Chp 905. TWENTY YEARS a blogger!

Twenty years ago, something wild happened. 

Among all the elites and crème de la crème of toppers from IITs in my IIM-Bangalore class, I managed to score the highest mark in our BGS course paper submission. Not that I was selling myself short—there were rare moments when I grazed the top percentile—but never the coveted pinnacle. Until that day.

And so that night, I logged on to the internet from my dimly lit yet cosy hostel room where the walls (and even ceiling) were plastered with random posters, and created a new blogger account and posted what I had written, just to share my excitement with the void. That was my very first blog post.

Little did I know that 20 years later, I would still be continuing the same blog today.

Happy 20th Blog Anniversary to me, yayyy.

Until that moment, I had never fancied myself as a "writer". None of my friends who knew me well from school or college would even fathom me sitting in front of a keyboard and typing... words. 

I was more of a mix of both a "Jock" and a "Nerd" back then, two groups that are usually nemesis. The jock part of me was being the basketball and handball captain as well as a member of the football team, and the nerd part of me was being totally fascinated by tech and PC games, and eventually graduating as a computer science engineer.

And yet, I developed a new passion for writing that night, 20 years ago.

20 years. Two whole decades. That’s how long I’ve been blogging. To put that into perspective, my blog is older than... YouTube, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, and even Facebook (the public launch). My blog was already out there doing its thing while Mark Zuckerberg was still figuring out which hoodie to wear to Harvard. :P

In these 20 years, I’ve seen soooo many trends come and go, platforms rise and fall, and entire industries get disrupted. Yet here I am, still clicking away on my keyboard, penning down my thoughts, stories, and random musings for anyone who’d care to read. From writing about college pranks and Mumbai rains to office trips and Mizo society, this blog has seen it all. It’s been my constant companion, my digital diary, and sometimes, my therapist.

This blog is also the reason why I got my first job as a copywriter! It opened multiple doors I never imagined would be possible, and gradually steered me into the world of imagination and creativity. It’s incredible to think that a simple space to share my thoughts would evolve into the foundation of a career built on innovation and storytelling.

And now, as my blog turns 20, I can’t help but feel a little nostalgic. So much has changed since 2004. For instance, during the early years of my blog, there was no Google Photos or Drive, so we had to host all the images of our blog post on a third-party website and link them manually from our post!

Thanks to that, around 70% of my earlier blog posts now have broken image links because Photobucket decided to hold my 6000+ images hostage. I promise I will eventually move all those images to a new host one day. Sad.

But that’s not even the saddest part. I was already a die-hard Arsenal fan before I started this blog, and I was over the moon when we clinched the league title in the legendary Invincibles 2003-04 season. But since then—right after I began blogging—two whole decades have passed, and we still haven’t won the freaking League title again! *super cry* Here’s hoping I won’t have to wait another 20 years to finally write that long-overdue celebration post, lolz.

I have seen close friends get married and have kids during the course of my blogging journey, while I still remain a bachelor. And there are even those who went through a divorce and remarried again for a second and third time. Maybe that’s why I feel so deeply connected to my blog. It’s the one thing I’m truly married to—no drama, no heartbreaks, just unwavering companionship. :P

Anyway, I don’t want to ramble on and turn this into a mini-novel. I just want to say how grateful I am for this journey—20 years of blogging, sharing stories, finding new friends, cherishing new memories, creating awareness about Mizoram, and connecting with so many of you along the way.

Blogging is dead now, or so they say. But if you have a passion for writing, it’s not about how many people still visit your blog. It’s about how you pour your thoughts onto your post, how you capture fleeting moments and emotions, and how you leave behind a little piece of yourself in every post. It’s about the joy of expression, the catharsis of storytelling, and the connection—no matter how small—with anyone out there who stumbles upon your words and feels a spark of understanding.

It’s been a rollercoaster of words, emotions, and late-night typing sprees, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Here’s to many more stories, laughs, and blog updates. Cheers to the next chapter, folks!