Kiran's Corner turns 1!!!

Dear Reader,

On this day, exactly one year back, I started this blog, Kiran's Corner. It feels like yesterday, and yet at the same time I feel, at the risk of sounding cliche, like so much time has gone by! A few of you, my friends in particular, have been readers of mine from the start, some following religiously and a few checking in sporadically. Some of you have joined along the way and out of those, a few I hear from regularly either through Email/Facebook/Twitter while most of you silently keep coming back to hear what I have to say. I'm constantly amazed with how well-informed and intelligent my readers are, and knowing that my blog is being read by you is really SUCH a humbling experience. One of my readers is a fascinating lawyer whom I hope to meet soon, one an vivacious budding fashion designer, while one is a Social Marketing Guru- None of whom I knew before, and all of whose thoughts and comments add value to my writing. Some of you have come up to me at the most random of places in Dubai and let me know you read my blog and I can promise you, by doing that absolutely make my day! It's funny how I've gone from "Kiran Chhabria from Electronics" to "Kiran of Kiran's Corner"... I love it! Either way, thank you SO much for checking back in, and for inspiring me to keep this going.

It's so weird that only one short year back the concept of blogging in Dubai was so brand new. My own Mother had no clue what a blog was and in the beginning thought it was a complete waste of my time! A lot of my friends thought it was very strange (not to mention geeky and uncool) to be a blogger and would get embarrassed when I pulled out my camera to take pictures of food or restaurants or new places we'd visit. "What's the point?" they'd often ask, not understanding my desire to put my thoughts out to the world. And then suddenly... Boom! The world of blogging exploded in the UAE and suddenly everyone wanted to either BE one or be photographed by one. Society darlings like Dipesh Depala, Ceebo Shah and Mohammed Sultan AlHabtoor made blogging stylish and suddenly my desire to maintain one just wasn't so weird to people anymore. In this one year the Ahlan Hot 100 has recognized several of the bloggers in the country and the 2011 Grazia Style Awards has introduced a new category for "Best Style Blogger." A lot of brands here now have special meet-ups for the fashion bloggers and a lot of stores are finding ways of getting them involved by having contests and shows surrounding them. In just one year, blogging truly has arrived in the UAE.


Kiran's Corner in it's blog avatar has been such a fulfilling experience for me over the last year and I feel like I've grown so much with it. While writing for a magazine, one has to be careful of their "image" and how they would like to be perceived by others as well as within their organization, and as Director of one of the largest companies in the UAE I was always very mindful about my subject matter. At the start of my blog I'd proceeded with caution at subjects I felt would show me off in a more frivolous light- like fashion and make up, and tip-toed around those for the first few posts. Taking one look at the background image I had custom designed for this blog, you'll have understood I have fully embraced by young, feminine and frivolous side and make no apologies for it! My blog constantly pushes me to be a bit more creative, while always being on the lookout for things to post on- whether it be tidbits of news, fashion info, new gadgets out or even new music. It's amazing how wanting to post on interesting and informative subjects has made me better informed (I won't claim however, to be more interesting!) and that is what I mean by it truly has contributed so much to my own individual growth.

My subject matter has remained over the past year very varied and I often have women telling me they skim through the other stuff till I do a post on fashion, and I have guys who roll their eyes at my fashion posts till I do a gadget review. I try, however, to keep the fashion posts informative and the gadget posts as non-techy as possible, and throw in a lot of restaurant reviews, book reviews and other random info to keep it interesting for both sexes. However I'd LOVE to hear from you guys what parts of the blog you most like, and maybe some different ideas on what you'd like to read going forward. I maintain the blog a 100% myself and it takes a huge lot of dedication, commitment and most of all TIME and hopefully I'll be inspired enough to keep writing till the Year 2 mark! I've also refused all the advertising offers I've received (so flattering to have been asked though!) as I felt that if I'm not shamelessly advertising my own brand, why would I allow anyone else space to advertise theirs? For that reason, despite having a few other options available, I turned to Jumbo to sponsor a small competition that was a thank you gesture from Me to You, details of which will be announced later in the day. Thanks once again, and I hope to hear a lot more from you guys in the coming future!

Regards,
Kiran Chhabria