the Universe not knowing whether anyone is reading them or not.

This is when you start getting obsessed with numbers like visitors, Alexa ranking ( which by the way a serious blogger just informed me yesterday was DEAD) and most importantly engaging on SOCIAL MEDIA.

In the early days of the internet, social media was restricted to mere chat groups like ORKUT where you purely exchanged ideas with your friends. Facebook changed the game completely. And now it is even more complicated with WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and I don’t know what’s coming up next.

Everyone who is anyone is on some kind of social media and woe betide if you say you don’t have a social media presence. Today I’m finally understanding what Social Media was all about . I actually know a little bit about what it is .

Does Social Media really improve your credibility and numbers?

Does blogging regularly increase footfalls?

Does commenting increase engagement?

Ask me what I’ve learnt after years of blogging without social media.

This is my post for UBC Days 13, 14 & 15
Fishy Tales #FridayReflections

July 14, 2017

Well, for those of you who follow me regularly, you will know that I try to write on three different blogs on obviously three different subjects. Today I’ve decided to post my #FridayReflections on my Granny Blog Nappy Tales and Me.

However, for those of you who aren’t into babies and nappies, I am reproducing the same post here.

Two Fishy Tales

Anna Shetty thought the boys needed to learn some responsibility. So she brought home a fish bowl with two fish. The two boys promptly named them Ginger and Goldie. They were goldfish naturally.

The older one looked at them with pride and reverence. They were HIS to look after and that made him very grown up.

Little Po with all the innocence of a two year old who only thought of his basic needs, looked at them with glee and pronounced happily ” FISH! EAT IT!”

Luckily they don’t have a cat else she’d have obliged.

Narrating this story to my friend Lilly who has reared three boys herself told me her own fishy story.

Hoping to instill some sense of responsibility ( naturally) into her three rowdies, her doctor husband brought home a fish tank with lots of little fish. After three days of diligent love and care , hubby dear conveniently left the task of cleaning the tank and feeding the fish to Lilly ( who herself is a busy, practicing doctor). Lilly found to her consternation that the fish were slowly diminishing. Could it be the cat? But it wasn’t.

So after a week of observing this phenomenon, she actually asked the boys where the fish were. The older one casually replied, ” Ask Stevie. He’s under the bed.”

Now more curious than ever, she glanced under the bed to find little Stevie watching the fish in fascination as it jumped around out of the water.

“What are you doing?” she asked raising her voice. “Why did you take the fish out of water?”

“To see him dance, mummy,” replied the little boy innocently, completely oblivious to the fish’s distress.

I’m linking this with Sanch’s #FridayReflections