Hurray "It's an Anniversary"- InFocus's Al Rihla
Thank you All, Thank you so Much
Hi All,
The Day arrives.
April 9th , is a day of huge importance and relevance in my life. It’s almost like a birthday and of course, it is my birthday of some sort as the Blogger in me was born on this day a year back.
One normally says you are born to your parents. True, biologically, but if willing you take multiple births in your life. Your teachers, gurus, friends, influencers, and family help you search your real self and remold and recreate your purpose in life during its journey the “Al Rihla”.
InFocus was born on April 9th 2022 during my discussions with Ruchin my elder son as I sat on a couch discussing my passion for sharing my life experiences and passion for writing. Quietly he opened my Substack account and put the laptop in front of me and said “Go”. He was my guru, and my parent now egging me on to follow my passion, So first a big thanks goes out to Ruchin for this rebirth and the birth of “InFocus”.
I penned 4 blogs that day and released the first “The Great Escape”. https://open.substack.com/pub/paraginfocus/p/the-great-escape?r=l9jb7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post [open.substack.com]
Back from my recent trip to the Kabini forest where I witnessed and pictured a fawn escape a tiger chase and attack, InFocus received the instant attention of my friends, college & schoolmates, colleagues, and followers on Instagram, LinkedIn, etc, garnering over 2500 views, over 250 subscription and over 100 comments. That was some start. To top it all, I got a call from Boston from my Guru that evening amidst a thunderstorm there, how he shared this InFocus story and pictures with his grandchildren, asking them to spot the hidden tiger. InFocus had received global acclaim and an audience that spanned a wide spectrum. I knew I had touched many and taken them deep into the jungle through my pictures and writing.
Comments came in thick & fast that readers felt they were transported to the scene of action through my writing and were witnessing the scene Live. InFocus’s most expressed emotion by varied readers over a year.
The learnings of the past 52 weeks have been so many for me as I blogged and readers responded. I realized that nature and wildlife have a “Healing” touch of a magnitude hard to imagine. Stuck indoors in fear for 2 years, unsure of what lay ahead, an overdose of negative emotions, anxiety people were looking for freshness and experiences which would bring smiles to their faces and stories which they had only read about or seen on acclaimed platforms such as Natgeo or BBC, etc but felt were beyond an ordinary person to experience. For me, the happiness and joy of sharing my personal experiences and touching the lives of so many, and bringing joy and happiness to their lives has been a highpoint of my own life.
I am ever so grateful to you all my readers, friends, and family members for encouraging me through this journey and open-heartedly sharing your feelings, sharing InFocus ahead, and living in my Joy. Ever grateful to Kabini which has been featured the most in InFocus. Kabini as Anita says is her “mayka” (mayka means your parental home). She feels welcomed every time she visits Jungle Lodges there, the staff is like our extended family and she feels like she is visiting her home.
The first detour InFocus made from Kabini was by taking readers to the land of unprecedented beauty, the fantasy land of Africa. We landed there on May 7th 2022 through the “Grand Battle of Amboseli” - a lioness mother and her cubs battled a hyena clan. This was from virtually my first day in Africa way back in 2018 where I witnessed a battle royal lasting over an hour plus amidst a fabulous backdrop on Amboseli. The Africa detour was welcomed by all and brought readers face-to-face with Wild Africa.
InFocus was getting popular fast and the onus on me to keep the readers excited and engaged went up. Readers read and responded wholeheartedly and my learning here was that everyone is unique, they see things uniquely. Emotions got stoked when some saw a prey getting hunted, for many others an understanding of the cycle of life and maintaining the ecological balance the way Almighty has created was a mature way of looking at the same thing. My learnings came from ensuring that I appreciate different viewpoints, share my observations, and leave it to the readers to derive their own impressions. Most importantly acknowledge all when they respond and appreciate their openness to do so. A hard act to follow, but am grateful to all readers to have backed InFocus and supported it all through this journey.
