Travails of blogging

If you have read the comments for the previous posting, you'll know that I'm being confronted by a friend for not keeping in touch. I've not been mailing, offering 'I'm busy' tales, yet having 'enough' time to write blogs.

Yesterday, a colleague suddenly asked me 'how's your dad' and I, in a surprise wonder asked 'how do you know about my father?'. 'You had written about it in your blog mate', pat came reply.

Another guy who recenly broke up with his girl asked me how I coped with my own and wanted to know if I'm still in touch with my ex-girlfriend.

All this led me to believe that blogging is not all bed of roses. There are certain aspects of your life that are open to the world and it borders on exhibitionism. I was actually caught off guard when my friend pointed out my priorities about blogging versus mailing. And I was a bit ashamed about my friend's references to my ex-girlfriend.

Though I have consciously travelled far from using my blog as a diary, it still seems to have those traces. A professional columnist may not be writing about his failed love affairs and his family affairs. That perhaps is the message. I have a long way to go before I consider myself a professional columnist.

The format and design of the blog especially prevents one from breaking free from the designated format. I often thought of redesigning my blog with ample photographs and good layouts. To do that, I must buy a URL and run my own site. I don't know doing that will attract same number of hits. The objective is to essentially break free from the diary mode.

That is not to say that I was embarassed about my friends coming to know about my personal affairs. Some one, after visiting my blog for the first time was appalled at the personal details revealed in them especially in the older archives.

Though I don't subscribe to the term 'very honest' because there's plenty of gray shades in my life that I don't discuss in my blogs, I seem to be open about certain things which many consider private. Last week, while discussing this, a friend of mine remarked that anyone who knows me for six months can write my biography.