Saturday 5 October 2013

Interview With Someone is Special of the Few Miles

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself, your blog, and your aspirations and your hobbies!
This is Saravana Kumar Murugan, and I prefer to be called Sarav. The reason to shorten my name is simple as people around the world finds difficult to pronounce my name. I am a Software Engineer by profession, a writer by passion and a photographer by choice. My hobbies are reading books, listening to music, cooking, and at times, I sketch as well. I am passionate about writing. In fact, I would say I write to pour my feelings.
I own five blogs.

Few Miles – www.fewmiles.in This blog is my primary blog, and I write under a pen name “Someone is Special”, as it is a sweet dedication to a dream angel. I write poetry, fiction, non-fiction, book reviews, cricket reviews, and sharing my life (sometimes) in a meaningful and beautiful way.

I AM SARAV! -  http://gmsaravana.wordpress.com Soon this is going to be www.iamsarav.com This is my personal website, where one could find info about me and my published works.

Few Quotes – http://pendownmythought.tumblr.com I write quote, chat conversation and some meaningful one-liners.

“Quote ‘UR’ Heart” and “One Stop Fan Page Destination” are not active owing to my busy schedule. Soon I will give life to them. Apart from this, I am a Co-Marshal at Blog-a-Ton – an online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. www.blogaton.in

2. How you first got involved in with blogging, are you an imaginative person?
If I am not wrong, I started blogging on May 5, 2006 and after a period of six months; I deleted the blog due to personal reasons. I started blogging again at “I AM SARAV!” on March 2008, but this time I stopped blogging due to depression caused by the 2008 IT recession. Then I started blogging on request by a close friend at “Few Miles” on October 20, 2009. She was the one who chose “Few Miles” from my list of ten. From that day, I never stopped blogging.
But I have been writing since I was 16 in my diary. I first penned a poem titled “Sorry” for my dream angel, and from that day onwards, I started to pen down free verse, rhymes, most of them being romantic ones.

3. What do you find most challenging about blogging about your topic?
Blogging is never a challenge to me. I write what I love to write. I use normal words and write in a simple language.

4. Tell me about some of the people you have met while working on your blog?
I never work on my blog Rahul. I just write. I have met many people just because of my blog “Few Miles”. To name a few – Leo, Rachana, Zainab, Bikram, Karthik (The Fool), Anoop, Farida, C S, Nethra, BeMoneyAware, and….it is a big list.

5. How would (someone) describe your blogging style?
Hmm most of them recognize me for my romantic posts. A few call me as “The undisputed king of romance on blog-o-sphere”.

6. What do you do when you are not working on your blog?
I do not work on my blog friend. For a living, I work as a Software Engineer, and to say smiling, I read books, listen to music, cook and at times, I sketch as well.

7 .Where do you see yourself blogging wise in the next 6 months, and 5 years down the road?
I am sick of this question, as I have heard this a thousand times in my career. In Blogging, I want to write, write and write till the last breathe.

8. What networking do you do that you feel helps your blogging business?
A very few people came and read my initial posts. I had no idea on how to bring more readers to my blog, that’s when I stumbled on Blog-a-Ton, and the readers count increased to a doubt-digit number. Then I found BlogAdda and IndiBlogger and I got many of my readers from there.

9. How do you keep coming up with material/content for your blog? Many people struggle with coming up with different articles/posts and they only have one blog.
I keep things simple. I do not force myself to write. I write what I love to write. If I am unable to write, I take breaks to refresh my muse. So it’s simple.

10. What’s your strategy with your blog in general?
There is no real strategy. I love writing, so I write whatever that comes to my mind or whatever that happens in my dreams.

11. Any specific tips you have for newbie bloggers who want to make it in the blogosphere?
Only one tip: write from your heart.

12. What would you prioritize? Content? SEO? Traffic? Readers?
Ah! Content. Write good content so that your readers will love you, and will comeback for more.

13. What’s the best thing a blogger can give to his readers?
Happiness is all that I want to give to my readers. Happiness in reading a good story, poem or a review is incomparable.

14. A lot of people are interested in blogging for the money earning potential. What are some tips for people interesting in making money from blogging? What are some realistic expectations in regards to what can be made?
Blogging has a good money earning potential. But if that is the main priority then one will fail miserably. Write for the sake of happiness, the rest follow you.