It was time to show and share the lighter side of the wild and change people’s perception of the wild being really wild and rough. Here was born the “Babies Day Out”. To date among the most popular InFocus episodes and why not. It brought out an outpouring of joy and emotions. The most commented episodes with 196 comments (ohh my heart still bleeds that it did not cross 200 … maybe it would today as hopefully some would respond after reading it again … but 196 is like the Bradmanesque average of 99.9 … iconic because it did not touch 100 … needing just 4 runs to get there , Bradman in his final match was bowled by a rookie Eric Hollies for a duck … ) . Hope you enjoy revisiting, and reading it again … here is the link …
These lion cubs brought so much joy that InFocus had a huge task ahead to climb the wall. Every time you hit a peak, it challenges you to go higher, doesn’t it? How would I do it? As they say in business, if everything was visible , what’s the challenge and why would leaders be required? Business is more about handling its haziness. A trip to Bandhavgarh and that haziness was answered. Came the “Golden Girl”. Widely featured and loved, this was covered by Deccan Herald also. Spotty the golden girl of Bandhavgarh gave us such a lovely experience that it superseded all my previous experiences and expectations. Sadly Spooty did not live long enough after that as she died of a kidney ailment soon. How sad. Life is all about creating memories and golden memories, I realized. Spotty provided me and others with tons of them and she actually became an immortal. InFocus readers who wept with joy when the Goldern Girl was published, cried profusely when I shared her news with them. It was heartwarming to witness these emotions.
Life’s journey goes on. I realized through my experiences that it is not about the destination, it is all bout the journey and one must enjoy to the fullest the entire journey of life. Spotty characterized that.
InFocus gathered steam. New experiences such as “When Brain was Better than the Brawn” caught attention. Readers wrote to me even saying that they loved the titles. Titles as I learned on the way were like advertisement captions, drawing e consumer in to read and experience more. So InFocus readers helped me hone my marketing skills and ever grateful for that. One learns every day in life and I learned a lot by engaging with you all, understanding what attracts, and what does not, more learnings came from blogs that did not hit the Bully Eye, making me wonder why they did not. Was it the content, the pictures the writing, the timing, the day, the holiday, the weekday, etc etc? As a person and as a professional these 52 weeks have been simply too enriching. they have added a new dimension to my life.
InFocus then took some bold detours as one key leaning was that you should not tire people off with more of the same. So off came some shares from “Lessons from Past” a, my experience with the Dutch Windmills of Kinderdijk. Not surprisingly long comments came on this, making me learn that I have a career ahead in travel and blogging.
Emotions ran high with “To Kill or Not to Kill” as readers witnessed how a lioness chased a wildebeest calf, knocked it down, and then paused, almost reflecting “To Kill or Not to Kill”.
“Role Model” brought readers up & close with a mom leopard and how she was a Role Model to her doting cubs who tried imitating her in everything, just as we grew up.
Off on a detour went InFocus again as it brought the FIFA World Cup live from Qatar. “Al Rihla” is the journey. This InFocus episode was featured in The Times of India, as well, bringing in fresh accolades and subscribers to InFocus. Readers loved the color and the atmosphere of the Worl Cup broadcast from Doha - Qatar.
Came January and it was 3 years since the Mumbai marathon was conducted and InFocus regaled readers with a live transmission of it from yours truly run “Running Wild”. Apparently, it has inspired many to start running and eying the Mumbai marathon next week.
Black Panther rules Kabini. InFocus brought a couple of episodes of it to you, and even Deccan Herald published “Knightly Kabini” featuring it. “It’s My Life” was the original episode of InFocus featuring this and here is the link to that.
I shared the links to the Top 10 …. nahh … Top 11 (they say in India that 11 is a good number), just joking, I did not want to copy the usual Top 10, so made it the Top 11 links of InFocus for diving in once again and reliving the moments.
Once again, eternally thankful to all of you for supporting InFocus.
InFocus is in search of a publisher. Next Objective. After Deccan Herald, Time of India and a few other publishing, the passion to take it to a wider base has grown. any help to that effect wholly solicited. Please do share inputs/contacts unhesitatingly.
Thanks to Ruchin, Rohan, Anita, and my parents who diligently read and encourage as well as my friends (one such a friend who really pushed me hard to write and a few college & school friends who equally encouraged me to take up writing) my English school teacher who has instilled good communication style and hopefully I do not embarrass her with my English (she is an InFocus reader too) as well as my gurus and family members who read out stories to their grandchildren. Many uncles, who inspired me when I was growing up and still do by sharing their views. You all have been a huge source of motivation.
Lastly, wishing you all a Joyful Easter and a great week ahead.
Do read, share, and comment as always.
Ciao.
What a journey. To me, your blogs are not just new source of information but also an inspiration to challenge myself to go for higher goals of different angles in life. Thank you and looking for more exciting blogs ahead!
Congrats for completing the year. Thanks for sharing the beautiful world in the woods. Enjoyed it.
Looking for many more years ahead!