This blog post is a reply to Meleah’s post of the same title:

I first started keeping a diary at the age of 15, when I was in the 10th grade. I then used a basic date wise diary & recorded certain events that happened on that day, what I did, what my family or relatives did & what I watched on the tv. I soon started writing about my feelings and opening up my heart about certain stuff that was going on in my life. I also would select a ‘song for the day’ (readers of this blog in the 07-08 years would know about it) to go along with each date. When I went on a 3 day school trip to Kodaikannal, it was a way of recording the things that happened there on that fun trip. Oh and I tried my hand at writing lyrics for songs!!

I stopped writing soon after I turned 16, don’t know why though. I barely wrote much for the next few years. When I was 21, I had an operation and was confined to my house for a month. I wasn’t bed ridden but because of the nature of the operation, I needed to avoid cloth touching the stitches as much as possible and hence I spent most of my time in my room. With nothing much to do but read and listen to album after album, I started writing again – initially just  noting down which albums I played each day and then little notes on each album/artist and soon writing lyrics once again. A year later, 1998, I discovered the internet and so thoughts of a diary went out the window. I did managed to create a scrap book of the 1998 World Cup in France and wrote stuff about the matches that I would see.

Although I started reading other people’s blogs in 2000, it would be 2002 when I first started writing in one. I was living in Calicut at the time and being away from home with nothing much to do during the evening hours was as good an excuse as any to start one. I created a Blogger account in which I would occasionally type a notes. My initial posts were usually 3 to 4 sentences long about weekly activities and the movies I saw on the weekends, plus what new music I listened to. I started writing more frequently once I moved back to Cochin but I soon diverted from the actual blogging format to posting more biographical information about sports personalities & musicians. I needed a fresh start and in 2005 I started a second account in blogger – which was also titled Awake & Dreaming.

I guess it was in that blog that I truly started blogging and it became an outlet for me to express my feelings, my thoughts & ideas and my joy & fears. I embraced the ‘art of blogging’ and started reading lots & lots of other blogs for ideas and inspiration. I began enjoying posting in that format and I spent more & more time on the blog. I blogged 4-5 times a week by going to an internet cafe near my home or near the office. By September 2006, I had moved to Kacheripday and bought a new pc and in a couple of weeks, I got a broadband connection. I started blogging daily and on most days, I’d blog more than one entry a day. It has become my passion and my main interest. I usually blog at home, from my laptop which I place on a table. At times I also blog from a coffeeshop that offers free Wifi but those are few and far between.