Bitten by the blog bug

Through gardening, I had bumped into a website called Dave's Garden in 2001 when the internet had made its way down to my access at the workplace.  In fact, my quest for plant names had landed me there.  I could not tell the difference between a blog or a website or a portal.  Even now I stutter. I was curious about this word 'blog'.  Some of my American gardener-friends had their own blogs. I had made friends with one Kimberley.  She tried to explain me what it was.  'Web log' in short is 'blog'. Today, I found this link. [Click].   Ok, let it be. 

A few years on, in 2006, I was using 'Googling' something about 'Mysore'.  Now 'google' is admitted in the Oxford Dictionary, so are so many e-terms!  Google took me to a link where I found some group discussing various things.  I discovered it to be Mysore-based.  I soon found there was one GVK.  It was he who was the 'admin'.  It was using very basic features more like at Dave's Garden. It was a discussion forum.  The word blog still dogged me.  But I signed up.  

See my earliest post here. I was glad to have found some like-minded friends, locally.  There were some elderly 'contributors' whom I was to meet. 

This is how it looked, but now inactive. 

Interesting discussions took place.  It was the brainchild of one G.V.Krishnan.  Slowly we got acquainted with each other and we met.  He also visited my house in 2009 and made a short post [click] on the occasion.  He also linked me to many of his posts. [Click]  Do not miss his postings. Just one or two pictures in each post and one or two lines saying something related.  You can take a walk around Mysore with GVK's posts.  No kidding.  He continued to post till his last day in the city.   

It was GVK, 'a journalist who can't stop writing', who inspired many of us in Mysore to 'blog'.  He had come to Mysore to settle down.  He wanted to see Mysore as a better city than it was and tried to do what he could in his own way. But before anything crystallized, he chose Chennai for his home.  Before he left, some of us bloggers met to bid farewell to him and his wife. One could see why he called his first 'blog' as 'MyMysore'. It later led to Mysore Blog Park which is active even now, with wonderful contributors.  This is where I discovered that the same blog can be used by many to post articles. 

Picture from the GVK farewell below. 

In the picture are very senior and renown personalities of Mysore and I find myself here! 

E.R.Ramachandran, H.R.Bapu Sathyanarayana and Krishna Vattam. [Click on their names]. GVK himself wrote in that link how Vattam got into blogging!

Capt.Anup Murthy is another whom I reunited through GVK's MyMysore blog.  Our grandfathers were chuddy-buddies a century ago. Anup, who is an aviator and traveler has his blog too. [Click].  We met GVK in 2009 at his house. See picture above. 

This activity brought some gifted and prolific bloggers.  One was Raji [click on her free-flowing blog] and the other happened to be the grand daughter of Mr.Vattam [you saw him in that group picture above], the veteran journalist of Mysore.  She is Lakshmi. [Click - her blog]  Not even 25, but already authored two books!  When she came to Mysore from half way round the earth, we met.  In the meantime, that had led to her friendships with my children [Next picture].  One of them started blogging. [Click]. 

I have grown fond of referring 'blogging' as 'bragging'.  More than just because they rhyme!

Let the blog-bug bite itch!