8 Reasons Why I Switched from Wordpress.org to Blogger.

    You read it right. Do a google search and there are hundreds (if not thousand) of results instructing you on how to move to wordpress from blogger and why it is a great idea. But, there are really very few who want otherwise.
    When I started my blog, I searched for the best blogging platform in Google, the top choice in many results was Wordpress.org (the self hosted one). Even Google’s own Blogger was a second or third choice. So I bought a domain and  started my blog with wordpress. Everything was going fine until one day I was forced to think of alternatives. My web host deleted my hosting account and my blog was homeless for more than two weeks. It is then I started to think of moving out from Wordpress because of the reasons below.

1.  I had no option.
    Well, it’s not entirely true. I was unable to get a reliable free hosting service that would provide me some descent space to install wordpress, allow me to use my own domain and doesn’t force their ads on my site. Alternatively, I could pay for hosting, but paying approx INR 6600 ($101) every year just to host the blog was a bit too much for me.

2.  Blogger is free.
    There is no hosting charges, Blogger hosts your text, image and video without imposing a limit on it. This was a really incredible deal for me. No self-hosting also means, there is no maintenance of your hosting account, no downtime nightmares, no security issues to worry about. Blogger takes care of them all, for free.

3.  Zero learning curve
    Though I had a blogger account from the day I had the gmail account, I never really used it. but I was surprised to see how easy it is to learn and use. You can get started within minutes. It took me days (if not weeks) to get comfortable with wordpress admin panel. Here, you just select a template and start blogging.

4.  Lets you use your own domain
    The great thing about having your own domain is, you never really lose all your traffic in case you change your platform. And Blogger lets you have your own domain without asking a penny. Though https is not available with a custom domain, you can easily get that free if you are using cloudflare. If you are not using cloudflare, you  are stupid.

5.  A decent collection of templates and widgets.
    Though you may miss the huge template and plugin collection of Wordpress, there are really nice professional looking templates for blogger available for free. You will also find a great many third party widgets to do neat tricks (like adding an html sitemap) with your blogger blog.

6. You really don’t need so much features.
    Wordpress is no longer just a blogging platform. It’s a complete CMS in itself having features to make any kind of websites, from simple port folios to complex shopping carts. But with all it’s bells and whistles, sometimes, it feels a bit of a overkill for a blog.
    Blogger has just enough options to write and edit posts or pages, manage your comments, check your stats, tinker with the design and do a bit of administrative settings. It also has Adsense integrated for monetisation. Sometimes, simple is elegant.

7.  Policy limitations.
    Though it may not affect most people, but most webhosts have a strict policy guideline of what your website can and cannot contain and there are very few languages that are acceptable. Blogger content policy is a lot less relaxed there. You can write about almost anything in almost any language.

8.  It is there to stay.
    Contrary to popular opinion, that Google may anytime shut the Blogger service down, I feel just the opposite. Because the bulk of Google’s revenue comes from its proprietary advertising service and to place ads you need content. And Blogger is a huge source of content. With adsense being preferred method of monetisation for most bloggers, Google really wouldn’t want to miss that revenue source.

    All being said, I also ran into my share of hiccups while migrating to blogger. So do note these if you are also planning the same.

1.  No easy way to migrate hosted media
    You can export your database in sql format and then convert it to blogger compatible xml format using this tool online. Huge thanks to Google for the code and to the person who made that app. This guide from livewire helped a lot.
    However, links to all the images, videos or other files that you uploaded for your wordpress site will still point to the old site and those links will be broken once you point your domain to Blogger. You have to manually upload the files and update the links in your posts. Not difficult but boring

2. Messed up permalinks
    If you are a fan of Wordpress permalinks, you’ll miss the flexibility here. The permalinks take a fixed structure of  http://Your_URL/YYYY/MM/your-post-name.html. If you are using any other format then, you’ll lose some traffic. You may reclaim some of the traffic from Google if you have webmaster tools enabled for your site. You will also have to fix your internal links in each post manually for the same reason.
    To my insane luck, I had exactly the same structure in wordpress. So not an issue there.

    Overall, as I continue to work with my blog in Blogger, it continues to amaze me with some nifty feature or trick, that I earlier thought was not possible with Blogger.

    I hope this helps you decide if you really want wordpress for your blog or Blogger is more than enough. If you are new to blogging, I would strongly suggest to start with blogger. You can always migrate to wordpress easily when you make it big.
    Do let me know your thoughts on this.

