Wooo, 5 years! My self-imposed deadline for figuring out what the heck I want to do with this blog is UP. Read on, if you want to know what I decided.
I gave myself 5 years to blog seriously, not just “blog” but really maintain a professional level website. 6 hours of work most days, 2 thousand words a day, every new movie release reviewed, every comment replied to, and so on.
And it’s been great! I got to be a much better writer, and I got all kinds of new ideas and intellectual challenges inside of myself. And I learned stuff, which is second best of all.
First best of all was building the DCIB community. The one thing that has never felt like work was replying to every comment. I love the comments! I loved getting to know all of you! I loved surprising you with birthday posts, or randomly reviewing your favorite movie, or getting photos of your dogs!
So I think I’m gonna leave behind the “treat it seriously like a job” part and keep the “DCIB community hang out” part.
Don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like, I’ll figure it out as I go along. But if I ever find myself thinking “oh, I don’t really want to do ____, but I made a blog commitment”, I am going to bless that thought and let it go and just NOT do that thing I don’t really want to do.
I’m just gonna be free, and I’m gonna hunt for this feeling:
dontcallitbollywood 
Yikes! but but but but . . . now what????
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Not much of a change, really this is what I have been doing on the blog for the past 3 months without announcing it. More time cleaning my apartment and reading books and playing with the dog, less time trying to write 5 new movie reviews a week.
On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 9:53 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well, as long as you’ll still watch movies no-one else here wants to watch.
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I may not! Why make myself suffer?
But I will still do watchalongs and wednesday watching posts and stuff, so that’s fun.
On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 10:14 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Why? For our entertainment, of course. Also because critics can’t be trusted.
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Happy anniversary and Please don’t leave us 🙂
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I won’t! I just won’t be conscientiously writing 2 thousand words of new content every day.
On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:25 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Good move to focus on what gives you fun sharing with the community…and vice versa taking wishes and questions and ideas from your readers and explore them…basically what you already did minus the stuff you felt being “forced” to do.
Thanks for keeping it up! Love you 🙂
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Exactly! It’s what I’m already doing, only without watching the movies I don’t want to watch.
On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 11:59 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Congratulations on your anniversary. Enjoy following your passion and not having to force yourself to do things you don’t want to anymore. Now you can ignore Akshay’s desh bhakti movies!!
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Yes! No more Akshay movies!
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Congrats on the anniversary! So happy to know that you’ll still be blogging and I’m def looking forward to reading more 101s 🙂
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Congrats, and Happy Thanksgiving. To be honest, I never knew how you did it and still had a life. I could barely keep up. I used to spend half a day reading, referring back to earlier posts and then trying to formulate a cogent comment. But I was new to DCIB and to Indian cinema. I have learned so much since then thanks to you. I’m happy to participate in whichever way you go. But I hope we can still ask questions and, if it’s about something you’re not into, you’ll direct us to an answer.
BTW, Mirzapur Season 2 got bad reviews. Why? I ‘m almost at the end and very into it. Amazing acting.
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Of course you can still ask questions! I just won’t feel obligated to respond with a long long post 🙂
I haven’t seen Mirzapur season 1, or the reviews, so I am at a loss! Maybe just the usual season 2 issue? It’s not as fresh and exciting and original as season 1?
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Congratulations on the anniversary and you’re absolutely right. Do what you feel like doing. You have already achieved so much.
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Wow, has it already been five years?!? Congrats Margaret!!
I’m glad you decided to keep the blog going even if not as seriously because this place has turned into an amazing community over the years.
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Yes it has!
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The fact that you chose a song about a married man falling in love with a woman who isn’t his wife, makes me think you might be conflicted. But congrats on the five years! You built a community! A virtual 3rd place for Indian film lovers. It is an incredible achievement.
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No no, I thought through this metaphor! 5 years ago when I “married” this blog, I thought I could put in the work, I thought it would last forever. But now I feel trapped in this dead commitment, I want to be free and pursue new Rani-like interests. But rather than being Shahrukh-like and just slowly backing away from my Blog Wife, I am being strong and announcing it.
And yes, I am very proud of this community! And I am going to keep the community going as much as I can, I’ll still put up discussion posts and watchalongs and things. I just won’t watch movies I don’t think I will like just so I can review them.
On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 6:05 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh good, you’re handling it better than fictional SRK did! I love that it truly was metaphorical but I missed the intended metaphor. Metaphors are tricky!
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metaphors are so tricky! Mostly I wanted the feel of the song, but the feel of the song is about being trapped in a commitment and suddenly seeing the possibility of breaking free. So it still works!
On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 6:21 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Also, I’m hoping your changing commitments mean you will be with the people in front of your and reply to comments in a manner more in tune with your life; which you might have already been doing.
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Yep! We had that little exchange about it on Saturday when I already had this post scheduled and I thought “I am so glad I made that decision”. I’m replying now because it’s that little break before dinner at my parents.
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Oh good. I’d noticed a difference and was afraid it was you starting to detach from the blog. Glad to hear you were in fact experimenting with a way to make it sustainable for the future. Like some folks said, I’m really grateful to have a place to come and hang out and talk about this side passion (Mitwa!), and I’d be sad to see it disappear. In some ways the pandemic made for a natural experiment? No more schlepping to see every new film.
My only request, if it falls within your new boundaries, is bring back the TGIF posts :).
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Yes, exactly, this post is just confirming what I’ve been doing for several months now. I’m not rushing to watch the newest streaming releases, I’m not on a super hard review schedule, I’m just posting things when they interest me and otherwise mostly discussion posts.
Would you believe, the TGIF posts started getting less traffic? Really surprised me, I guess folks just ran out of interest in funny/sexy photos. Anyway, photo posts are fun and easy, so throwing one in here and there would fit within my new “nothing that feels like work” rules.
On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 7:30 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Happy fifth blog birthday. I came across your blog three years back and continue enjoy reading your posts. Can I make a selfish suggestion – do you think can convert part of the blog into a forum? Say people who watch Telugu movies more often than others want to discuss a movie they can do that. Or maybe one of us sends a short note about a movie that you post and then function to moderate the comments just as you do now but you do not respond. You just decide to allow a comment appear or not, which you already do I am guessing.
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Sure, I could do something like that. For now, I have been enjoying the way the Wednesday discussions just take off when folks have seen the same movies.
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Late congratulations, Margaret!! Good for you to do what you feel is right, and I am happy for you! Take all the time you need to live life. This is such a wonderful hub of people, and you’ve taught me so much about Indian cinema. Not going to lie, you guys here are the closest I have to true friends at the moment, and I am so glad to have you in my life. Even if it’s through the net. 🙂
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Awww, Kirre! I am glad you are in our lives too! And if course, the community is the best part, there will always be a place for that.
On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 5:32 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Congratulations Margaret!!! I did wonder how you kept up with writing new posts and responding to comments everyday. I guess you had to treat it partly as a job. It’s a testament to your skill and commitment that none of it felt like you didn’t want to write it. I’m glad you’re taking a step back and writing about things which interest you. And yeah, I think I already sensed that you were doing that gradually!
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Yeah, really you won’t notice a difference and I won’t notice a difference from what I’ve already been doing since about July.
On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 7:03 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Make it fun and you’ll never regret it! And thank you for all you do! You’re a beacon of knowledge AND fun in the world of lovers of Indian cinema. Did that make sense? I think so. I appreciate you and only want for you what makes your heart sing.
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Awwww, thank you! And really, it won’t be that different from what I’ve already been doing for the past 3 months.
On Wed, Nov 25, 2020 at 6:07 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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