Ghumakkad Is Eleven!

Eleventh birthday! Not mine but of our blog, your blog! (www.ghumakkadhb.blogspot.com)

As Ghumakkad's blog completes 11 years, it is a moment of joy, thrill and excitement. Like the Baya Weavers in the picture below who go about building their nests from scratch. Patiently but steadily. Suspended up in the air but held firmly with a branch of the tree. Our blog is also somewhere up in the 'cloud' but bonded securely with you, the readers!

Thanks for being there to support Ghumakkad all these years.

The Journey

Ghumakkad started as a travel blog. Our inaugural story was a set of eight posts on picturesque Bhutan. Initially the blog was by invitation . Naturally it had very limited page views in the first three years. Once opened to public, more readers enjoyed browsing it. See the graph below which shows the current page views at 291,000 with more than 3900 comments. This is the 582nd Post of our blog.

The Content

Our blog has a variety of content with pictures. Some of the themes are listed below with links to connected stories:

• Travelogues like A Train journey in USA, Scuba diving at 65, Hiking up the Tiger's Nest in Bhutan, Toddler on a Hike

• Wildlife including The Big Five of Africa, Tigers of Tadoba, Birds of Ranganathittu, Rescuing a Black Winged Stilt

• Environment including Trees (White Jamun?, Neem Trees Under Attack), plants (Friendship With Plants), insects and flowers (Brahma Kamal)

• Online Contest called Kaun Banega Ghumakkad which has completed 80 editions so far!
• Lesser-known India series Hindola Toran, Devarakonda Fort and more

• Entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship stories like Dreams to Reality, Young Entrepreneurs Bootcamp, Startup Fever Grips VVISM

• Teaching and learning (Ghumakkad is a teacher!) including real-life case studies and Innovations in A Convocation

• Obituaries of leaders like Dr Abdul Kalam and martyrs like Capt Ravi Shankar

• Motivational posts specially during Covid

• Guest stories including those written by the children (Coyote Gulch Hiking in Stream), Covid survivors (I Got A New Life) and Animal Lovers like Rohini

• Picturesque Quotes having one of our pictures with a famous quote like Claude Monet on Nature and another one by a KBG winner.

• Adventure and Endurance like An Ironman in the Family, Women Hiking in Water

The Readership

Thanks to the wider reach of internet, our blog is read globally. Readers from India account for only 55%, balance coming from across the globe. See the colour coded world map below.

Most Viewed Posts

Capt Ravi Shankar's life story has been read more than 7000 times. We salute his supreme sacrifice.

Another story on 'Brahma Kamal The Queen of Night' has been read by more than 4000 readers. It shows the readers' interest in environment and Nature related posts.

Acknowledgements

There are numerous people who have helped us grow. We place on record our appreciation to the following for their unstinted support.

Trixie Asirvatham our content advisor

Chitra Shanker our advisor on plants, trees, insects and birds

Ramya Sriram logo designer of our KBG Contest

We also thank each one of you for your continued support without which Ghumakkad wouldn't have been here! Do give us your feedback to help us improve.

Onwards to the 12th Anniversary of Ghumakkad next year!

Thanks for browsing. Stay connected

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 24th May 2023/ Secunderabad

Postscript:

26th May 2023. Commander GR Sreenivasan, a reader from Bangalore wrote: "Fabulous compilation of unique and interesting  information mostly related to nature and wild life, meticulously  compiled and recorded for the benefit of present and future generations when many things will either become extinct or degraded due to climate change. What a way to celebrate, worship and express gratitude to the creator of this universe." (We hope that mankind doesn't degrade the environment to that extent- Eds.)

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