Its been two years since I started StartupDunia and boy, how time flies. There have been ups and downs and some extended absences, but I’ve tried to juggle my best between my professional, personal life and blogging.

The entire blogging experience has been a wonderful journey so far. I’ve gotten a chance to interact with people and network with folks, whom I would have never gotten to chance to interact with otherwise. I’ve also made some wonderful friends along the way.

Another valuable thing that I’ve learned from blogging is the discipline and persistance that is needed to blog regularly. Just the kind of focus that you’d need if you were doing a startup.

I’d like to thank all you for reading my blog and taking the time to leave comments. Without all of you guys, StartupDunia wouldnt be where it is today. And I really mean it.

Finally, I’d also like to thank my wife for being supportive through the entire process. Part time blogging takes away time from your personal life and I’m glad she’s been very understanding about it so far. Thanks dear - I know I dont say it as often as I should.

• StartupDunia is one year old
• Apologies on the unannounced absence
• The abrupt break from blogging

Comments

• October 10, 2008, Reliance Insider commented: Congrats Pranav. I am regular reader of your blog from last 1.5 -2yrs. Interview of PicSquare founders was the first post I had read on your blog :-) Being in US and in the same profession, I can understand how difficult it could to take time to blog regularly. I personally like your independent and candid views on Startup's. Dude, Keep up good job.
• October 10, 2008, Rajiv Dingra commented: Congrats Pranav! I know how 2 years feel!
• October 11, 2008, Ravi commented: Awesome stuff Pranav.. its been great reading your blog. Hope you keep up the good work!
• October 11, 2008, Deepankar commented: Congratulations Pranav. It sure needs discipline.
• October 11, 2008, Praveen commented: Congrats Pranav :) Keep up the good work and thank you for all the wonderful news/info that you have providing for the last 2 years.
• October 11, 2008, Vivek Puri commented: Thanks for all the effort. I my view, India is one of the tougher places to report on cause of the quality and quantity of news to report for. But you are managing it really well.
• October 12, 2008, Balaji commented: Congrats Pranav! You did a great job so far.! I am regular reader from last 6 month .
• October 12, 2008, Nikhil commented: just two? sure seems like more. I guess we started out around the same time. Congrats, and hoping for many more years (and many more posts :) best, Nikhil
• October 12, 2008, ekerala commented: Way to go Pranav. Happy 2nd birthday :)
• October 12, 2008, pranav commented: Thanks all -- your kind words mean a lot to me. Its one of the main things that keeps me going !!
• October 12, 2008, Ajitesh commented: Congrats Pranav..you have been doing a great job!
• October 12, 2008, Vikas commented: Nice going. Keep it up. Love the new design, by the way!
• October 13, 2008, Heeren Pandya commented: Congrats Pranav, Gr8 going, keep it up. Its good reading your blogs.
• October 13, 2008, Satendra commented: Congrats! keep writing good stuff !

Thanks to the folks behind Jobberbase for such a great open source job board.

If anything doesnt work as expected, please drop me a line at contact@startupdunia.com

Thanks for sticking around.

Finally, this last weekend, I was able to get a somewhat relaxing vacation and time away from work, blogging, and everything related to it.

Hopefully I was able to revitalize myself and recharge my batteries. Should be getting back to regular blogging shortly.

• StartupDunia is 2 years old
• The abrupt break from blogging
• Back home

Comments

• July 6, 2008, Seminyak Villas commented: I think writing needs a good mood, which sometimes we just could not get. Personal blog intended for fun, sharing with others, maybe different. But expecting commercial success requires consistency, which is hard to achieve especially when we just not in the right mood to write.
• July 7, 2008, Nikhil commented: Pranav, I recently came off a self-imposed blogging break, and realized two things: 1. While it was great to get a break from the stress of blogging four-six times a day, I was itching to get back to blogging. I had an opinion on things, and really wanted to express that opinion. I did 3-4 posts during that break. 2. Once I got back to blogging, getting back into the groove of doing 4-6 a day was difficult. I felt reluctant about doing the same old thing again. So I combined the two - I'm now writing about things that I really want to write about, and while the number of hours put in overall is the same if not more, the output is much more satisfying. So hence the switch to fewer posts, but to posts that I want to do.
• July 7, 2008, pranav commented: @Nikhil, You're doing a great job at Medianama. Few posts, but quality posts. I guess I might end up taking the same approach. Cut down on the number of posts but make them interesting enough - not that I was posting that regularly anyways. If only there wasnt the added stress of a full time day job..that would make things much easier :-)

The goal is to increase collaboration and inter-communication between these local Internet markets and make a unified representation of the rapidly developing and emerging Asian Internet industry. The initiative is spearheaded by Gang Lu who blogs here.

Comments

• June 14, 2008, chica commented: Congrats. Its a good site, I've been visiting it since it started.
• June 16, 2008, pranav commented: thanks Chica. Comments like these keep me motivated :-)

Every India trip unfolds a new story - from new malls to retail chains to cars and traffic. As and when I get time, I shall share some of my experiences and observations - both from the tech world and the society in general.