15. What motivates you most in life?
My dream girl motivates me a lot to write. Right now, my wife has taken that part, so I am writing happily.

16. What has been your strategy for creating visibility to yourself and your blog?
In the initial days of blogging, I used to share my links on Facebook groups, and on link sharing websites. Recently, I have stopped all that as I share only on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/fewmiles Also, I have a decent amount of readers subscribed to my blog and I am happy with them.

17 What was the most challenging moment in your blog content development process and why?
I have a good knowledge in CSS, HTML and Java Script. I design my site with an external template as base and I add my own coding. The most challenging stuff is to make my blog load faster with all the widgets it has.

18. Everyone has a favorite/least favorite post. Name yours and why?
I love all my posts. So, I cannot differentiate them as favorite/least favorite post. But based on my readers feedback, I have listed the top five posts.

19. Name some of the bloggers whom you look up to and why?
Vinay Leo, who blogs at “I Rhyme Without Reason” – http://artofleo.wordpress.com. He is my first friend on Blog-o-sphere, best critic and my Haiku Master.
Rachana Shakyawar, who blogs at “Humming Today” – http://rachanashakyawar.blogpost.in. She is an awesome storyteller.
I admire a lot of bloggers. I would like to mention a few – Saru Singhal, C Suresh, Panchali Sengupta and Simran Kaur for the honesty in their works.

20. What is the story behind the name of the blog?
It’s a secret. If someone asks, “Why Few Miles”, I say, “Few Miles is result of inspiration from Wordsworth’s ‘Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abby.’ It also reflects my life’s journey and my love for writing.

21. Your connection with any Blogger Network like Indi blogger or Writeupcafe or any other and the experience?
IndiBlogger is a fantastic place to showcase the talent. The team behind IB puts their heart out in arranging for meets and contest. I personally prefer to write for IB contests as they bring out the best in me.
WriteupCafé is a nice place to meet energetic bloggers. I know the admin Binoy for almost a year now. He is really an awesome person giving his best to run the site.
I am not sure why BlogAdda is missed here. The encourage people to write regularly on weekends. I just love to write for #WoW.

22. Which genre do you feel gets the raw deal?
I think it is romance.

23. Which one plug-in would you suggest all bloggers to have?
Subscribe by Email

24. Five adjectives that describe you.
Talkative, Friendly, Genius (Mathematics), Handsome, Blogger

25. What book would you say has made the biggest impact good or bad on you?
The Notebook The impact is I wanted to lead a life like Noah and Allie.

26. Do you get easily provoked by positive/negative comments?
Yes. Positive comment excites me. Negative too, but at times, I feel bad when someone criticizes my grammar. I know I am not good at English, but I am continuously working to improve my skills.

27. Do you plan to write a book, as every bloggers dream it is?
Writing a book is my dream. I am working on a story. I hope I will get it published someday.

28. Are you a judgmental person, do you prefer to take sides instead of standing neutral?
I am judgmental. I judge based on their behavior, and I prefer to stand neutral.

29. Your collaboration with other bloggers, are you much into social networking, tell us everything about it?
I host Haiku Challenge every year. In fact, that is what helped me to reach people. I am a Co-Marshal of Blog-a-Ton – an online marathon of bloggers; where we decide and we write. It is a fantastic place to highlight talents.

30. What genre attracts you the most and which genre you avoid?
Romance attracts me the most – I love writing and reading romantic posts and books.

31. Your Views on Contests and increasing plagiarism?
Contests – I wish I can rename contests as challenges and challenge happily as it bring out the best of me.
Plagiarism is like using someone’s sperms to impregnate one’s own wife.

32. Words for me and my blogs Desire v/s Destiny and Blogger Interviews.
DVD is a blog where one could find anything and everything. I am glad to get my blog reviewed by Rahul and now happy to be interviewed by Rahul. Continue the good work!

33. On winning the Award/s , Are they Really necessary.
If this is about IB Awards 2013, sorry Rahul I did not win any there. But if this is in general. Winning a contest is like drinking a cup of coffee, motivates me to write better.  Visit here to read my winning posts.
Fan Pages/Links:

4 comments:

  1. ah! great knowing the person behind "a few miles"! blog-a-ton is how i came to know you...and that is one platform i have been immensely enjoying!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Tilti. Glad to know about Blog-a-Ton as well :)

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  2. My all time favorite Few Miles and Sarav!! :)
    Enjoyed reading your interesting answers...

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