CURTAIN RAISER BNLF V: Purba Ray - Keynote Speaker

“Never underestimate the power of your words, the reach of your blog” - Purba Ray

Purba Ray is a keynote speaker “At Blog Now, Live Forever” - The Most Disruptive Conference on Blogging, conceptualized and hosted by IndiBlogger on 31st Oct - 1st Nov, Mumbai

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What is BNLF?

The Blog Now, Live Forever is an event, which is carefully constructed from the ground-up to give you a front seat to amazing insights into the world of blogging!

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Purba Ray - Impatience, enthusiasm, optimism.

A Bengali born in Delhi, who is unable to befriend people more interested in the number of bedrooms in her apartment. The epic list of her pet peeves includes zealous parents who are proud for no reason. She vents her angst writing damning posts on her blog and praying no one reads them. But then people do read and relate to her so much so that she has been winner of numerous awards. She has contributed articles for IBN live, NRI Section of TOI and currently blogs for Huffington post.

Sharp writing, intelligent humor, thought-provoking articles makes her happy. Being surrounded by love and positivity is the oxygen for life. She is passionate about experiencing the new, be it through travelling, food or the people she meets.

So friends and fellow blogger, here are some of her thoughts on diverse topics, in her own a-musing style: A little sweet, a little tangy and very very spicy.

About her journey:

What do you do when you suddenly have time on your hands after quitting your job? You do what you’d always wanted to but never had time for – articulate your thoughts and start scribbling on your notepad. Soon it’s a Note on Facebook that finds its way to a friend’s widely read blog.

Encouraged by the overwhelming response and generous praise, you start fancying yourself as a writer and pen a few more posts for other forums.  A few months down the line, you create your own blog. Because you have no idea what blogging is, you grandly make 11 blogs for the 11 posts you’ve written that far till a helpful reader points it out for you to fix!

About her Blog: A-Musing

I wasn’t out to impress my readers with my vocabulary. I just wanted them to relate to what I had to say.  All I knew was I shouldn’t be sounding preachy and talking down to my audience. So I chose to write like I was talking to a friend whose attention I had to grab with wit, sarcasm and self-deprecating humor.

I started with the safest subject – me – and poked fun at myself. Why give others the chance when you can do such a perfect job of it yourself! For some reason, people liked my personal anecdotes, my little struggles and my little victories, peppered with a bit of humor. Maybe it reminded them of their own lives, their neighborhoods, their social milieu. I don’t really know.

Click here to read...

About India and Indian Bloggers

This might sound clichéd, but India truly is a country of contrasts. The poor and the wealthy, the modern and the regressive, the proud and the despondent, the free and the shackled. But to me, the overarching message is one of optimism, of striving to do better in life.

Indian bloggers can make a difference. At a time when news is more of subversive, divisive propaganda and news channels a constant cacophony of misplaced indignation, we can be the voice of reason. At a time when what we should be watching, reading and consuming is being dictated to us, we need to assert our freedom to decide for ourselves. As bloggers, we can write what the media ignores or has forgotten about, raise awareness about issues that no one dares to talk about.

The blogging community is yet to take their role as influencers seriously. Maybe a few of us have succeeded in influencing public opinion, done our bit of good, called out on injustices. But on a collective basis, unlike Twitter, we hardly have a presence in public consciousness. We are still viewed as a bunch of elitists who rant and indulge in token activism.

“Bloggers can be the voice of the people, we can be the platform for debate.” - Purba Ray

My only advice – never underestimate the power of your words, the reach of your blog.

On Women Empowerment

"As long as we wait for men to treat us as equals, we will never be empowered."

It’s not a fight for equality. Each gender is unique, let’s acknowledge it rather than engage in a game of one-upmanship. More seriously, though, true empowerment would mean that a woman, regardless of her social and economic station, can make her own choice. We are decades away from reaching that stage, isn’t it?

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Friends and fellow blogger, I hope you have enjoyed the 5th post in the series of curtain raiser on BNLF, now let’s get ready to hear her thoughts on 'How To Face Public Reaction' in her Key Note address at BNLF event 31^st Oct - 1^st Nov, in Mumbai.

And welcome Purba to Mumbai and IndiBlogger. We all are looking forward to meeting and interacting with you.

