Interview with Revs of Gujarat Bred Confused Iyer

” Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies!! 🙂 “. This statement sets the tone for the interview! We have Revs interviewed for you. One of the best blogs filled with humor that can make even the ‘The Statue Man’ who stands like a statue at VGP beach laugh. Get into the fun rollicking ride of a Gujarat Bred Confused Iyer..

Q: When and why did you start blogging? Was it out of curiosity or something else?

A: I started when God made Adam and was looking critically at his work wishing he had made something better, or no wait..Maybe it was when Archimedes ran outta his bath tub in an unclothed state or maybe when the apple fell on Newton. Hmmmm, I started so long that I don’t really remember!! 😛

Naaah!! Just Kidding (This is for those people who actually believed that I started when God made Adam!! :P)

I started on January 9th 2006. It wasn’t out of curiosity, it wasn’t because I had read other blogs, it wasn’t because I thought I was a great writer, it wasn’t because writing was a passion, it was basically because it was really cold. (Hah!! Yeah curse yourselves for asking me to fill this up!! :P) Yeah January of 2006 in Jamnagar was really really cold. Being a warm person 😛 I can’t stand cold climates and the cold got on my nerves and I in turn got on my mother’s nerves who in turn asked me to do something constructive like writing articles and so I started a blog.

Q: What topics do you generally blog about?

A: After reading the answer to the first question I am sure you must have come to some conclusion regarding my mental state. Most of you (if still reading) are probably wondering if I was dropped on my head as a baby or if I am like this because of the consequences of some unfortunate accident in the prime years of my life. The kind of stuff I write reflects my mental state. Balderdash to be precise. There isn’t one topic or genre I choose to write about. I review movies, I review books, I review my dentists root canal procedure, I review my own mental state, I review my dad’s obsession with Linux, my mom’s obsession with green vegetables, my sister’s obsession with perfumes. So yeah!! you could call me a reviewer!! 😛

Q: Do you ever get stuck when writing an entry?  What do you do then?

A: Oh all the time!! I am more stuck than writing actually. But the times when I am in the mood for it I can write 10 pages of continuous crap in less than 10 mins. So I wait for these spurts and write then!! A writer’s block I personally feel is more of a mental block than anything else. So yeah when I am feeling blocked I don’t do anything but more often than not it becomes fine in a day or two!! 🙂

Q: How important is it for the blogger to interact with their readers? Do you respond to all the comments that you receive?

A: Ok!! I will be serious for this one. Interacting with the readers is of utmost importance. Most people only like to read and not comment on blogs. Only if the post is really good (or the person is a friend whom u have threatened to comment!! :P) do people comment. Acknowledge that and I will be honest. I love to see comments on my blog (good or bad!! hey it’s a comment). I remember one day I got 10 comments for a post I wrote overnight. I was so delighted.

Anyway everyone loves comments. Everyone loves being appreciated even if in their heart of hearts they know it’s false!! 🙂

Anyway the bottom line is yes yes yes!! write back, mail back and respond to readers. They are the ones who give you that morale boost, who help you live the illusion that you are an established writer, who are kind enough to take some time off and read your stuff and leave a comment.

I try my level best to respond to all the readers who comment on my blog.

Q: How, in general, would you rate the quality of Indian blogs? Share your favorite five blogs.

A: Indian blogs are creating a revolution on the blogging scene I would say be it tech blogs or movie review blogs or book review blogs, it’s AMAZING how much the Indian blogging scene has progressed.

My Top 5 would be

• Doing Jalsa and Showing Jilpa
• Random Thoughts of Demeneted Mind
• My Dayz with myself
• Maami’s Weblog
• Sayesha on the rocks

Q: What do you find to be the most gratifying aspect of blogging?

A: Having someone comment on your blog or mailing you saying you made their day or you made them laugh or they visit your blog to be relieved of stress. I love hearing from my readers. That HAS to be THE most gratifying aspect!!

Q: ‘Gujarat Bred Confused Iyer’. How and why did this title come into your mind?

A: Basically a Tam Brahma, born in Chennai, brought up in Gujarat for most part of my life, soooooooo confused that I waste 10 minutes every morning wondering if I should have chutney with my dosa or sambhar, sooooo confused that I waste 15 minutes wondering if I should wear my watch on my right hand or left, extremely confused about my choices in life – basically CONFUSED!! 🙂 an Iyer till the day I die because of my undying love for curd rice and paruppu usili, also a Gujarati till the day I die because of my undying love for undhiyo, thepla and dhokla.

Q: Most of your posts brings a smile on one’s face. How important do you think is humour in a blog? Do you have to work on it or does it come naturally to you?

A: Personally yeah I think humor is very very important. wry, sarcastic or slapstick. Humor helps. It helps if you can look at the funny side of life, helps a LOT if u can laugh at yourself helps if readers can relate to all the mishaps in your life.

