#100

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is my 100th post on Chennai to Chicago. Thank you! thank you! Now if you can all sit down and hold your applause till the end, I would like to say a few words.

First off, I would like to thank my mom and dad for not drowning me as a kid despite the obvious temptations to do so. To this day, they remain blissfully unaware of the existence of this blog. This will be very closely followed by my gratitude to my wife, who has managed to neglect 99% of my blog posts so that she might be able to maintain a semblance of respect for me as an intelligent and mature human being. I applaud her for her inner strength.

I would also like to thank my grand parents who had to put up with me during my annual summer vacations in Sathanur. To document those wonderful childhood memories was one of the main reasons I decided to start and maintain this blog. Many thanks also goes to my immediate friends' gang in Chicago, who - disturbingly - call themselves 'baguth'. They have continued to discourage me, diss me, dissuade me, disillusion me... The number of 'dis' things they've done to me is pretty long. I firmly believe that when I die they'll spit on my grave. I thank them for their moral support and understanding. I am also indebted to 2 other people. My brother Chandru started a blog first and inspired me to follow suit. And my good friend SpiceTooth who, as usual, put enormous enthu for his blog in the beginning only to see it fizz out in a few days. To those who know him well, he specializes at this.

I am very grateful to those anonymous readers of my blog who give arcane search terms on google like "chennai aunties" or "vietnam wedding" and end up on my blog. They take one look and flee from my site. But my site counter still adds them to my list of visitors and makes me feel good at the end of the day.

And finally, last but not the least (allow me to use my cliches please), if there are any regular readers of my blog, I bow to you and your mighty heart. And I wonder what is wrong with you. I realize that you are the lucky few who get paid to browse the net. I still feel sorry for you and would suggest you get some serious psychiatric help.

I know what you are wondering! What has kept me motivated to write a 100 posts on this blog despite serious misgivings form the general public? My motivations are 3 fold.

1. This serves as a vent for my creative energies while also providing me with a forum to express my thoughts and opinions on a variety of subjects.

2. To rant and rave about anything I want to without fear of criticism or backlash. This also includes doling out unwarranted and unsolicited advice.

3. I forget.

I do have to admit that when I started this blog, I had no idea I'd last for a 100 posts. To think that I now stand on par with legends such as Tendulkar (100+ test matches), Rajnikanth (100+ movies) and Lata Mangeshkar (100+ bad songs. Actually make that 1000+) is mind-boggling, to say the least. When I type this, I can actually feel goose bumps on my hand. Oh sorry, that was just bad static!

There have been times when the ideas have disappeared and the imagination has run dry. But I kept plodding on with some of my worst posts. You can dig them up from the 'Rants and Raves' list on the right hand side, like this one. Eventually, material would present itself. Like my cousin Arun's wedding to Cindy, a Vietnamese-American. To this day, this is one of the most widely read and commented posts on my blog. Then there was my marathon which certainly deserved 1 post. But I wrote 3 (1, 2 and 3). When I got my Kellogg MBA admit, I turned into a drama queen with mushy posts like this. And then ofcourse was the highlight of my life so far - my wedding to W. This was fun to write. But I knew I was walking a tight rope because I had to write about everybody without offending anybody. I decided to stay superficial. It always works. Speaking of superficial, you just have to turn to my book/movie reviews. They contain a lot of words which eventually do not amount to anything. I like to play it safe. I am fond of writing something about technology once in a while, and my favorite in this section would be this post about my dream device Alamelu. However, my all-time favorite posts are, and will continue to be, my 'Sathanur Day' series. Here's one for starters. When you are passionate about something, it reflects in your writing.

As you can see, the road to my 100th post has been filled with a lot of challenges. But the key is to enjoy them and never give up. Even when you end up having to work 4-6 hours in an entire day and come back home dead tired. Where there is a will there is a way.

So what is my advice to budding and future bloggers, you ask? Just go out there and enjoy yourself. The best thing about blogging is that noone has to read what you write. You can still call yourself a blogger, and when noone is listening, a writer. Think about what you want to say and then find a way to say it in simple uncomplicated words. Does my advice sound superficial to you? Ofcourse it does. Didn't I tell you I like superficial?

So where do I see myself going from here? I plan to keep this blog running hopefully for another 100 posts and more. I know the first year of my MBA is going to provide me with serious obstacles. But before any of you starts heaving your sigh of relief, let me assure you that I'm going to try my very best to update this blog regularly. There is no respite yet for you my friends. And if you are a regular blog reader, I have some advice for you as well. Please step into Web 2.0 and use an RSS blog reader/scubscriber such as Bloglines or Google Reader. They bring the content to you and you won't miss any of your favorite bloggers' posts. wink! wink!

And with that, I'll conclude my little speech and let you get back to the applause.