Google Eats Blogger, But Allows Me A Portion

No one dusts off a 9 year old blog, just to post a thank you message to a big multinational organization.

Well, I just did. Thanks Google!

Now that I have control over my own blog again, I can go back to doing whatever I was doing - reading it from various computers on Earth, boosting my page views up, and pretending that it somehow makes me an important guy.

Seven years since my last blog post? We live in a very different world today. I am different. My world is different. The world is different.

We've seen the iPhone make a huge mark. The entire smartphone revolution, plus associated technologies brought upon us along with it (think WhatsApp, Instagram, Google Maps and the like), has fundamentally changed the way we do things. There's also the point that we probably wouldn't be enjoying all this without a telecom revolution and internet revolution that was happening alongside. Demography has changed. Technology has changed.

The Universe went ahead and got much bigger, too. 

But have we changed?

Are we really that different today than we were eight years ago? Four years ago? Last New years'?

What were we chasing down eight years ago? Did we capture it? Did it change us? Do we feel like someone else by virtue of completing that chase? Did we simply replace one chase with another? Or does the goal seem farther than ever, and are we still chasing it down? 

Once again, it's the questions that matter, not the answers. Not yet, anyway.

I'd normally say "the answers are out there" - but spiritual insight leads me to confidently say that "the answers are in here" as much as they are "out there" - so in a way, I have changed. And in a way, I am the same too.

The Universe did get bigger, so it is different. But everything that existed earlier exists now too (arguably, in different forms in some cases - this is a discussion that could flame into a raging debate. Don't we all love those!) - so in that sense the Universe is same too. Rather, it has a sameness about it, along with the new. So it is same. And yet different.

If Earl Nightingale's words are anything to go by - if the answers are out there, they are within us too, and if they are within us, they are out there, too. How many times does it feel like someone made a business out of that amazing idea you had? How many times do you notice someone using the exact same words you held within your mind just that morning? How many times do we come across someone that is totally new, but we feel like they look familiar or that we must've known them for years?

Posting on a blog after all these years doesn't feel out of fashion. It feels like pursuing a passion. Google might have eaten Blogger - but the fundamentals of blogging still remain the same. I love the freedom that we enjoy on this medium. It's the freedom we were born with, and the grace of everyone around us who helped us survive our initial years until we became self-sufficient and self-reliant.

I have big plans with blogging - but this post, meandering as it may be, is the first step to getting back on track.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Vikas