For now, back to my battle with jet lag and fatigue - writing shall resume as soon as I get settled in.

• The abrupt break from blogging
• Back to some regular (hopefully) blogging
• Playing with Django

Comments

• February 11, 2008, Niyaz PK commented: Hm.. great.
• February 13, 2008, RK commented: Please join www.toostep.com which is basically a social networking site which creates enormous value in terms of knowledge and careers. Please comment on this site also. You have to give me your mail id. I will invite you. regards, rk

Besides Ahmedabad, I will be in Bangalore during the first week of February. If anyone is interested in meeting up, drop me in an email at contact {AT} startupdunia <DOT> com.

Stay safe and healthy !!

• StartupDunia is one year old
• Back to some regular (hopefully) blogging
• The abrupt break from blogging

In hindsight, I should have probably written a short post announcing my absence, and henceforth, I’ll make sure I do that. With that said, a big thanks to all the concerned folks who dropped in an email to check if I was ok - it means a lot to me.

I’m going to be doing some housekeeping on the blog today (deleting spammy comments, inbox cleaning and such) and will probably be back to blogging later today or tomorrow.

Feels good to get back to normal

• StartupDunia is one year old
• StartupDunia is 2 years old
• The abrupt break from blogging

Comments

• December 17, 2007, Information Madness commented: Hello Pranav, I hope everything is alright at your end now. Welcome back.
• December 17, 2007, Gaurav commented: Welcome back Pranav.
• December 18, 2007, Unmesh commented: Good to hear everything is fine. Welcome back.
• December 18, 2007, Chandra commented: Hi Pranav, welcome back. Good to know everything is fine.
• December 18, 2007, Abhinav Saxena commented: I was missing your blogs in my feed reader, welcome back :)
• December 18, 2007, Ashish commented: Hey Pranav, Hope all's well now. Good to have you back.
• December 18, 2007, pranav commented: thanks guys -- appreciate all the warmth.. -pranav.
• December 20, 2007, Raseel commented: Good to have you back

If you havent tried out Python yet, I’d definitely urge you to do so. If you’ve worked in both, PHP & Python, I’d like to hear which one you found better.

Ohh..and I’ll be back to writing shortly. For those who’ve evoked an interest in writing for StartupDunia, I’ll be getting in touch with you within the next 2-3 days. Sorry, have been swamped lately

• Back to some regular (hopefully) blogging
• Back home
• Apologies on the unannounced absence

Comments

• October 30, 2007, Unmesh commented: Thanks for this evaluation of Django. I have myself been hesitant about using Python (other than running it for generating my sitemap) - having been a PHP enthusiast myself. This will get me a step closer to taking the dive. Can you write a brief comparison between PHP and Python? Thanks, Unmesh.
• October 31, 2007, pranav commented: Unmesh, I found Python to be pretty expressive. Like, even if you dont know python, one glance at the code, and you kind of get the idea of whats going on. Django was obviously, the reason why I tried out python. While there are lot of feature differences one can highlight between the two (and this is very well documented elsewhere), in python I got a lot of working code written in a very short while - considering that i was still new to python. imagine if you have been working in python for some time. just give it a shot with a small app -- you'll figure out for yourself why you should switch to python :-)
• January 8, 2008, Rahul Dewan commented: Hi, We've got an interesting blog written on a comparison of some frameworks at: http://blogs.srijan.in/2007/12/26/what-web-framework-should-you-use/. Thanks, Rahul -- www.srijan.in

507 posts, 2-4 themes, several hundred subscribers and several thousand visitors later, I thought I’ll share some of my experiences over the last year and touch upon the topic of where things are headed.

When I started out, my goal was to focus on Web 2.0 and cool new startups in India. As time progressed, I realized that there are several other areas I’m interested in covering as part of my blog — broadband, VC, entrepreneurship, incubators etc.. So, over time, I’ve expanded the focus to include all these other topics that are of interest to me. Too many things going on, one may say. Well, thats exactly how the Indian startup and tech scene looks like.

So, any lessons learnt over the last year ?

Absolutely. The single biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that blogging regularly is a time consuming process and requires a lot of discipline. There have been several occasions over the last year, when the posting has been infrequent. I’ve tried to be as regular as I can, but believe me — juggling between a day job, personal & social life and blogging is not an easy thing. There have been moments when my wife has gone ballistic, thanks to the number of hours I spend on the laptop. Normally, I’m more interested in doing long, insightful posts - but time is a commodity thats difficult to come by. I’ve developed a new found respect and admiration for the bloggers who make the time to post every day.

Do I regret any of the posts I’ve done ?

I’d be lying if I said no. In fact, I think, any blogger would be lying if they answered no to the above question. Just like time and experience makes you a wiser person in regular life, time and experience makes you a better blogger (at least thats what I think). No, of course not…this doesnt mean that I’ll tell you what posts I’d redo if I got a second chance (did you think it would be this easy ).

What have I gotten out of my blogging experience thus far ?

