#600 13 Years of Blogging!

 

13 Years of Blogging!

And the journey continues

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

My blog has completed its 13th year of existence, and I am so happy about it.

When I started writing and publishing on this blog, I had never imagined that it would continue for so long!

I just took the first step 13 years ago, during my undergraduate years, and the steps of the ladder kept unveiling one after the other as I continued my journey of writing.

I can’t believe my blog is as old as someone who was born in 2013 and would be 13 years old now.

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Photo by Aliena Roos on Unsplash

My life has been evolving ever since. Blogging was a way of documenting the experiences of my life. I believed that it would give me a chance to look into the circumstances of life more deeply and reflect on the lessons learned from it.

Even though I have not been so regular on my blog lately, I keep writing offline and online on other platforms like a ritual, because writing is like breathing to me.

At the end of the day, when my head feels a bit heavy or uncertainties intimidate me, I find my solace in writing. It’s as if an old dear friend of mine is fondly listening to me.

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Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

A lot has happened over these 13 years, from completing graduation, Master’s, living and working in different cities, forming new connections, getting married, to living an immigrant life in different countries. 

Life showed its different shades while I tried to understand its unsaid rules.

Frequent relocations made me believe that the entire world is my home, and I should try to bloom wherever I am planted.

Amidst all the chaos and uncertainties, one thing remained constant over the years, that’s my inclination towards writing. 

I write a blog anniversary post every year to reflect on my writing journey and life. I find it an honest way to honour the silent companion that has been sticking to me for years through my thick and thin, my dear blog.

My blog is as dear to me as my diary, and my fondness for it has only grown over the years. It’s a public version of my diary, with certain constraints that I manage.

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Through my blog, I explored different forms of writing, from poetry, essays, short stories, to personal narratives. With each form of writing, I was trying to make myself more comfortable with the unexplored.

I participated in different writing competitions and won some prizes, which made me believe that my words resonated with the jury.

My inspiration for writing doesn’t always come from writing challenges; it comes from observing my life minutely on an everyday basis. That’s because every day carries with it a unique lesson that should not be missed.

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Photo by Peter Mammitzsch on Unsplash

I’ve been more frequent on Medium than here because I felt that my writing needed readership, and I enjoyed interacting with fellow writers and building connections.

I realised that I neither have enough time nor energy to advertise my blogs on different blogging platforms as I used to do earlier. So, I switched to a more interactive platform.

I thank all my readers who read my scribbles in the form of articles, stories, and poetry, and share their comments.

I have some writing goals I am not actively pursuing, but I visualize finishing them soon.

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Photo by Todd Trapani on Unsplash

I will write anyway,
Whether I’m happy or sad,
Living in my own country,
Or leading an immigrant life.

 

I will write anyway,
When the days seemed very heavy,
Pushing me to an abyss or
As smooth as a slice of butter.

 

I will write anyway,
When the sun shines brightly,
Scorching heat parching my soul or
Surviving in minus degrees!

 

I will write anyway,
While looking through the window,
Observing the nature and
Admiring the elements of it.

 

I will write anyway,
Observing my surrounding
For the characters that form
Muses of my stories or poetry.

 

I will write anyway,
While welcoming members into
My family or bidding goodbye
To the parting ones.

 

I will write anyway,
For cherishing the memories
Of bygone days, while
Feeling grateful for them.

 

I will write anyway,
Knowing the fact that
Growing old is inevitable and
The ultimate truth to accept.

 

I will write anyway,
Even when no one is reading it
For all I know, it’s a 
Concoction for my soul.

 

I will write anyway,
For I’ve got a life to live,
Just one life and a thousand dreams
To accomplish in a lifetime.

©All Rights Reserved!
Swati Sarangi
28.03.2026
You can support my work through Buy me a Coffee.

 

#510 Instagram Journey of mine

 Instagram Journey of mine

Design Credit: Canva

I am going to share one wish of mine that got converted into a reality. During the lockdown in the second quarter of 2020, I started giving more time to singing to regain what I had lost over the years due to other commitments like studies and jobs. I’ve been trained in Indian Classical Vocals from Akhil Bharatiya Gandhav Mahavidyalaya (ABGMV), Mumbai up to 3^rd year when I was in 9^th standard and my music teacher moved to another city. After that, I never got the chance to complete my degree in Vocals till Visharad which I had always wanted to. I even considered preparing for 4^th year vocals exam and followed some of the YouTube channels for guidance, later to realize that I needed a Guru to teach me the nuances of classical music which can’t be learned through YouTube only. I created an Instagram account – MeLockDy (representing melody during Lockdown) to save all my recordings in one place, which I couldn’t, unfortunately.

 

Fast forward to Sept 2023, when I came to know about Ukulele classes for beginners at Lippulaiva Library, Espoo, I could think of nothing else but joining that. As a beginner, I sincerely attended all the classes and practiced at home. We were taught both English and Finnish songs by a Finnish instructor. Thankfully the medium of instruction was in English and I didn’t face any issue in following the instructions. I am someone who believes in experimenting with stuff, on my own, after getting acquainted with the basics. So, I started finding the chords for Bollywood or devotional songs, recording them, and uploading them to my YouTube Channel and Instagram account. With consistency, I have uploaded 71 recordings in the last 5 months and I couldn’t be more happy.

 

As a believer in the law of attraction, my Instagram journey has made me realize that no wish or goal is a small one for the universe, if you wish it, the Universe will help you achieve that. Right now, I am not aiming for any particular subscriber count or monetization, all I am focused on is to enjoy this process and improve my skills so that when I look back at this journey, I can do nothing but marvel at what this journey has given me and be proud of myself.

All Rights Reserved!

Swati Sarangi

15.04.2024

   P.S: This post is a part of #BlogChatterA2Z 2024Challenge for Alphabet ‘I’

#138 Linearity of life

Linearity of life

Nothing can be a better teacher than the experience of life. I can regard the experiences of life as live teachers who are capable of teaching the most important aspects. I have always wondered about the applications of some of the bookish knowledge that I’ve gained as portions of academic syllabus. Whenever I try to correlate these concepts with simple outlooks of life, I’m always fascinated by the existing congruence between them. So, in this post I am going correlate some of the scientific terms like sensitivity, linearity, output etc from the prospective of Engineering course (Since I’m an Engineer J )to the experiences of life. I should not forget to thank one of the professors of my college whom I met recently for this wonderful explanation.

Starting with the concept functioning of an electronic instrument, one of the important factors is sensitivity. Sensitivity can be defined as the change of output due to change in input. In other words, how quickly an instrument responds to change in the input parameters. Now, it’s the turn for linearity. A linear instrument is something in which the relationship between input and output parameter is a straight line. In other words, the slope is one. That means the amount of change in input parameters is equally reflected in the change in output parameters. More sensitivity leads to non linearity which results in instability. In simple words, a sensitive system can never be stable or linear.

We can apply the same concepts to our life. If we compare ourselves with those electronic instruments then situations act as outputs and our responses to them define our sensitivity. So to get the output i.e favourable result in proportional to the input i.e efforts, our sensitivity towards these situations must be as low as possible. The tougher the situations, the better will be the result provided we control our sensitivity. My father says that the fixed duration test in the examination hall checks our knowledge whereas the life knowledge is tested continuously through several ordeals. That’s the real test we are appearing in every moment, a timed one.     

So, the concept of linearity is not just important for the proper functioning of an instrument but equally needed for overcoming obstacles of life at ease.

Swati Sarangi

31.07.2016