TO READ CURTAIN RAISER ON OTHER KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, PLEASE CLICK ON THE NAME BELOW...
1) Christoff Trappe 2) Jeff Bullas 3) Arnab Ray 4) Preeti Shenoy 5) Purba Ray

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Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Curtain Raiser IV - Preeti Shenoy                        BNLF

CURTAIN RAISER BNLF IV : Preeti Shenoy - Keynote Speaker

“If the book doesn’t strike a chord or the reader finds the quality poor, he/she is not going to pick up another book by you.” - Preeti Shenoy

Preeti Shenoy is a keynote speaker “At Blog Now, Live Forever” - The Most Disruptive Conference on Blogging, conceptualized and hosted by IndiBlogger on 31st Oct - 1st Nov, Mumbai

____________

What is BNLF?

The Blog Now, Live Forever is an event, which is carefully constructed from the ground-up to give you a front seat to amazing insights into the world of blogging!

_____________

Preeti Shenoy - A blogger, who managed become India’s most celebrated Author with her six best sellers, listed among the Forbes List of 100 most influential celebrities of India (2013) edition. She is also an Artist ( Portraits, Mixed media, paper quilling), Poet, Yoga-Buff, Ex-basketball player, Blogger, Dobe-owner, Nature lover, Ted X speaker and a Mother… and my blogger friends, this is how “Blog Now, Live Forever”  works. She is joining BNLF as key note speaker on Day 1 to tell you about her journey…

Apart from her family and friends, she loves reading, creating, learning. She says, “To me, all these activities I do are just extensions of each other. It is when words fail me I turn to art. They are not ‘deliberate’ pursuits. I am driven intensely by an inner need to express myself—and I use whatever form appeals to me at that point of time. But if you put a gun to my head and asked me to choose only one, I would probably choose art. Actually, writing. Wait, no---how can I choose?”

On a personal note, she says…

Coming soon...

If you have read my blog and met me in real life, you would find there is no variation. I have the same persona online and offline. I don’t pretend to be anything that I am not. Perhaps what people don’t come across would be my love for fitness and Ashtanga yoga, although I think I would have blogged about that too. I also am an urban farmer; into organic terrace farming and I grow my own vegetables.

Spending time with my loved ones makes me really happy. I am quite an introvert, though it doesn’t seem so from my blog. I do enjoy meeting people but I so need my solitude too.

“I am immensely grateful to be where I am today and happy that I have a job which I totally love and enjoy” - Preeti Shenoy

As many of the blogger’s do write, but they develop writer’s ‘Block’ when it comes to creating a buzz, so I asked her the inevitable question...

How to Market the Book

Marketing is really a combination of many things. I get many mails from readers, who tell me that my book has changed their lives, has made a difference to the way they live. Others tell me that there is simplicity and depth in my writing—something they find rare. Many men confess that they began seeing the women in their lives, in a new light after they read my books. I am glad that the stories I tell are able to make an impact on people. This, I think is one of the major factors in making a book click. There is only so much marketing that one can do. If the book doesn’t strike a chord or the reader finds the quality poor, he/she is not going to pick up another book by you.

In order to connect with the readers, one has to be genuinely interested in them! Else it just becomes fake and you can easily spot fakeness a mile away. Readers are not fools. So if you become active on the social media only when your book is about to come out, that will obviously not work. If you are genuinely interested in your reader, you will connect with them, no matter what!

"The important thing is to choose a good publisher who believes in the book as much as you do and is willing to go the extra mile for marketing". - Preeti Shenoy

On Women Empowerment

“There is a great divide between a rural and an urban woman. Recently I was a keynote speaker at the women managers’ convention of Madras Management Association. There were several women achievers, like the first woman sarpanch with an MBA, who hails from a ‘privileged’ background and yet has chosen to work in the village; Wing Commander Pooja Thakur, who led the guard of honour when Obama visited India; and my heart swelled with pride, hearing them. Yes, there are a lot of things that need to be changed for Women in India today, in order to make is safer and nicer for them. Mostly what has to be changed is the misogynistic mind-set of a few Indian men.”

On Advice To Bloggers

Blog regularly. Be genuine. Be Nice. Be yourself!

There are so many people who try to copy the personality of a successful blogger/writer. That’s a big put-off.

One should visit other blogs and leave comments but do NOT demand that they visit you back in turn. They will if they find your content interesting enough. Demanding reciprocation is a No-No. Take care of your grammar and punctuation. If you do not care about your writing, why should others?

On Blog Now Live Forever

The thing is when you are blogging; you are creating content that will exist forever. It is like a time capsule, which you can take to go back into that time. When I read my past blog-posts I can see for myself, what a long way I have travelled. Blogging for me has been something that changed my life, widened my perspective and my horizon endlessly, immeasurably and in a way, which I never thought possible.

