Today, Rajeev's World completes two years of its existence.
These two years have seen well over 150 posts, which is an average of 75 an year. That may appear not all that bad.
These two years have seen well over 150 posts, which is an average of 75 an year. That may appear not all that bad.
But the thoughts that race through my mind and the ideas I get after talking to friends, colleagues over lunch and in the pantry, on reading, etc. are far far too many. I would rather say 75 is an under performance.
The blog started off with a nondescript URL http://rajeevsworld.blogspot.com, but I decided to move it to my own domain name http://www.rajeevmahajan.com to ensure an easy search and recall. The results are evident in the traffic growth since then.
I have been passionately tracking the visitors on Rajeev's World for over 18 months now. The facts are startling. A substantial chunk of my postings deal with matters of national importance in India - defence, security, terror, politics besides life in general in Bombay and Bollywood.
Despite this, a substantial 35% of all hits came in from the United States as opposed to only 18% from India, as one would logically imagine. Europe comes in with a good number of hits, especially from Romania, Germany and the United Kingdom. The reason is obvious - quite a few of my batchmates are in these countries and they regularly follow Rajeev's World.
I have been passionately tracking the visitors on Rajeev's World for over 18 months now. The facts are startling. A substantial chunk of my postings deal with matters of national importance in India - defence, security, terror, politics besides life in general in Bombay and Bollywood.
Despite this, a substantial 35% of all hits came in from the United States as opposed to only 18% from India, as one would logically imagine. Europe comes in with a good number of hits, especially from Romania, Germany and the United Kingdom. The reason is obvious - quite a few of my batchmates are in these countries and they regularly follow Rajeev's World.
Besides these countries in Europe, there have been regular streams of traffic from other countries. There had been an avalanche of traffic from Poland following my blog post on the plane crash that killed Poland's president in April this year. I still get quite a few visitors from Poland on Rajeev's World.
My blog post "Viens, Mallika, les lianes en fleurs... Always an Interconnected World!" got me a stream of visitors from France. The reasons are obvious. The blog post was essentially about the French opera, Lakmé.
Besides these countries, Rajeev's World has had hits from Bulgaria, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, etc.
I was pleasantly surprised to know that someone from Brazil has been following my blog passionately over the last few months. I get a few hits from Brazil at least 2-3 times a week. Same has been the case with Australia.
Asia has been not far behind. The sub-continental pain (or as Madeleine Albright termed it a global migraine), Pakistan, had given Rajeev's World a few hits, which were primarily on the blog post "Sania - Shoaib -- Alliance or Dalliance?".
My photographic blogs on Hong Kong, 香港 - Images from the Fragrant Harbour and 香港 - Images from the Fragrant Harbour - Part generated quite a few hits from Hong Kong Central. Besides these, there have been hits from Japan, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Maldives.
The Arab world has given its share of hits too with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain contributing.
Israelis too have been following my blogs quite often, more so whenever there has been a post on Israel or so.
Around the FIFA World Cup, I had written a few blogs on resurgence of Africa in general and South Africa in particular. These gave Rajeev's World a decent amount of traffic from South Africa, Senegal, Mauritania, Nigeria and Mozambique.
Other places, that I consider exotic, that have added to the hits on Rajeev's World are Argentina, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii and New Zealand.
My obituary for C.K. Prahlad in April remains in the top ranking pages on Rajeev's World till now. Others that are in the list of the tops are Alexander the Great - The Three Last Wishes......, Viens, Mallika, les lianes en fleurs... Always an Interconnected World!, A sad day for Poland and Adieu VT-AXV.
Almost Like A Dream Come True, a blog post of November last year on my journey in a cockpit, a personal favourite, seems to be a favourite of quite a few aviation enthusiasts as well. The page generated quite a hits and still does.
But the post that flattered me a great deal was Towering Ambitions? which was written on June 11, 2010, just 2-3 days after the construction of India's tallest, 117 storey, residential building was announced. A few weeks later, towards July, a leading Indian business newspaper carried a story on the same development, which was deceptively similar to my blog post.
Why did it take them 3 weeks to come out with the story? Did they draw on my ideas?
I do not have answers to any of these questions. But I know that imitation is the best form of flattery. I did feel flattered on seeing that report.
The journey so far has been interesting and the credit for that goes to all who read Rajeev's World regularly. I do get quite a few mails, text messages, messages on Facebook, phone calls on the posts and that does egg me on to be there for Rajeev's World and you.
A friend recently wrote to me saying "You have some reputation to manage ..... have better things to worry like China's bubble, Gaza Strip's rubble and Obama's trouble ....."
Rajeev's World surely won't disappoint on that. Be assured of that.
Surely, Rajeev's World will continue to be there with views, reviews, anecdotes and analysis of issues that concern us all. I can only hope your interest is sustained.
Thanks for being there.
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