Take time to live, the blog has so much to give: Ekta Khetan

About:

Hi, I am your NumeroUnity from http://ektakhetan.blogspot.com. I was born on 3^rd July at a sleepy but beautiful township of Ghatsila in Jharkhand; My upbringing was at different parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Bihar [now Jharkhand]. I graduated from Nagpur and did my MBA from Madras. Traveling from Chennai to Hyderabad to Bangalore to Kolkata, my travelogue is an interesting tale of learning, adventure and love for the diverse Indian culture. [No wonder my visionary parents named me Ekta.

I am a business analyst by profession who also loves product management, psychology, branding and lots more. There is a budding photographer and archer in me, which tells me to give my best ‘shot’ in everything I do.

Ekta Khetan

Interview

Q1: Welcome to Speakbindas. Tell us since when blogging has been a part of your life? Was there any motive or inspiration as a backbone of it?

A1: Thank you, Speakbindas for having me on board. I entered this beautiful world of blogging in Nov 2008. To be very honest, I cannot recall any single motivation as such except my urge to try my hand  on something as different as this and do something more with life than the mundane grind.

I was quite apprehensive in the beginning as I always struggle to express sea of my thoughts in black & white. Thankfully, some good friends insisted that I must give the creative side of me a chance and start blogging.

My mother used to write before her marriage. She used to pen poems, songs and articles.  Seeing my mom’s published/unpublished work, certificates etc, I use to feel very proud. Therefore, I thought, let do something that may also make my parents proud [If not that it may convince them to entrust me with a larger share of their property, Lolz]. I started writing poems during my school days to enhance my vocabulary & kill time during summer holidays. One of my uncles gifted me a beautiful Collin’s cobuild dictionary that swiftly became a second inspiration for my poems. I use to take an assortment of words and mould them into a poem. However, by the time I joined college, my writing got restricted to personal diaries only.

Another inspiration was the dearth of entertainment. Watching just TV, films, music or doing mindless chit-chats was not me. With me, it has to be different & Value adding. As, I always want to do something different with life like adventure sports, photography, learning archery/shooting, documentary making, studying psychology etc. Time was just flying and I wanted to start some thing somewhere and hence here I am.

Therefore, initially what started as the machination to fight my loneliness or desire to do something substantial has now turned into a passion or leashing of self-identity.

Q2: What is your blog all about? Which topics you cover there? Is that you alone running/maintaining the blog, or have a team?

A2: My blog is about life and the world we live in, the world we imagine, believe and doubt. It is about various expressions- sad, funny, sarcastic and informative. I blog to get my expressions right, convey myself and bring a new angle to life. I write about life in general, life in events and life through medium of stories. I write what catches my interest, my erstwhile fancy and what I believe is good enough to publish. Experience and observation is definitely an integral part of it.

I write and maintain on my own. I count my friends as my team that I ve connected via my blogs and it is their support that motivates me to come up with new things.

Q3: What are the present statistics for your blog, i.e. number of daily visitors, visitors geographical status etc.?

A3: At present, I have not deployed any mechanism as such. However, I am planning to have one soon. I though check on daily basis the number of followers on my blog and the number of people who have commented on any of my post etc. Then there are friends who read my posts and give me in person feedbacks via phone, FB, mails. I have a mixed readership with a majority of my readers are people like PG students, working professionals etc across the continents except arctic and Antarctica [If I had my way, I’ll make penguins read]

Then there is Alexa rankings etc that tells me that I have currently 88% visitors from India and rest from other part of world. Besides, I get some mails like my recent indiblog ranking and blog listing in websites like labnol, Kamath, Mumbai Mirror etc that suggests another level of readership as well.

Q4: Is blogging for you just a passion or a medium for earning too? Does it help you to earn enough cash to quit a 9 to 5 day job?

A4: It began as an object of interest, slowly developed into a passion and now it is a habit. I would be glad to earn additionally through my writing but as of now, nothing striking has come to my end. Since my blog does not hinder in my job, I have no plans to quit working.

Q5: Who are your favorite bloggers, whom you read frequently?

A5: I am quite a laidback kind of person. My first priority is the followers of my blog, incl the readers who comment on my posts and those who have my link mentioned on their web page. Besides while doing so I also like to visit other links on their blogs or pick random blogs. Favorite I cannot name as such but I like reading Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Cyrus Broacha on Asian age amongst others, as they always come out with something out of the world without making it too serious to read. Besides, one of my uncle travels all around the world and writes beautiful travelogues or random subjects like politics, technology and human relations. I am in process to convince him to start his own blog.

Q6: From the secret bucket of your blogging experiences, what tips you would like to share with the fellow bloggers?

A6:  One, learn to appreciate the art and not the science of fault finding. Two, blog is a great way to network, make friends, learn new things. Use but do not misuse it. Three, always come with something simple yet different; be genuine; do not try to please anyone. Appreciate other’s time and loyalty. Four, do reply to all the comments your visitors write for you. Fifth and most importantly be regular.