“Blogging has made me live the life I thought was possible only in dreams.” - Preeti Shenoy

…and she is totally in love with India. In fact, when she was living in the UK, she had written a blog-post called “Phoren country—Desi Dil” and “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani"

So there you are friend, Key Note Speaker Preeti Shenoy - an inspiration to many of us blogger’s to live our dreams.

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Welcome to Mumbai and IndiBlogger, Preeti Shenoy, we look forward to a great learning experience with you at BNLF in Mumbai on 31st Oct - 1st Nov.

TO READ CURTAIN RAISER ON OTHER KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, PLEASE CLICK ON THE NAME BELOW...
1) Christoff Trappe 2) Jeff Bullas 3) Arnab Ray 4) Preeti Shenoy 5) Purba Ray

__

Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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Curtain Raiser III - Arnab Ray       Curtain Raiser V: Purba Ray

CURTAIN RAISER BNLF III : Key Note Speaker Arnab Ray - The Great Bong

“India is not perfect, and nations seldom are, but we are doing more things right than we are doing wrong” - Arnab Ray

Arnab Ray is a keynote speaker at BNLF - The Most Disruptive Conference on Blogging, conceptualized and hosted by IndiBlogger on 31st Oct - 1st Nov, Mumbai

____________

What is BNLF?

The "Blog Now, Live Forever is an event, which is carefully constructed from the ground-up to give you a front seat to amazing insights into the world of blogging!

_____________

The Great Bong: A teller of tall tales

Blogging for more than a decade, writing three best selling books, a PhD in computer science and to top it all, a Bengali living in USA - The perfect recipe for making “Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind” the most widely read blog of the Great Bong. This is the place where Arnab Ray downloads his widely read sarcastic outlook on anything and every thing that takes his fancy. And it works too as he is been awarded the best blogger of the year awards quite a few times.

His first book “MayI Hebb Your Attention Pliss”, published by Harper Collins, was on India Today's Bestsellers list. His second book, “The Mine”, has also been well received. His third book, “Yatrik” was published in September 2014. He is contributor to New York Times India Ink, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal Online, Times of India, DNA and Outlook. He is a wannabe politician, disgruntled movie fanatic, tranquil cosmic citizen on the prowl for mind-bending experiences.

Click here to buy

So when I, a common citizen of the blogging world, was on the prowl for mind-bending experience of writing about him, developed cold feet and took the easy way out.  Put across some questions and let him do the writing. So here you are friends and fellow bloggers, the Great Bong.

Q: What is your first love, writing for journals or books?

A: Books. Fiction as well as non-fiction. Blogs, at least in the beginning, was just a way to showcase my writing.  

Q: What do you think made your writing click?

A: There is nothing really known as clicking. It's about finding an audience. Everyone has an audience. Everyone. How big the audience is for your writing...well that's a different matter. I was just lucky enough to find my audience. That's all. Not that I wouldn't mind a bigger audience.

Q: What is your impression about India and Indian Bloggers? What advice you would like to give us, IndiBloggers.

A: Asking me for my impressions on India and Indian Bloggers is like asking me for an opinion about myself. Too close to the topic to give an impartial answer. 

Q: What do you think about the way things are going on in India. Are we on the right track?

A: I think we are. It's not perfect, and nations seldom are, but we are doing more things right than we are doing wrong (and yes we are doing a lot of things wrong) 

Q: The obvious question, Why Blog Now Live Forever (BNLF)? How does it relate to living forever?

A:  Anything you write online stays there, it is technically immortal (unless an alien strike or a zombie apocalypse) takes the Internet down forever). Whether this immortality is always a good thing....I am not exactly sure. 

Q: Tell us more about you, especially the part that people don’t really come across about you. What are your passions and what makes you really happy?

A: I think I put a lot of myself online. Too much actually. The only thing left for me to reveal are my passwords.

Q: And finally anything else that makes you, You.

A: Speaking my mind. I always speak my mind.  

So Friends get ready to hear him speak his mind as Key Note Speaker at BNLF event 31^st Oct - 1^st Nov, in Mumbai.

I am leaving you with a video from his TEDx Talk at IIT to know more about him.

Welcome Arnab to Mumbai and India. Looking forward to meeting and interacting with you.

__

Shashi 

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya

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BNLF- Jeff Bullas                                   BNLF - Preeti Shenoy