Twenty Years of Blogging

I started writing online after joining Infosys (my first job) in 2003. This year, I also completed 20 years of working. It's not a surprise that my blogging origins coincide with my starting work at Infosys. I couldn't afford a good internet connection or a decent computer before getting a job. That is only half part of the story.

Internet, Computer and decent salary, enthusiasm to learn, groups like Infylug, Infyblogs, and my first project team were all responsible for it. I started a newsletter, yes, 20 years back. The newsletter was an easy way to reach my IT friends who had limited Internet access but had official email access at work. Unlike today, internet access was a privilege even at an IT company. You had to apply for it, and many websites were blocked. But everyone had access to their official email account. 

TechMag started as a  Technical Magazine that would land in your email once a month or so. Later I had to convert that list into a Yahoo Group to manage it easily. I also converted them into static HTML files that I could publish on Geocities. 

Much later, I got a domain and hosted a Drupal blog running TechMag for a long time before my personal and technical blog merged into this domain. I lost a bunch of posts in 2007 ( backup mishap) before I moved it here. As a result, you can see many posts here in 2007. It became home for all my technical and non-technical explorations.

I also ran EventsBangalore.Net, which covered exciting events in Bangalore. It was a WordPress blog. It had a significant following and was quite popular. I met lots of folks who are friends even today. I shut down EventsBangalore in and around 2014; by that time, events were covered by major players, and also there were lots of tools to publish events online. So I stopped EventsBangalore.

Since 2007, this blog itself has gone through multiple design changes. But it still uses good old but solid WordPress. I am pleased about it. I have no plans of changing for now.

Over time I have gained a lot of stuff from blogging—quite a few IRL (converted) friends in Bangalore and worldwide. I have learned a lot from peers worldwide by reading them; my writing has improved by writing for them. I have got working opportunities with the most exciting folks due to my blog. I have traveled worldwide and met and talked to other bloggers and technologists. And much more exciting stuff, all Thanks to blogging. All in all, blogging is a big part of my personal and professional life. 

And thank you for coming along this long but very enriching journey. I plan to blog for another twenty years, if not more. And I hope you will be around to react. Thank you again.