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Stitched pieces from her torn diary

     She was around seven, when her grandma used to tell, “One day your prince charming will come and will take you with him”. The very idea of leaving her loving family was rather scary than dreamy. And she would snuggle into her lap sobbing, “I’m not going anywhere”.

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   Growing up…, going to school together, playing together and at times fighting with her cousin was the major part of her daily life. Oddly enough, the women around her used to describe them as co-wives. It was not even funny. How come her beloved sister can be compared with an envious co wife? She could only murmur (saying it aloud to their face was disrespectful. So what, you are just 10.), “Get lost old lady”.

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   She finished high school and was pretty excited about upcoming years of college life while her dad was counting the years left. She continued her college while offering an extra hand to her mom. The mistakes in kitchen or so called behavioral skills earned her criticisms from Mom. And mom was right. “if you continue this attitude I’m definitely going to get scolded at your in-laws place. Everyone will blame the mother” – her mom used to say. Then, there is that proverb, “Duhita: dui kulaku hita”, meaning The actions of the girl brings glory (or shame) to both the families. She used to wonder if the proverbs were made by men.
   She used to comply silently. But, you can only control your actions not your thoughts. The discontentment was growing. She made up her mind not to be dependent on anyone. That she should be capable enough to get herself food and shelter. After all that is what she’ll get in a marriage and which might cost her hopes, desires and independence. She should not; she must not spend the rest of her life inside four walls of the kitchen. She decided to fight, no matter what comes in her way.

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     Her dad sometimes try to explain her that nobody wants her earnings and It’s better to get married in the right age. And again there’s that proverb, “Bina ashraye banchi na paranti kabita, banita, lata”. Literally translates to - A poem, a girl and an epiphyte cannot survive without support.  “What a mean proverb!! Must be written by a man” – she used to think.

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    However, the 1^st step for becoming independent; getting a job, was not that easy for her. She didn’t get a campus placement like many of her friends did. After graduation, she tried getting a job in The Silicon Valley of India, but had to come back home because of ever increasing pressure of get a job or comeback home arguments. Many of her friends who stayed back got jobs in a while.
     Luck wasn’t too hard on her either. She got a small job in a little known company, then switched to a well-established organization with better pay but an inferior role and eventually a job of her liking with a fair pay in a good organization. It was high time to look for suitable matches now, although proposals were coming in even before she completed her studies

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This is how it happens in an arranged marriage. You have to dress up “properly”. Tips will pour in from her family and well-wishers. “Why don’t you wear a saree- you will look much slimmer” , “Oh my girl is looking so dark today-did you not used any fairness cream?”.
     Then comes the presentation. Some unknown guys will stare at her from head to toe, scrutinizing every feature. Sometimes this leads to a very awkward silence for few seconds. There will be enquiries like, “Can you cook ?” , “Will you be able to relocate?”, “How much do you earn?” , “Will you be able to wear saree?” and “Will you be able to quit your job if he goes abroad?”. This is just a small subset of questions. Some people ask about height and then try to compare by standing next to her. She suddenly becomes a product from a person.
      Now there is that decision making. If her family and relatives find the guy OK but, somehow she doesn’t find the guy appealing, it’s hard to explain them the reason. Somehow she becomes a burden to them. People will try to advise, “Being a girl you have rejected so many proposals, you shouldn’t be so choosy”. These are small things, some say. But she realizes words are small but scars are deep. It hurts bad when your parents get sad about your upcoming birthday. She believes, marriage is a beautiful journey, a journey worth travelling. But what if from early childhood you put an impression on a baby girl that she has to leave her home. Why won’t she think that marriage is awful? The entire childhood, in her teens and in young age, the topic of her marriage was never out of conversation. If in the name of marriage a girl has to go through all this chaos, better kill the baby girl.

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Sometimes she used to wonder whether she has become so selfish and self-centered that she’s unable to recognize people that care for her. She loves her parents and very well knows they love her even more. They certainly mean well, yet she hasn’t been able to justify the experiences she has gone through. Is it the fault of the society? But then who makes up the society? Are we trapped in a structure that we created for our wellbeing? Is it so hard to change for the good? She will have to find her own answers.
 

-Anonymous

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…and perhaps it ends here

        

Though devastating, it had been quite an enriching journey. The experiences I’ve got are priceless and it certainly hurts when you sense, the end has come. More or less I knew what was coming but, never dared to calculate the consequences. So now I stand in the middle of no where knowing whatever happening is right, yet unable to accept. Walking in the streets with a heavy weight now seems easier than with a heavy heart. Never did I anticipate that I have to stretch every fibre of my muscle, drain each drop of my strength just to bind myself as a whole. Never before I felt what it is like, to tear yourself apart. No longer I agree on what I say…or say what I agree…whatever. The more than two year long emotional odyssey is now at the verge of its end and I’ve now become a spectator from a participant.

