Why I am no longer ashamed of being called a blogger
Sailen Routray
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| Boy under waterfall in Phu Sang National Park, Thailand https://commons.wikimedia.org/Khunkay |
Six years back, sometime in April 2020, a friend started nagging me. He wanted me to start a blog. I was hesitant. I was in the middle of multiple life transitions. I was feeling absolutely no pep and had no energy to start anything new. So, I dillydallied. But he was persistent. According to him, he liked my writing. And he wanted me to break out of the academic straightjacket I had apparently put myself in, and write whatever caught my fancy.
I was not convinced. However, I realized that there was no harm in starting a blog. At least it would shut him off. So, I started 'Alukuchi Malukuchi'. As it says in the blog description, it "is an Odia word that refers to a collection of miscellaneous and rather useless objects". That was on the 6th of June, 2020. And here I am in April 2026, still blogging regularly.
I am something of a technophobe. Mechanical, and digital, things tend to hate me. At least they used to. I would touch a tape recorder, and it would conk off. Things are not so bad now. But I am still far away from being a technophile. So, when I started a blog I did some research and figured out that Blogger is the simplest platform. That was an easy choice. And in terms of design and interface I chose the most basic (and to many eyes, perhaps ungainly and infelicitous) design interface within Blogger itself.
I started with archiving my already published writings in Odia and English. That's how it has mostly been all these years. Since I started writing and publishing early in life, I am yet to run out of material for archiving. However, since over the last ten years most of my new writing has been in Odia, and I follow a rhythm of alternating between posts in Odia and English, I have started writing exclusively for the blog in English, mostly translations of poems and songs and book reviews. On an average, I have been posting four times in a month. That's probably not much. But for me that has worked out well in terms of frequency.
Around the time I started the blog (rather, I was made to start one), I got out of all social media platforms apart from LinkedIn. I deactivated my Facebook account and I have never logged back in. I was never on Instagram. I deleted my Twitter account after removing each twit one by one, as they did not allow then to delete them en masse. I deleted my Clubhouse account too.
So, there was nowhere I could share the blog posts. I used to share the posts through WhatsApp with the friend whose persistence forced me to start the blog. When I was talking to a common friend, the topic of the blog came up and I started sharing with him as well. Over a period of time, this snowballed. I now share 'Alukuchi Malukuchi' with a large number of my contacts on WhatsApp. I try and share posts on my WhatsApp status as well everyday.
Over the last six years, the blog has become my window to the world. In early 2023, I moved into Kamakhya Nagar, a tiny town of around 20,000 folks 100 kilometers up north from Bhubaneswar. I work from home. I know very few people in the town. Since I don't go out to work and the town has no public spaces such as theatres, film halls or functional libraries, I have no places to go to where I can meet people.
Updating the blog, and sharing it with people, has made me feel a part of a community, albeit a virtual one. A few friends and readers comment on the blog itself. Many more write back on WhatsApp with feedback. Some, very kindly, revert with their own work. It makes me feel less lonely, and more connected.
There was a time when I wanted to be a writer, rather an author. And being called a blogger would have made me feel bad, like an also ran. That authorial aspiration is not completely gone. However, there is now a distance between that want and me. By writing regularly without an eye on publication, I have slowly been figuring out things about what actually interests me. It has helped me find my voice, albeit a creaky and ungainly one.
Now I am content just writing. Getting into the habit of writing a little on most days, to be able to write what I want, and to know that if no one publishes it, I can just put it out on my blog has been liberating. I am happy being a blogger. I am also happy being seen and called a blogger.
Blogging has helped me find my voice. It has given me the courage to start doing the writing I want to do. The blog has also provided me with a sense of community and a rope out of social isolation. What more could it do?
