Blogger Interview # 9 : Sandy Hiyaa

      1.  Can you tell us a little about yourself and your blog?

   In a few words I am a woman who believes Life is to be one with the feeling of being alive which comes in a number of shades. Professionally I am in the Human Resources field but I'd like to be so much more...eventually I will be; a photographer, a published author, owner of a restro-cafe-bar and hey...anything I want to be. I started off as a teacher when I was thirteen, then a radio jockey through college, a Naval Officer, a sales person, a logistics person, an administrator and now a human resources person...and hey...been there does not satisfy. 

I have two blogs. www.thedefinitivemeltingpot.com is my website. I have another blog under the pseudonym Maya Saanjh calledslicedmoonbeams.blogspot.com 

I do feel as a blogger I was most active on rediffiland. Eventually, I had to delete that blog. I am a moody person and I shut down when I get upset. 

    2.   Are you a full time blogger? How did you get into blogging and why?

     I am not a full time blogger. Not the way others are. I'd like to be but my time is divided and tight between work, family, friends and writing. I got into blogging through a friend and it started off as fun now it is a place where I express feelinsg of pain and emotions I am unable to express about stuff around me mostly. Its intensity scares people. I think I have more serious non-interactive personal stuff now on my blog. Earlier, especially on rediffiland I was probably more intense. I write and I post. I write so I can breathe. I need that freedom of expression that comes with blogging. 

     

           3.  If someone was interested in blogging, what would be a few things you would suggest?

     I am a fussy person and a nit-picker when it comes to grammar. For those who write, especially since the medium is in English mostly, my advise is to write in MS word so it can automatically assist you in writing better English...it helps you learn along the way. Say what you have to. Free your mind. It is a great stress-buster. I'd suggest you also visit other blogs and read them up...stuff you are interested in and if you have something to say about it, do leave a comment. Feedback is always appreciated. Blog with grace. Live and let live. if you have to be nasty, do it with finesse. Jidhu, my advice sucks really! 

     

             4.  How do you build a community around a blog and social media?

      Blogging is a great way to be social. Also, it really tells us a lot about the person. I know the number of friends I have made, the issues I have raised and the people I have helped and who have helped me. Blogging is here to stay and it gives a public perspective to what happens around us and within us. This is tomorrow's history in the making. History comes not only chronicled in those huge facts-bound books you read for school, college or your education...it also represents itself through fiction and non-fiction written in those times. It is a social media that has a humane approach...more readable and more fun. We believe what our friends tell us more than what gets spoken through the news...that's the closest I can come to explaining the connection. Ummm...I think I drifted here but, never mind. 

      

            5. What are your three favorite blogs to read? What makes those blogs special?

      Gosh! there are so many. I love personal blogs. I cannot really pick one. I am not someone who reads a blog because someone I know or am friends with has written it. The content and it's intensity pulls me. A chunk of the person's heart and feelings in the blog tugs and pulls me. Blogs that share pain are ones I am partial to I guess. I feel the pain, the sadness and then I want to do something about it and make a difference. That is what I connect to in a blog. I also like photographs so I am drawn towards such blogs. 

     

            6. Which one plugin would you suggest all bloggers to have? 

      I am not a technical person. You will have to really explain to me in a layman's language what a plug-in is. I can however tell you blogger is a better platform than wordpress where spams are concerned. My website is on WordPress and I hate to have to sort out the gems from the chaff.