Year 8 - Be a Rainbow in someone else's cloud

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, 

but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” 

― Douglas Adams.

Tony Blair. Dubyaman. Mangal Pandey. Salaam Namaste. Batman Begins. Revenge of the Sith.  'Don't cha wish your girlfriend...'. John Cena winning his first WWE World Championship belt.

That's how old this blog is.
Godyears completes 7 years this month-end. That's a long time by any standards.

7 years. A rainbow cake seemed appropriate.

Statistically speaking :

Year 5 - 2 blogs, 322 posts, 3333 comments, 072702 page views. 

Year 6 - 2 blogs, 361 posts, 3990 comments, 100908 page views and 6 published stories.

Year 7 - 3 blogs, 432 posts, 5936 comments, 143942 page views and 10 published stories.

It has been an eventful year, not just for me but for the blog as well. 

If ever there was a case of the creation carrying the creator through a tumultuous year, this was it. There have been awesome highs and crazy lows too.

Some of Year 7's best moments undoubtedly were :

• Returning back to the hospital I literally lived in for 3 years, now as a guest as I attended a book conference as a co-author. ( Note to self : Scratch off bucket list )
• Ridiculous as it sounds, I was chosen as a Premium Blogger of India ( Top 10 ) by Blogadda. I'm still waiting for their call telling me 'Really ! You thought we were serious ?!"
• More stories got published, both online and in print. That was heartening - I needed to prove to myself that it wasn't a flash in the pan.

Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud

 - Maya Angelou

More importantly, I finally embraced change. 
From the starting posts in 2005 till 2011, there were umpteen warning signs of me being a doormat and letting people walk all over me. I was too busy thinking of everyone else's opinion of me and being a people pleaser. 

That changed over the last year. 

I consciously turned my back on dozens of fair-weather friends who I always knew were using me but just didn't want to disappoint. 

Instead this year, I made a conscious effort to be there for those who I felt needed me genuinely. Many were too low or depressed to seek help and were turning away from their friends. I recognised the symptoms easily : it's what I've done in the past. 

It was important for me to show them that, irrespective of the insults and lies being said about them, there was someone who still remembered they were good at heart and wasn't going to be swayed by the manipulation of wealth and frauds. 

And it has borne fruit - while many of their ships still sail through turbulent waves, they now know to laugh and see the bright side... to see the frustration behind their enemies taunts... to believe in themselves again. They know that if one guy believes in them, there will be others around as well. New blogger buddies, friendships that were lost over years and some which were never really close while we stood beside each other have strengthened over this year and hopefully, these bonds I cherish will last once the waves subside. 

• Subconsciously or otherwise, that need to strengthen people's self-belief seeped into the posts as well ( Play to your strengths, Embers, Make a Chit ). 
• The sense of maturity , a word not many ever associated with me, also finally reflected in fictional posts with deeper significance ( Origins, The Ballet, The Ice Cream Stick House ). 
• The romantic and the comedian is still alive though, for which I'm glad ( Old school, Becoming a Superhero, My 1.34 crore resume for Facebook ).
• In between all this, there were guest posts for pregnant women and political parties as well.
• There were also more medical posts including the infamous 'Doctors defend thyself' which had more page views than all my posts in Year 1 put together and also got me labeled an 'Educated bastard' by a crowd that refused to accept that Indian doctors could have a soul.  

Luckily for me, to balance the serious tones of Godyears 7.0 , there was also The Appletini, which is my holiday retreat from the real world. Filled with trivia on movies, actors, books and music, it's probably the only place where you're gonna have HellBoy, Mohanlal, Phil Collins and Denzel Washington all at the same place. Oh, that reminds me, I also got to meet some Mallu and Bollywood movie stars in real life ( but more on that another day. ) 

Me with Elvis. Yes, the King is alive. He's just in hiding.

Anyway, if the Mayans and aliens don't get us all in the coming month, here's looking forward to a brand new year of fun, laughter, insights and opinions. 

Cheers everyone. Keep blogging. The way things are going, bloggers and tweeters maybe the only sane voices this country has soon.

P.S. Nowadays, it's become popular to put up a teaser for a movie trailer - a trailer for the trailer, basically. If you want a teaser of what's coming up in year 8 of Godyears, well -  here's a hint.