Millionaire in one sense at least!

I started writing this blog in mid-2006, after being prodded by one of my old boys to start writing a diary on the internet (I hadn't heard of weblogs - soon shortened to 'blogs' - before that). As with everything I undertake, I launched on this adventure very seriously determined to continue for a long time. It took years of patient, regular work before the page views counter reached the 100,000 mark, and then it began to accelerate. The last 100,000 has been crossed in barely eight months, and now I am a 'millionaire'. Not an achievement to be proud of, one part of my mind is saying, considering that in the age of Instagram Reels any pouting half-naked bimbo swinging her hips like a crazed monkey gets a million views within weeks, if not days. But, says the other part, is your blog something comparable to that? I take pride in believing that while such 'million-viewed' idiots are watched only by creatures of their own intellectual and aesthetic level, and are as promptly forgotten as they become 'famous', my blog, as I wrote many years ago, draws only people who like to think - deeply, in a sustained and intelligent way, about many really important things in life, who can read and enjoy reading, and who have come to feel that they gain something substantial and of lasting value to themselves by continuing to read what I write. That kind of readership is naturally very small in every land and age, but most especially in India today (I am assuming that the vast majority of my readers are Indians): and given that, a) sticking to the job for eighteen long years and b) reaching the million-page views landmark, taken together, is no mean achievement. Perhaps, at long last, I can start thinking of myself as a writer. And so I shall continue to write as long as I can, and still have non-trivial things to say.

Here in Durgapur, we got the first real taste of the monsoon this year over the last weekend. Thanks to a severe depression somewhere in the Bay, it has been raining almost continuously and middling-heavily since Friday the 13th night, and the sky is overcast even tonight, the air is squally and everything damp and rather smelly all around. If the weather app is to be believed (it shouldn't, judging by recent experience) it should clear up by tomorrow. May it rain some more before the pujo: we have had too little of it.

I had thought of writing about several things, but they escape me tonight. No matter, I'll get back as soon as they come back to me. 

P.S.: For latecomers among my ex students, if you want to write in with a good memory of your days with me as a few already have, click on the link I have pasted permanently on the right-hand sidebar (see web version on your phone), which will take you to the Google form.