Just as I started to write this, a pigeon came and sat on the window awning of the apartment next to mine. The awning was downward sloping and dusty, so the pigeon very casually skidded all the way down until it reached the edge, and then fluttered its wings and flew away. Looked kind of cool, like it had figured out a budget ski arrangement.
Anyway. 100K is a big friggin deal man. It is. By objective standards. Less than 5% of all accounts globally cross the 100K mark. Even fewer see the kind of engagement we do. Just for context, we've touched 30M monthly views. Monthly. A majority of our audience is from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and India. Which in itself is quite a big achievement- going so global with the kind of resources we work with.
This basically means that in today's world, if you have the sensibility, the intent and whatever few resources you need to keep being regular with yuor stuff, it is possible to get the world to see your work.
Paris Hilton and Zohran Mamdani followed us within the span of a week. Other biggies like Craig Thomas (creator of HIMYM), Shefali Shah, Orry, Alyssa Milano, Shefali Shah, Gurinder Chadha and Dr Jane Goodall's account among many others, also followed and interacted with our content. I've actually now lost track of how many big accounts interacted with our stuff. Especially the Paris Hilton post.
Editorially, though, we're nowhere close to where we used to be when we started out. And I think that's a great thing.
We're no longer all about neurodiversity and disability, and for a while now our focus has been way beyond our Indian audience. We've forayed into a multitude of diverse topics, we're more nuanced in our coverage and reportage, and our design game has advanced at least a couple of levels. All thanks to AP, AS and KA from the team. I think that's also what's working for us- we don't always look to work with the loudest voices in the room. We'll take the quiet voices, the ones filled with ideas and no spaces to voice them, and get into chats with them. Sometimes, that works too.
I see so many pages copying us. Which is a good thing, I think, because imitation is the highest form of flattery. But the pages that screenshot our stuff, remove our logo and post it on their profiles are just plain assholes.
Anyway, so while AG and I were in Pondi, we did a short vlog chronicling our 100K reflections. Thinking back on our journey from nothing to where we're now. A lot of it was shot way too early in the morning, or way too late at night, so I might be quite incoherent with my thoughts through most of it. But meh, what the hell... will ask AS or AA to put together a quick edit and make the best of what we managed to get.
On a separate note, Auroville is just unreal. The Matrimandir is just unreal too. I wish they let you spend more time there, because 15 minutes just doesn't cut it, but I kind of understand why they don't. It just all feels like a different universe entirely.