The single, biggest benefit of blogging has been the sheer number of people I’ve come to know by means of my blog. I’ve gotten a chance to interact with entrepreneurs, wannabe entrepreneurs, startup enthusiasts, PR folks, fellow bloggers, VC’s, marketers by means of my blog. People, who otherwise, I’d never have gotten a chance to interact with. And its been a fulfilling experience thus far - meeting people with varied backgrounds and learning about their perspective on things.

So, what’s in store for the future ?

Well, to begin with, I’m planning to get an additional person onboard to write for StartupDunia and make things a bit more manageable. Stay tuned, I’ll do a follow up post later this week.

In addition to this, I need your help in determining what type of content you’d be interested in reading more regularly on StartupDunia. What topic, what post length would make your reading experience more enjoyable ?

Simply put, I want to make StartupDunia worth your while and your time. Tell me what I can do to accomplish that. Drop me an email or leave a comment with any input you may have.

Finally, before I end this post, I want to take this opportunity and thank all of you for reading my blog. An extra note of thanks to those who took the time to vote on the polls or comment on the posts. It means a lot to me. Without all of you guys, StartupDunia wouldnt be where it is today.

• StartupDunia is 2 years old
• Apologies on the unannounced absence
• The abrupt break from blogging

Comments

• October 10, 2007, kamla bhatt commented: Congrats Pranav on completing your one year. You have a great blog out there and wish you all the best with your future plans. Cheers! kamla bhatt
• October 10, 2007, ram commented: Congrats man for completing a successful year, i always enjoyed your blog from google reader, this time i came out to wish you all the best for your future plans.
• October 10, 2007, Information Madness commented: Congratulations!!
• October 10, 2007, pranav commented: Thanks @Kamla,@Ram @IM for the kind words..I really appreciate it.
• October 10, 2007, Chandra commented: Congrats Pranav. Good luck for the coming years. Your blog has always been a great a source to find new things about Indian sartup scene.
• October 10, 2007, Vikas commented: Congrats Pranav. Didn't realize it's only been one year. Keep it up! In terms of content, I'd love see more startup resources focussed on India - like hiring help, office spaces, marketing ideas, etc. Your post on hosting resources was a useful reference point and I wish there were similar posts on other areas as well Cheers!
• October 11, 2007, Trakin commented: Congratulations Pranav, It is not a easy task. I know how difficult it is to post regularly. It needs discipline, committment and loads of time :) and you have done it successfully.
• October 11, 2007, pranav commented: thanks vikas, trakin..
• April 2, 2008, snigdha commented: Congrats on completing a year. i stumbled upon your blog a couple of months back and thoroughly enjoyed its content. it is nice just the way it is. if you ask us readers to tell you what we would like you to write isn't it catering to the masses kind...just write what you want to write. it's your blog space.

Anyways, things are all settled now (at least for now) and I shall be back to blogging by tomorrow.

Oh, and if you are awaiting a response to your email, expect that to happen some time this week. Sorry about the delay.

• StartupDunia is 2 years old
• Apologies on the unannounced absence
• StartupDunia is one year old

Let me know what you think.

• StartupDunia is 2 years old
• StartupDunia is one year old
• Off to India on vacation

Comments

• August 13, 2007, Tulika commented: Hi Pranav, The two columns on the right are looking a bit cluttered. The top taskbar is looking good, but the blogs have got lost because of the three column layout. I am viewing the blog on 1280 by 1024. Tulika
• August 13, 2007, pranav commented: Tulika, thanks for the input...The 2 column layout I previously had wasnt giving me ample space to highlight some of the things I wanted to in the sidebar.. so, after some deliberation, decided to try out this 3 column layout..and also add some more color to the site..
• August 14, 2007, rAm commented: The new design looks cool. Some suggestion i) The space between two posts looks small, this is because your email and del.icio.us come after a long gap from the post. When compared to this the space between your post title and the comments section. ii) the second column is bit smaller than the third column. This gives it the look of being very cluttered. iii) The contrast between the colors of side bar titles and the text needs to be enhanced.
• August 16, 2007, Chandra commented: simple and easy to read... my only suggestion would be to decrease the overall font size by one level... its my personal view, I think the font size is a bit big and with a smaller font size the sidebars also looking good... keep up the good work...

Stay safe and see ya in a week’s time.

Comments

• July 1, 2007, Kalyan commented: Have fun...

Getting back on track after a hiatus isnt a fun job though. The fact that the impromptu, short-lived vacation is over, is depressing. As if that werent enough, there are a hajjar unread emails and RSS feeds that are sure to overwhelm the faint hearted. Its good that Google Reader just lists the number of unread items as 100+ rather than showing the actual number of unread items. So, whats the best way to recover from all this information overload ? Simply hit the ‘Mark all Items read’ - the most economical and sensible solution (lesson #3).

Stay tuned as I limp back to normalcy.

The only one positive thing about the move - I now get to stay with my wife and as the pundits say - ’spend some quality time’ with her.

Will return to active blogging tomorrow.

Comments

• May 1, 2007, Big V commented: Congrats on the move. South Beach should be fun!