First of all, wishing you all a joyful, peaceful and prosperous New Year of 2009!
So one more year is passing by. 2008 will be gone in a flash and 2009 is going to be here soon. So much has happened in the world around us in the past one year – terrorist attacks, natural disasters, global economic slowdown etc – and am not going to talk about all that right now. As for me, the past year was not bad personally. I’ve moved onto the new house in the last week of December 2007 and now it’s past one year. I had my first Onam and Christmas in our new house. Bought a new mic, my new Shure SM 58, in June and I must say it’s a very good mic. Got a new cell phone too. I also had a legal battle with Pranatha Books over copyright infringement, or should I say with Shanavas M A, and I won. Then came Malayala Manorama with their false claim which they have not corrected yet. I also moved my blog to my own domain and to a WordPress platform.
The most notable event was when Indian Express featured me in their article about podcasting, in both Kochi and Trivandrum editions. Earlier this year, they had also featured my blog in their front page. It is a commendable work from a newspaper like Indian Express to recognize the new media and the new media enthusiasts. Also RadioandMusic.com interviewed me about Blogswara.
I am glad that in the last year, this blog could be intstrumetal in bringing help to some people in need with the help of the readers. There was Gayathri, Ajith, Sudheesh and Anju Mohan. For the case of Sudheesh onwards, we could set up a ChipIn widget to make it easy for people to contribute (with the help of Liji from Mutiny.in). And with the help of the readers of this blog (and Mutiny blog), we could collect $465 for Sudheesh and $100 for Anju. This made me believe that we can be the change that we want to see.
Music wise, my song (composed and sung by myself) for the upcoming Malayalam telefilm “Manju Pole Oru Swapnam” was released through the Internet. And I got my first solo song released in the market through a devotional album. Blogswara released it’s 5th album too. I could introduce two talented singers – Radhika Sethumadhavan and Jessica Varma.
As usual, I am not going to take any new year resolution. I take life as it happens to me. No regrets or new promises whatsoever. However, there are a few things that I’m planning to do:
1) Release my personal music album (offline or online)
2) Buy a keyboard and learn to play
3) Compose more original music, possibly come up with a song with my own orchestration
4) Write, shoot and direct a short film
) Do more reading, at least 30 minutes of book reading everyday
Let’s see how many of these are actually going to happen! 🙂 Meanwhile, check out the year 2008 in pictures by Boston.com (one, two, three). You guys have a great time in this new year! See you in the next year!