My journey with BAT so far…

It feels very nice to be given the opportunity to write about my experiences with Blog-a-ton or BAT as it’s called lovingly. I still remember the beginning of this event. Vipul(the Marshal bhai)was my blog friend and also a fellow Indiblogger. It is from his blog and Indiblogger forum that I got to know about the concept and eventually about Blog-a-ton itself.

So here was an event where one had to write and post on a single topic(suggested by members, then s-elected by members) on a designated day. I didn’t know what to expect of such an event. After passing out of school I was not used to write on a pre-determined topic or subject, so was quite apprehensive naturally. But the first BAT topic “Cream and Scum of Blogging” seemed pretty easy, so without thinking much  jumped in with my post. After posting, I rushed to reading other posts and was amazed by the quality and variety; I mean all the posts were so different and intriguing (I had never imagined one could be so creative with that topic). Well, that’s what set the tone of future BATs and I felt that participating in BAT will be great fun.

The most surprising aspect for me was every time I would see the topic and panic. I would think my god , what am I supposed to write but before the BAT day something decent would be ready with me for posting . The more interesting part was people would read it and post very encouraging comments. In-fact the BAT posts were the ones that would get most attention (read traffic and comments). Moreover I was enjoying this whole thing of writing, reading and interacting. So it became a compulsory event in my blog till December 2009 (in that month I had only 2 posts and one was BAT post!). In the New Year, January 2010 for the first time I missed BAT, it was unavoidable but had decided that I’ll not miss the next editions. So in February 2010 I was back but then again missed in March. Yes in 2010 I have been missing a few editions but if you see I have missed only 3 editions thus far I think and every time came back without fail.

So, what BAT has done for me? It has helped me improve my writing (Koi Shaque!Ok! Now don’t judge by this post, I felt that after going through my BAT posts!). Then in my first and only Indiblogger meet Harsha Chittar(another Blog-a-tonic) recognized me as a fellow Blog-a-tonic. So you see participating in BAT made me World famous (OK! OK! I am exaggerating!) . But the truth is BAT has helped me in getting some very good friends.

As BAT completes 1 year I wish BAT a Very Happy First Birthday. Also congratulate Vipul(the Marshall bhai) and fellow Blog-a-tonics for keeping it up and running, actually making it better. BAT’s still a baby and it would be great pleasure to see it grow up into a youngster. It would be an ultimate dream come true to see it reach the goal of 100 bloggers writing at a time (It will happen I am sure). Then I’ll write another post here commemorating the occasion :P .

Dhiman Manji