I’ve been invited by the editor of The New Indian Express to author a tech column. It’ll be a weekly column where I talk about interesting tech developments in an easily digestible language. The first of the series appeared today.
Haven’t decided on the name of the column though. Apparently the paper fixes the column names. But I’m sure they’d be open to ideas. I’d love to hear from you of interesting ideas.
My run with authoring columns has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Back in 1997, I authored a column for DQ Week (Data Quest Week) called Net @ttitude and wrote about interesting stuff online. It still remains my favorite till date. Had a decent response. Must’ve lasted close to an year.
I moved this column later to ChennaiOnline.com and it stayed there for close to six months.
I later wrote a column called ‘Net Results’ for the now-defunct IndiaInfoline.com. Internet information relating to the financial market. Didn’t last for more than 3 months. A failure.
Then followed a fairly high paying gig at ITspace.com during the IT boom. They even flew me to Bangalore to sign the contract and put me up in a 5 star hotel. Splurged. Not surprisingly, they over burned and shut shot after 5 months. This must be around 2001.
What followed next will be the biggest opportunity missed. I got an invite from The Hindu to write a column for the Sunday Magazine. I started off with a couple of pieces and for some reason I slowed down on my writing and eventually the opportunity bypassed me. I still kick myself when I think about what I had missed.
A brief stint with Economic Times followed where I wrote about half a dozen pieces for Madras Plus. My bad luck caught up with me when the Editor who chose me quit her job and the new Editor brought on changes. Damn! Just when I was beginning to think this might last…
So, as you can see, I don’t have the best of runs for Column. Yet, almost with amazing consistency, I keep getting offers to author column. The New Indian Express is the latest and I’m really hoping that I make this work longer than any before. Wish me luck, fellas!