And I would like to think it comes naturally to me though I am not too sure!! :):)

Q: One of the posts which caught our attention is ‘Does god exist’? That post showed a different side of Revathi. How sensitive is Revathi?

A: Not sensitive at all. I am one of the MOST insensitive brutes that ever walked this planet. I actually sometimes think I have a heart of stone and it is petrol which runs in my veins (errrr.. kidding. don’t come to cut me up to get that extra litre of petrol!!). I don’t understand emotions, I suck at advising people in trouble, I NEVER feel bad for anything people say (Tyrannosaurus ki chamdi a friend of mine says). I cannot relate to other people’s miseries, I don’t understand people who are in love and for a long time I thought sensitive was a word which people who had bad teeth used!!

but yes!! I am a person with a very short fuse. I get angry very easily. And it was not sensitivity but anger which triggered that post. and yeah I am a angry young woman (bares her teeth and goes “Grrrrrrrr”)

Q: ‘ I almost constantly fall in love with people who say nice things about me or write nice comments on my blog ‘. Any particular incident or person that comes in your mind with whom you have fallen in love 😉

A: Hah!!! If by falling in love you mean with some member of my age of the opposite sex in a non-platonic sense which will eventually lead to a union called marriage then I will have to disappoint you and say No!! :P:P

A couple of things which I have fallen in love with

– Amitav Ghosh’s hungry tide

– The song Rehna Tu from Delhi 6

– Well prepared Sambhar and Potato subzi!!

Q: If given an option of choosing a career in any other industry other than IT industry, would you take the plunge?

A: I have always wanted to be a rock star but I can’t sing/dance/play any instrument for nuts. But yeah rock star figures right up there in my career options!! 🙂

P.S: If it is either IT or anything else it would be anything else ANYDAY. right from an ironwala to tailor to watchman to a scientist in NASA I am willing to do anything else except be in IT. From the time I was a foot high I have wanted to be everything ranging from a garbage collector to a pilot but never a software engineer!! 🙂

Q: Which tools/plugins do you use to efficiently manage your blog? Any widgets or tips you would like to share with our readers.

A: I am to tool/widgets and technology what Pramod Muthalik is to Pamela Anderson. No connection whatsoever. The widgets which I do have on my blog are ones which friends were magnanimous enough to share with me. I have a shout box, a cluster maps and a globe tracker. So all u people who want to know if that cute looking person has been checking your blog add these widgets to know exactly who came from where. Naaah!! Just kidding. I still haven’t learnt the art of efficiently managing my blog. It is as haphazard and as much in need of aesthetic attention as it was on Jan 9th 2006!! 🙂

Q: What promotional techniques work best for you and why?

A: Eh?? What’s that?? Promotional techniques?? You mean like hanging hoardings which say “GBCI for president” (which would be wrong because technically only a living being can be president and GBCI is just a blog – That was a joke guys!! Laugh!! :-|) or going around distributing pamphlets which say “I am deaf dumb and suffer from a congenital heart disease. Please read GBCI to donate 10 paisa into my account?” or sending threatening mails to people saying “Read GBCI or on the 10 month of the 10th year of this century a bird will crap on your head and pass this message on to 10 people or else you will have 10 children”? something like that??

Naaaah!! I think good writing speaks for itself. So if you write ok, don’t copy paste, write frequently or write about really really controversial topics you are bound to be well read. And yeah commenting on other people’s blogs will give you visibility!! 🙂

Q: Do you earn revenue through your blog? How does one go about it?

A: Till date in the past 3 years I have earned 20 cents. Oh!!! Thank you Google Ad sense!! You have assured that my children receive a college education, assured me an independent house in Anna Nagar Chennai, assured me of a foreign vacation every year with those 20 cents. I will be indebted to you!! 😛

I do have Google ad sense (which I removed recently after L K Advani started using my blog to promote him during the elections!! Sheeeeesh!!)

So I have no clue how revenue is earned through blogs!! and well if u believe 20 cents is “revenue” go ahead and put nonsense… ooops!! ad sense on your blog! 🙂

Q: What is your advice to someone who wants to start a blog?

A:  Advice?? Me??? Most writers would tell you that you have to be passionate. passionate about writing, passionate about photography, passionate about technology etc. There is NO point starting a blog and not updating it because you are bored and don’t know what to write.

I can’t tell you that because those are the precise reasons I started a blog. Coz I was bored and I had lots of free time and I had no clue what to do with it and I started a blog with absolutely no clue what to write about.

So if you want to start a blog go ahead and start it. Well begun is half done!! 🙂

It was a pleasure interviewing you and we are sure our readers would be clutching their stomach after getting so much dosage of laughter!

• Gujarat Bred Confused Iyer is her blog
• Revs’s profile at Blogadda