My blog turns two

My blog turns two this July – July 21st to be exact (here’s my first post), but since I won’t be around then, I’ve decided to celebrate early. I had no idea when I began this blog that it would survive this long. So to mark the occasion here’s some commemorative trivia:

1. How my blog's name came to be: In July 2005 my immigration documents were giving me much administrative trouble because officials always misinterpreted my long name. So it seemed only natural at the time to somehow reflect this in the blog. Admittedly, there wasn't much logic in my choice, but then that's just the way it was :)

2. The average number of visitors per day to my blog is currently 8 – while this is dismal by the standards of megablogs such as this one, my average has doubled in the last year. (Ah, how one can get to dissecting these petty things! But there’s no denying the pleasure I get from such analyses!)

3. Astonishingly, I have posted only 58 times in the last two years! But May and June 2007 were unique in that in that I posted 4 times (a first) in each of these months. Again by the standards of megablogs who pile upwards of 300 posts annually, this is dismal. Nevertheless my increased output is worth mentioning. :)

4. The price of pencils easily takes the top position for the maximum number of comments. The second position is shared by The necessary vanity of a writer and My grandfather and my name.

5. The founding story of Tenochtitlan, my short note on the magnificent city of the Mexicas before the Spanish conquest, was the most frequently visited post this year because of certain Google search terms that led browsers to it. Other posts which most frequently get visitors through Google: Premchand’s Shatranj ke Khiladi, The great movement west, and The lost boys of Sudan.

6. Some of my favorite posts this year are: Two themes from Dostoevsky's The Idiot, Romila Thapar and the history of India, Naipaul on travel writing, Books this year, and Zadie Smith on writers and writing.

7. This self-commemorative post will not be complete without a hat tip towards the blogs I have learned a lot from and follow religiously. The literary blogger Chandrahas Choudhury’s The Middle Stage is exceptional in my opinion, and is my favorite blog by far. If Chandrahas maintains the sort of momentum he currently has (and I wish him the best), he's certain to go places. Other blogs I follow regularly are: Jai Arjun Singh, Amit Varma’s India Uncut, Sonia Faleiro, Prufrock’s Page, Samanth Subramanium, and Manasi Subramanium. And Kartikeya Date’s A Cricketing View deserves a special mention.

P.S: Will be traveling all of next week (going to a conference in St.Etienne), so the next post will be a while.