From virtual to real

In my almost-6 years of blogging, I have had the opportunity to meet some of my readers and fellow bloggers. For those I have not met, I have been able to talk to some of you over the telephone. The meetings are always special, and people are always very warm. What thrills me is the fact that there are people I didn’t know of, who take the time to read and appreciate what I write, and remember very minute details. While chatting, the topic usually comes to how did they discover my blog, and how did they manage to read it for so long. I have a good friend who was interviewing with Microsoft and hence asked if we could meet up over dinner. While chatting, we discovered that we have a dozen friends in common. There was another friend I met at the local bakery and talked to for hours, and discovered more friends in common. Last Christmas, I met another dear friend and fellow blogger. When I was at a conference last month, I had the opportunity to meet another reader friend of mine. The list is long.

When it comes to talking about my blog, everyone usually asks a unique question, and no two people have asked me the same question. It is interesting how people remember different posts, and certain things they read resonate and leave a lasting impression. Someone asked me my name, and it is then that I realized I had talked to that person without telling them my name. Someone else actually wanted to remember me as sunshine, and didn’t want to know my name. Someone had asked me if Baby Kalyani is real (yes, she is very real and an important person in my life). Someone else asked me what make and model was sunshine car. It is interesting how different posts, and different characters resonate with different people. People remembered G, Baby Kalyani, or my car from the posts. However, I was talking to another reader friend of mine, and this was a very interesting response. I asked my reader friend how it feels to communicate with a blogger in real time, talk to them, and see what they look like. I asked if it feels different to have a face to a name. My reader friend said, it is the same as meeting a person at a conference, whose papers you have been reading for a long time.

Being a PhD student myself, I loved this response, and this way of putting it.

sunshine