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   I never easily allow anyone to come close to my invisible, emotionally tender circle. And to a girl…NOOO…Please. But she has been an exception from the beginning. The expertise she showed in handling my delicacy that I never thought twice before opening myself up page by page, not just events but emotions; and I haven’t regretted the decision. The following was the best part of my life I’ve experienced so far. She made me experience the feelings that I earlier thought myself incapable of. I laughed, I cried, I smiled, I frowned but every emotion has become pleasant. I started discovering a finer-better-energetic me within. I never attempted naming this new relation as there was none that wouldn’t fit in her. She was diverse yet unique, magnificent yet humble, simple yet elegant. She was condensed love. I put her in my rarest list of ‘want to be like’ personalities. Everything has been so good that I couldn’t ask more. But all this while I avoided one thing that I always do. Predicting the future. I was too involved in present.

   No one wants to live alone in this world. She has to choose someone and of course I was not in the list. But that never really bothered me. I occasionally resisted a sense of melting down. And slowly that happened what has to happen. A boy and a girl are never meant to be just friends(I still find friend to be insufficient, close but insufficient). At least not everyone thinks so, if not me. And she started unbuilding her own creation in me. Brick by brick shattering the walls. I hopelessly, desperately wanted to mend, but she’s always been in control. At this point I stand in a position not knowing what to do or say, rather what to think even.

Why did you do this? Was it unavoidable? Or you were too concerned in saving your tomorrow that you never did saw how black mine is becoming? Have I been so insignificant in your perspective throughout or you just realized it later?   I never wanted to interfere your life, I wanted to be a part of it. But I guess, these are not mutually exclusive. They come in the same package. You said you need me and will never leave me so easily but you gave up in the 1st barrier I put up to check if I’m a burden or you really need me. All this time you wanted to get rid of me and this gave you a perfect opportunity to put the blame on me. I know what will be your response. “Whatever you do is right. I want to help you in it.” Haven’t you realized so far that I intentionally do the wrong things just to get it corrected?

I know you have done what was right. You have done too much for me. The belongingness you showed, made me think otherwise. The senses you have awakened in me were immense. You have made my world broader. What I gained with you would be the capital for the rest of my life. I shouldn’t be greedy.   I understand the emotional turmoil you are going through and never wanted to be an extra burden. You have too many problems of your own and mine is too insignificant to be taken care now. Leaving me would have been painful to you, so I took the initiative. I’m not sure if anyone else will love you as much but, I certainly won’t be able to replicate my emotions to the fullest, again.

     So what now? It’s taking time to make me realize that her part in my life is over. They say time heals everything. But so far ‘time’ has not been so considerate to me. May be time doesn’t have time for me to heal, like everyone else, like her. As I said, I’m now a spectator, pretending to be unaffected and stable. The end may not have been graceful, but the journey was. I think the gain has been more than the loss but still couldn’t justify it. This is where I’m in my journey now and perhaps it ends here.

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I am NOT an option

    In a casual hour of scanning through facebook pages or some quotes forum I noticed a quote saying, “If someone is having difficulty in choosing between me and someone else then, I would suggest to choose the other one because I am not an option.”
Rarely does it happen that you come across something and get stuck there wondering, ‘this is what I was thinking of. It’s just that the right words hadn’t popped up yet.’
We come across thousands of advices and wise quotes by ALL-WISE(includes me 😉) people around us everyday. And we are real quick in responding “hmmm…”, “yeah…”, “well said” and sometimes with what a line man!!. We blurt it out almost automatically without giving a second thought on what was said/read. 
I remember one of my friends once said,”Good things are known to everyone.”, when I pointed to a statutory warning written on his cigarette case. So what is it then that makes you stuck on a particular quote and your mind keeps drifting back to that thought throughout the day if not longer.
May be because you connect to it. And may be you connect to it because you are going through it or you are deeply moved by someone else going through it.
Coming back to the title of the post, I liked the later part of the quote very much. Self respect at its extreme. I am not just merely an option for somebody to choose or put an hold for a later point of time when things will be less complicated. Saying this statement to myself makes me feel stronger, more confident and less concerned on what people might think of me. It’s kind of nerd feeling that keeps me going when I am down and deserted. It motivates me to bring the more capable ‘I’ from within.
Some people may term it as an egoistic statement but I call it ‘loving the self’. What do you think?

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