My old blog address is back! Am so happy!!

My dear friends, this is a great day for me! Rohit Basa, manager - Business Development (North America), ProcSys, who is currently in the USA, just responded to an email I'd sent out inviting him for Durga Puja celebrations in town!

In his mail, Rohit very kindly informed me that my old blog address -- http://pradeepchakraborty.blogspot.com -- is again available for fresh registration. His message to me was crystal clear: "Book it before anyone else does and direct a link to your new website. I'm a great fan of yours, your blog and articles."

Indeed! I was overjoyed when I re-registered the same old blog address, and got it back! I even brought back the same old look!! Well, at least, most of it!!!

The sheer pain of losing my original blog and blog address last August is something extremely difficult for me to get over! The effort I'd put in to develop that blog had been immense, and the loss was really shattering, to say the least! In fact, I even used to constantly check Blogger to find out whether the old blog address was still available.

While the pain has eased a bit on getting back my old blog address, I know very well that I simply cannot bring back the original traffic that it used to have. I moved my old blog to Wordpress since that day it was taken off Blogger. The blog's doing very well on Wordpress. Still, the loss of my original Blogspot blog last year has haunted me every single day!

Thanks a ton, Rohit! I am so very touched and will remain forever obliged to you!!

I chose Sagar Desai of Symantec, from the US, a very close friend, as the next one to be informed that I'd got back my old blog address. Sagar stood by me in my darkest hour -- when my old blog was injected with malware and removed by Google in August, last year.

In fact, Sagar had commented just a while ago, on seeing my Durga Puja invite -- "Did not know this cultural side of yours. Good to know that your life is just not semiconductors! ;)"

I'd then asked him whether I'd got typecast. His reply was -- "That’s probably more to do with the way you brand yourself. Image set ho gaya hai! You need to break the stereotype." :)

It is so very nice and touching to hear such remarks from a close friend! It shows that he cares, a lot! Perhaps, I am getting typecast as a semicon blogger.

Guess what! The other day, I was at a National Instruments event. A journalist friend and an ex-colleague, actually, found some new names for me. One was 'Semicon Bong' -- since I'm a Bengali, and the other was 'Semicon Bomb'! Ok, whatever that last one means.

Well, now I simply can't wait to inform Usha Prasad, my associate and buddy, that I've managed to get back my old blogspot address. Usha stood by me during that time and has steadfastly been by my side since that time. I just can't wait to see her reaction when she hears this news! She's fast asleep now.. come morning, and this is the first thing I'm going to tell her!

Finally, many, many thanks to all of those friends who've stood by me all this time!

And, a very special thanks again from the bottom of my heart to Rohit! You really made my day, sorry, my year, buddy! :)

Here's wishing everyone a very happy Durga Puja and Dusshera!