In addition, we do not want to know how much you love/hate your girl friend, wife, daughter, car or cricket in every other post unless you spin an interesting tale around it.

Q7: Do you believe that blogging completes you? If yes, tell us how?

A7: Blogging has become a good fulfilling part of my life [esp. social life]. It is not an end in me but a great way to start, an interesting mean to proceed.

Q8: What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?

A8:  Well since life is about all such moments and my blogs is about life. Hence, let it be weblogs moment. Happiest is when I get good comments; new blogdosts [followers], appreciation, listings or surprise mails like this from your team, journalists, PR officers who want me to interview their top management and publish etc. In addition, when I make good friends through blogosphere and my work is appreciated.

Gloomiest is when I do not get new visitors, see the old visitors not coming back, or low number of feedbacks on my blogs. [ha ha at the end of the day recognition is best reward for efforts]. In addition, when I have lot of ideas in my mind still I could not finish turning them into concrete posts.

Q9: Say, you are sponsored to travel to 3 world destinations, where you need not to worry about costs for food, hotel or anything. Which destinations would you pick up, and why? Would you like to take someone along with you? If yes, whom?

A9: I would pick any 3 exotic locales where I could get in to lot of fun and adventure activities or great food. I would love to explore continents like Europe, Asia & America, why restrict it to just 2-3 cities.

I am not sure who can come along with me. May be I will take Jackie Chan with me. He is my childhood favorite and am sure it will be fun filled trip. Lolz

Q10: Are you into watching movies? If yes, which fills your list of favorite ones?

A10: I love light comedy, urban romance, classical world cinema and mystery. I used to love non-commercial movies but too much of them have become a cliché to bear. Besides, we all know life is full of gloom then why spend time in revisiting it.

Favorites are many- Gone with the wind, Jab we met, Titanic, Godfather, Children of lesser god, Bucket list, Omkara, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Mani Ratnam movies etc.

Recently saw- Love aaj kal and loved it.

Q11: How has blogging helped you other than money?

A11: It has helped me in unleashing my creativity. I was quite adept in catching new ideas but bad in improvising them in writing. It helped there. It helped me in building new friends. It also gave me a medium of creative construction.

I use it to tell people that I do have a mind of my own and does not need their second hand impositions or thoughts.

Q12: What would be the one thing you would change about yourself?

A12: I wish I could ride bicycle or dance in the rainJ

Q13: What is your deepest fear?

A13: Deepest fears is becoming dependant on anyone, loosing any limb, going bankrupt, or loose the people I love.

Q14: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?

A14: Anyone who is capable to give me a dream job or a wonderful life partner.

Q15: Which is your favorite television show? Favorite songs?

A15: Television has become very boring and repetitive these days. Amidst the mayhem, stuff I love is “Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai”, Khatron ke khiladi, Bournvita Quiz Contest and CNBC TV 18 shows. I also like some of the reality shows merely for the creative formats they have. I am inspired to start designing some myself.

In songs – I like ghazals by Jagjit singh, Old film songs, new film songs like JWM, Kaminey OST, latest favorite is from Love-aaj kal [Aaj din chaddya tere rang varda & Chorbazari].

In Western music piano pieces by Richard clayderman and others, Celine dion [My heart will go on, that is the way it is], backstreet boys etc, and when I am very sad I listen to- Sound of silence by Simon-Garfunkel and Frozen by Madonna.

Q16: How much money do you have in your purse/wallet right now (including change)?

A16: 600+

Q17: What is your favorite food? Any particular dislikes?

A17: I am complete foodie; I am quite choosey though. I love Pastas, Pizza, Punjabi food and street fares. I like spicy, tangy stuff from Andhra, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. No particular dislike as long as it is veg, delicious, aromatic and does not stink like fish.

Q18: What is your take on the technological advancement these days? Does it make people’s life simple or complicated?

A18:  It is good to see so many different platforms that technology has bought to our daily living and communications. In a positive sense, Technology has made life more simper than complicated. Complication is the self-imposed negativity induced by the users or the developer.

Q19: What do you think of “blogging is the next BIG thing”?

A19: Blogging is an interesting and larger medium to understand & convey your thoughts to public, leaders etc. It is a “multi-media” kind of medium, which you can use to combine various mediums like creativity, communication, marketing, analytics etc. Too much of something actually ruins its quality and essence. Overall blogging is already “the big thing” but not “next big thing”.

Q20: List out the 10 bloggers you believe should be interviewed by Speakbindas.com.

A20: Ha ha. By asking that question, you are putting me into an unfair situation. I suggest, Pl go by your gut feeling. When gut feeling fails, there is a man made angel called Google! But off course, you can interview me as many times as you want.

Q21: Any special message you would like to share with your blog readers as well with everyone else?

A21: Take time to live, the blog has so much to give. Keep reading my blogs and let me know if you want my help on any interesting assignment[s], or want me to write on a particular idea or a genre.